The one thing that might save the world (and it is not the oppressor because the oppressor will not save the world) is the oppressed. They will save the world because they are just politically naive enough to believe in the higher ideals that the oppressor annouces and violates. They are just naive enough to actually believe in Christianity and actually believe in democracy, not realizing that their oppressor could not live by democracy or Christianity for 24 hours. And if he practiced either for 24 hours, that would be the end of his power.  John Henrik Clarke

Marcus Garvey, has to be the greatest of all Pan Africanists. I chose him as the greatest African of the twentieth century. I was going to name this page understanding Marcus Garvey, for I believe that he was so misunderstood by people who fought against him, and what he stood for and what his organization accomplished. No man was capable of accomplishing anything near what he accomplished in organizing African people worldwide after our enslavement and after colonialism. He deserves more praise and recognition then has been given to him by our people and by history. We have failed to study his famous book Philosophy and Opinions which was the book that African nations used as their road map for liberation and towards independence from colonialism.

Universal Negro Improvement Association...UNIA was the greatest mass movement led by the grassroots’ people in history. At the time Marcus Garvey was a believer in the principals of Booker T. Washington and felt that Booker was on the right path, instead of W.E.B. Dubois philosophy of the Talented Tenth. What Garvey did was meshing them both and created something that Dubois was jealous of. Here was a man that didn't have the college degrees that DuBois had, and was able to come to America and unite the masses of black people into the UNIA, and over 6,000,000 more worldwide and Dubois wasn't able to do  anything here even with his degrees and the money and support of the NAACP. So when people today talk about a Covenant with Black America I laugh, for you can't be so narrow minded to not include all African people worldwide in your covenant. This is where they're missing the boat. If we're not thinking globally then we're destined to keep our current status.

This is why we're presenting Marcus Garvey to you, for we need to re-examine what this Great Man had done and duplicate it today. Actually the UNIA is still around today and can be found at www.unia-acl.org and we all need to be members and supporting this famous organization. We need to be working with any and all nations, organizations, people that are working for the liberation and betterment of African people throughout the Diaspora. Black People Party owns the website address www.blackcovenant.com  and will present a site in the principals and philosophy of Marcus Garvey and other Pan Africanists. This is what a black covenant should be about first and foremost. We need to start looking at ourselves as African's again and start claiming our culture and our beautiful history. We need to stop looking at Africa as a negative place and being African, as another negative.

Now is the time that we destroy the urban myths that our African brother's and sisters still on the continent, sold us into slavery. We hear this lot and it is ignorant and wrong, for you can't blame a whole continent for the wrongs of a few. Today you look in our communities and we have the drug dealers who have sold several souls and they would sell you today to the highest bidder, so what have we metamorphosis from, and into? But, is that all of us? No just, some misguided among us. So we need to get over it and make amends to each other for this is really a divide and conquer tactic used by our oppressors to keep us divided. "Africa for the African's" was Garvey's great cry to the world. So let's honor his legacy and come together, like our great elder wanted us to. So here are the words and wisdom of Marcus Mosiah Garvey. Thank You!

     Philosophy and Opinions of Marcus Garvey

HISTORY is the land-mark by which we are directed into the true course of life. The history of a movement, the history of a nation, the history of a race is the guide-post of that movement’s destiny, that nation’s destiny, that race’s destiny. What you do to-day that is worthwhile inspires others to act at some future time.

CHANCE has never yet satisfied the hope of a suffering people. Action, self-reliance, the vision of self and the future have been the only means by which the oppressed have seen and realized the light of their own freedom.

LIFE is that existence that is given to man to live for a purpose, to live to his own satisfaction and pleasure, providing he forgets not the God who created him and who expects a spiritual obedience and observation of the moral laws that he has inspired. There is nothing in the world common to man, that man can not do.

The ends you serve that are selfish will take you no further than yourself; but the ends you serve that are for all, in common, will take you even into eternity.

