adily identified with them. It was the black middle class, which had
adopted the life style of the mainstream of white society, that earned
his scorn.

Marcus Garvey was born in St. Anne's Bay, Jamaica, in August, 1887. His
parents were of unmixed African descent. His ancestors had belonged to
the Maroons, a group of slaves who had escaped and established their own
community in the Jamaican hills. They fought so well and had been so
thoroughly organized that the British found it necessary to grant them
their independence in 1739. Garvey was very proud of this heritage and
of his unmixed ancestry. Jamaican society was structured hierarchically
along color lines. The whites were at the top, mulattoes in the middle,
and blacks at the bottom. The mulattoes enjoyed displaying and projecting
their superiority over the blacks. In turn, Garvey was scornful of the
mulattoes, and he distrusted all people with light skin throughout his
life.

As a young man, Garvey began making his living as a printer's helper in a
large Kingston printing firm and worked his way up to foreman. His
leadership ability became evident when, during a walkout, the workers
chose him to lead the strike. He had been the only foreman to join the
workers, and the company later black-listed him for it. The union failed
to come to his aid, and thereafter he distrusted labor organizations as a
source of help for his people.

He then traveled extensively around Central and South America, staying
briefly in several large cities and supporting himself by his trade.
Wherever he went, he found blacks being persecuted and mistreated. In
1912 he crossed the Atlantic and spent some time in London. There he met
large numbers of Africans and became interested in their plight as well.
While he was there, he was influenced by a Negro Egyptian author named
Duse Mohammed Ali. His ideas further intensified Garvey's interest in
Africa. At the same time, Garvey read Booker T. Washington's "Up From
Slavery" and was impressed with his philosophy of self-help and moral
uplift.

By this time, Garvey had become aware that black people were persecuted
all around the world in the West Indies, in Central America, in South
America, in the United States, and even in Africa, their homeland. When
he returned to Jamaica, he determined to establish an organization to
work for the improvement of the conditions of black people the world
over. The result was the founding, in 1914, of the