Marcus Garvey: Look For Me in the Whirlwind

In the years following World War I, long before Malcolm X and Martin Luther King, Jr., Marcus Garvey electrified black audiences with his call for race pride, self-reliance, and black-owned businesses. Incorporating anthems, rituals, plumes, and military finery, plus activities for all ages, Garvey's Universal Negro Improvement Association rejected accommodation and quickly built a movement complete with national flag, an African government in exile, and a title of Provisional President of Africa--held by Garvey himself. Marcus Garvey: Look for Me in the Whirlwind, originally airing on PBS's acclaimed The American Experience series, details the rapid rise and fall of a man whose career arced from a low beginning in Jamaica's mean streets, to the glory years when thousands hung on Garvey's every word, to his final arrest, imprisonment, and deportation for mail fraud. Often guilty of erratic judgment (arranging a meeting with the KKK), arrogance (he had a stubborn demand for loyalty at all costs), and an inability to work with other black leaders, Garvey's flaws, like his achievements, were large. Eventually, Garvey's political isolation made it easy for J. Edgar Hoover (who seemed to detest every civil rights leader) to concoct a scheme to trap him for fraud, using the poorly run Black Star cargo ship line. Combining evaluations of historians, memories of aging Garveyites, and vintage newsreel footage, this entry--while not as powerful as others in the landmark series--is still recommended for all black history collections and most general collections. Aud: H, C, P. (S. Rees)