It is only the belief and the confidence we have in a God why man is able to understand his own social institutions, and move and live like a rational human being.

Take away the highest ideal—FAITH and CONFIDENCE IN A GOD—and mankind at large is reduced to savagery and the race destroyed.

A race without authority and power is a race without respect.

CRITICISM is an opinion for good or ill, generally indulged in by the fellow who knows more than any one else, yet the biggest fool. There is no criticism that calls not forth yet another. The last critic is the biggest fool of all, for the world starts and ends with him. He is the source of all knowledge, yet knows nothing, for there is not a word one finds to use that there is not another that hath the same meaning, then wherefore do we criticize?

FEAR is a state of nervousness fit for children and not men. When man fears a creature like himself he offends God, in whose image and likeness he is created. Man being created equal tears not man but God. To fear is to lose control of one’s nerves; one’s will—to flutter, like a dying fowl, losing consciousness, yet, alive.

AMBITION is the desire to go forward and improve one’s condition. It is a burning flame that lights up the life of the individual and makes him see himself in another state. To be ambitious is to be great in mind and soul. To want that which is, worth while, and strive for it. To go on without looking: back, reaching to that which gives satisfaction. To be humanly ambitious is to take in the world which is the province of man; to be divinely ambitious is to offend God by rivaling him in His infinite Majesty.

ADMIRATION is a form of appreciation that is sometimes mistaken for something else. There may be something about you that suggests good fellowship when kept at a distance, but in closer contact would not be tolerated, otherwise it would be love.

RELIGION is one’s opinion and belief in some ethical truth. To be a Christian is to have the religion of Christ, and so to be a believer of Mohammed is to be a Mohammedan but there are so many religions that every man seems to be a religion unto himself. No two persons think alike, even if they outwardly profess the same faith, so we have as many religions in Christianity as we hare believers.

DEATH is the end of all life in the individual or the thing; if physical, the crumbling of the body into dust from whence it came. He, who lives not uprightly, dies completely in the crumbling of the physical body, but he who lives well, transforms himself from that which is mortal, to immortal.

FAITHFULNESS is actuated by a state of heart and mind in the individual that changes not. No one is wholly faithful to a cause or an object, except his heart and mind remain firm without change or doubt. If one’s attitude or conduct changes toward an object, then one has lost in one’s faithfulness. It is a wholeness of belief overshadowing all suspicion, all doubt, admitting of no question; to serve without regret or disgust, to obligate one’s self to that which is promised or expected, to keep to our word and do our duty well. There are but few faithful people now-a-days.

PROHIBITION is to abstain from intoxicating liquor, as it makes us morbid and sometimes drunk. But we get drunk every day, nevertheless, not so much by the strength of what we sip from the cup, but that which we eat, the water we drink, and the air we inhale, which at fermentation conspire at eventide to make us so drunk and tired that we lose control of ourselves and fall asleep. Everybody is a drunkard, and if we were to enforce real prohibition we should all be dead.

There is no strength but that which is destructive, because man has lost his virtues, and only respects force, which he himself cannot counteract. This is the day of racial activity, when each and every group of this great human family must exercise its own initiative and influence in its own protection, therefore, Negroes should be more determined today than they have ever been, because the mighty forces of the world are operating against non-organized groups of peoples, who are not ambitious enough to protect their own interests.

Wake up Ethiopia! Wake up Africa! Let us work towards the one glorious end of a free, redeemed and mighty nation. Let Africa be a bright star among the constellation of nations. A man’s bread and butter is only insured when he works for it. The world has now reached the stage when humanity is really at the parting of the ways. It is a question of “MAN MIND THYSELF.”

The political readjustment of the world means that those who are not sufficiently able, not sufficiently prepared, will be at the mercy of the organized classes for another one or two hundred years.

The only protection against INJUSTICE in man is POWER —Physical, financial and scientific. The masses make the nation and the race. If the masses are illiterate, that is the judgment passed on the race by those who
are critical of its existence.

