Prior to the start of the Silent Discussion, select the primary sources and discussion question(s) below that best match your aim for this lesson, in order to learn about and understand the lasting legacy of Marcus Garvey on different audiences.
Introduce students to the term Pan-Africanism and then begin by having students read the student context if they have not already done so. Then, introduce that by 1920 Marcus Garvey had a huge audience. Garvey’s nightly meetings in Liberty Hall had regular audiences of six thousand. His newspaper, Negro World, had a circulation of between 50,000 and 200,000. Garvey claimed that the United Negro Improvement Association (UNIA) had six million members and while it’s hard to know if that is true, there were certainly many people worldwide who believed in his message.
Discussion Questions:
- Choose an audience based on a selected identity (age, race, gender, socio-economic level, etc.) Based on the audio/image/text, what do you think may have been appealing to a person of this identity in Garvey’s message?
- Marcus Garvey is one of the major leaders of a Pan-African Movement. What evidence can you find of Pan-Africanism in Garvey’s work?
- Garvey’s work influenced Black nationalist leaders of the 1950s and ‘60s, including Malcolm X. What is an example of one of Garvey’s messages that might have appealed to Black nationalists?
Instruct students to write a paragraph response to the discussion prompt, and then leave their response on their desk as you begin the discussion.
After the Silent Discussion, have students reflect as a whole class or in small groups on the following:
- What was Marcus Garvey’s vision and why has it resonated with so many members of the African Diaspora over the past century?
- Which parts of Garvey’s vision do you think have been wholly or partially realized? What do you think has made this possible?
- What parts of Garvey’s vision have not come true? Why do you think this is?