Book description
At one time during the first half of the twentieth century, Marcus
Garvey was the most famous black man on the planet. Hailed as both the
'black Moses' and merely 'a Negro with a hat', he masterminded the
first International Convention of the Negro Peoples of the World,
began the Universal Negro Improvement Association and captivated
audiences with his powerful speeches and audacious 'Back to Africa'
programme. But he was to end his life in penury, ignominy and
friendless exile, after serving jail time in both the US and Jamaica.
With masterful skill, wit and compassion, Colin Grant chronicles
Garvey's extraordinary life, the failed business ventures, his
misguided negotiations with the Ku Klux Klan, the two wives and the
premature obituaries that contributed to his lonely, tragic death.
This is the dramatic cautionary tale of a man who articulated the
submerged thoughts of an awakening people.
WITH A NEW INTRODUCTION FOR THE PAPERBACK EDITION
Colin Grant is a historian and BBC radio producer. He is the
author of Negro with a Hat, a biography of Marcus Garvey;
I&I: The Natural Mystics, a group biography of the
original Wailers, Marley, Tosh and Livingston; and his own memoir,
Bageye at the Wheel. The son of Jamaican emigrants, he lives
in Brighton.