The function of the Press is public service without prejudice or partiality, to convey the truth as it is seen and understood with out favoritism or bias.

EDUCATION is the medium by which a people are prepared for the creation of their own particular civilization, and the advancement and glory of their own race.

NATIONHOOD is the only means by which modern civilization can completely protect itself.
Independence of nationality, independence of government, is the means of protecting not only the individual, but the group. Nationhood is the highest ideal of all peoples. The evolutionary scale that weighs nations and races, balances alike for all peoples; hence we feel sure that some day the balance will register a change for the Negro. If we are to believe the Divine injunction, we must realize that the time is coming when every man and every race must return to its own “vine and fig tree.”

Let Africa be our guiding Star—OUR STAR OF DESTINY. So many of us find excuses to get out of the Negro Race, because we are led to believe that the race is unworthy—that it has not accomplished anything. Cowards that we are! It is we who are unworthy, because we are not contributing to the uplift and up-building of this noble race.

How dare any one tell us that Africa cannot he redeemed, when we have 400,000,000 men and women with warm blood coursing through their veins? The power that holds Africa is not divine. The power that holds Africa is human, and it is recognized that whatsoever man has done, man can do.

We of the Negro Race are moving from one state of organization to another, and we shall so continue until we have thoroughly lifted ourselves into the organization of GOVERNMENT. Be as proud of your race today as our fathers were in the days of yore. We have a beautiful history, and we shall create another in the future that will astonish the world.

WOMAN
What the night is to the day, is woman to man. The period of change that brings us light out of darkness, darkness out of light, and semi-light out of darkness are like the changes we find in woman day by day.
She makes one happy, then miserable. You are to her kind, then unkind. Constant,  yet inconstant. Thus we have WOMAN. No real man can do without her.

LOVE
A happy but miserable state in which man finds himself from time to time; sometimes he believes he is happy by then suddenly he finds how miserable he is. It is all joy. it sweetens life, but it does not last. It comes and goes, but when it is active, there is no greater virtue, because it makes one supremely happy.
We cannot hold our love, but there is one love that never changeth or is mistaken, and that is God’s. The longer we hold our love, the nearer we approach like unto our Creator. The whole world is run on bluff. No race. no nation, no man has any divine right to take advantage of others. Why allow the other fellow to bluff you?

Every student of Political Science, every student of Economics knows that the race can only be saved through a solid industrial foundation. That the race can only be saved,  through political independence. Take away industry from a race; take away political freedom from a race, and you have a group of slaves.

Peoples everywhere are traveling toward industrial opportunities and greater political freedom. As a race oppressed, it is for us to prepare ourselves that at any time the great change in industrial freedom and political liberty comes about, we may be able to enter into the new era as partakers of the joys to be inherited.

Lagging behind in the van of civilization will not prove our higher abilities. Being subservient to the will and caprice of progressive races will not prove anything superior in us. Being satisfied to drink of the dregs from the cup of human progress will not demonstrate our fitness as a people to exist alongside of others, but when of our own initiative we strike out to build industries, governments, and ultimately empires, then and only then will we as a race prove to our Creator and to man in general that we are fit to survive and capable of shaping our own destiny.

The world ought to know that it could not keep 400,000,000 Negroes down forever. There is always a turning point in the destiny of every race, every nation, of all peoples, and we have come now to the turning point of the Negro, where we have changed from the old cringing weakling, and transformed into full-grown men, demanding our portion as MEN.

I am not one of those Christians who believe that the Bible can solve all the problems of humanity. The Bible is good in its place, but we are men. We are the creatures of God. We have sinned against Him; therefore it
takes more than the Bible to keep us in our places. Man is becoming so vile that to-day we cannot afford to convert him with moral, ethical, physical truths alone, but with that which is more effective—implements of destruction.

LEADERSHIP means everything—PAIN, BLOOD, DEATH.
To be prosperous in whatever we do is the sign of TRUE WEALTH. We may be wealthy in not only having money, but in spirit and health. It is the most helpful agency toward a self— satisfying life. One lives, in an age like this, nearer perfection by being wealthy than by being poor. To the contended soul, wealth is the stepping stone to perfection; to the miser it is the nearest avenue to hell. I would prefer to be honestly wealthy, than miserably poor.

To be free from temptation of other people’s property is to reflect the HONESTY of our own souls. There are but few really honest people, in that between the thought and the deed we make ourselves dishonest. The fellow, who steals, acts dishonestly. We can steal in thought as well as in deed, therefore to be honest is a virtue that but few indulge. To be honest is to be satisfied, having all, wanting nothing. If you find yourself in such a state then you are honest, if not the temptation of your soul is bound to make you dishonest. This applies to the king and the peasant alike.

All peoples are struggling to blast a way through the industrial monopoly of races and nations, but the Negro as a whole has failed to grasp its true significance and seems to delight in filling only that place created for him by the white man. The Negro who lives on the patronage of philanthropists is the most dangerous member of our society, because he is willing to turn back the clock of progress when his benefactors ask him so to do. No race in the world is so just as to give others, for the asking, a square deal in things economic, political and social.

Men who are in earnest are not afraid of consequences. No one knows when the hour of Africa’s Redemption cometh. It is in the wind. It is coming. One day, like a storm, it will be here. When that day comes all Africa will stand together.

Any sane man, race or nation that desires freedom must first of all think in terms of blood. Why, even the Heavenly Father tells us that “without the shedding of blood there can be no remission of sins?” Then how in the name of God, with history before us, do we expect to redeem Africa without preparing ourselves—some of us to die. I pray God that we shall never use our physical prowess to oppress the human race, but we will use our strength, physically, morally and otherwise to preserve humanity and civilization.

For over three hundred years the white man has been our oppressor, and he naturally is not going to liberate us to the higher freedom—the truer liberty—the truer Democracy. We have to liberate ourselves.
Every man has a right to his own opinion. Every race has a right to its own action; therefore let no man persuade you against your will, let no other race influence, you against your own.

The greatest weapon used against the Negro is DISORGANIZATION:
If you have no confidence in self you are twice defeated is the race of life. With confidence you have won even before you. have started. At no time within the last five hundred years can one point to a single instance of the Negro as a race of haters.

Point me to a weak nation and I will show you a people oppressed, abused, taken advantage of by others.
Show me a weak race and I will show you a people reduced to serfdom, peonage and slavery.
Show me a well organized nation, and I will show you a people and a nation respected by the world.
The battles of the future,  whether they be physical or mental. Will be fought on scientific lines,  and the race that is able to produce the highest scientific development, is the race that will ultimately rule.

Let us prepare TODAY. For the TOMORROWS in the lives of the nations will be so eventful that Negroes everywhere will be called upon to play their part in the survival of the fittest human group.

Let us in shaping our own Destiny, set before us the qualities of human JUSTICE, LOVE, CHARITY, MERCY AND EQUITY. Upon such foundation let us build a race, and I feel that the God who is Divine, the Almighty Creator of the world, shall forever bless this race of ours, and who to tell that we shall not teach men the way to life, liberty and true human happiness?

Day by day we hear the cry of “AFRICA FOR THE AFRICANS.” This cry has become a positive, determined one. It is a cry that is raised simultaneously the world over, because of the universal oppression that affects the Negro.

All of us may not live to see the higher accomplishment of an African Empire—so strong and powerful, as to compel the respect of mankind, but we in our life-time can so work and act as to make the dream a possibility within another generation.

PROPAGANDA
We are living in a civilization that is highly developed. We are living in a world that is scientifically arranged in which everything done by those who control is done through system; proper arrangement, proper organization, and among some of the organized methods used to control the world is the thing known and called “PROPAGANDA.” Propaganda has done more to defeat the good intentions of races and nations than even open warfare. Propaganda is a method or medium used by organized peoples to convert others against their will. We of the Negro race are suffering more than any other race in the world from propaganda —Propaganda to destroy our hopes, our ambitions and our confidence in self.

SLAVERY
Slavery is a condition imposed upon individuals or races not sufficiently able to protect or defend themselves, and so long as a race or people expose themselves to the danger of being weak, no one can tell when they will be reduced to slavery. When a man is a slave he has no liberty of action; no freedom of will, he is bound and controlled by the will and act of others; is of the individual, so of the race. Slavery is not a condition confined to any one age or race of people. Slavery has been since man in the different distribution of himself, scattered here, there and everywhere, has grown and developed, wherein one race will become strong and the other race remains weak. The strong race has always reduced the weak to slavery. It has been so in ages past, it is so now in certain parts of the world, and will be so until the end of time.
The great British nation was once a race of slaves. In their own country they were not respected because the Romans went there, brutalized and captured them, took them over to Rome and kept them in slavery. They were not respected in Rome because they were regarded as a slave race. But the Briton did not always remain a slave. As a freed man he went back to his country (Britain) and built up a civilization of his own, and by his self-reliance and initiative he forced the respect of mankind and maintains it until today.

FORCE
The powers opposed to Negro progress will not be influenced in the slightest by mere verbal protests on our part. They realize only too welt that protests of this kind contain nothing but the breath expended in making them. They also realize that their success in enslaving and dominating the darker portion of humanity was due solely to the element of FORCE employed (in the majority of cases this was accomplished by force of arms.) Pressure of course may assert itself in other forms, but in the last analysis whatever influence is brought to bear against the powers opposed to Negro progress must contain the element of FORCE in order to accomplish its purpose, since it is apparent that this is the only element they recognize.

EDUCATION
To be learned in all that is worth while knowing. Not to be crammed with the subject matter of the book or the philosophy of the class room, but to store away in your head such facts as you need for the daily application of life, so that you may the better in all things understand your fellowmen, and interpret your relationship to your Creator. You can be educated in soul, vision and feeling, as well as in mind. To see your enemy and know him is a part of the complete education of man; to spiritually regulate one’s self is an other form of the higher education that fits man for a nobler place in life, and still, to approach your brother by the feeling of your own humanity, is an education that softens the ills of the world and makes us kind indeed.
Many a man was educated outside the school room. It is something you let out, not completely take in. You are part of it, for it is natural; it is dormant simply because you will not develop it, but God creates every man with it knowingly or unknowingly to him who possesses it—that’s the difference. Develop yours and you become as great and full of knowledge as the other fellow without even entering the class room.

MISCEGENATION
Some of the men of the Negro race aggravate the race question because they force the white man to conclude that to educate a black man, to give him opportunities, is but to fit him to be a competitor for the hand of his woman; hence the eternal race question. But not all black men are willing to commit race suicide and to abhor their race for the companionship of another. There are hundreds of millions of us black men who are proud of our skins and to us the African Empire will not be a Utopia, neither will it be dangerous nor fail to serve our best interests, because we realize that like the leopard we cannot change our skins. The men of the highest morals, highest character and noblest pride are to be found among the masses of the Negro race who love their women with as much devotion as white men love theirs.

PREJUDICE
Prejudice of the white race against the black race is not so much because of color as of condition; because as a race, to them, we have accomplished nothing; we have built no nation, no government; because we are dependent for our economic and political existence. You can never curb the prejudice of the one race or nation against the other by law. It must be regulated by one’s own feeling, one’s own will, and if one’s feeling and will rebel against you no law in the world can curb it. Prejudice can be actuated by different reasons. Sometimes the reason is economic, and sometimes political. You can only obstruct it by progress and force.

RADICALISM
“Radical” is a label that is always applied to people who endeavoring to get freedom. Jesus Christ was the greatest radical the world ever saw. He came and saw a world of sin and his program was to inspire it with spiritual feeling. He was therefore a radical .George Washington was dubbed a radical when he took up
his sword to fight his way to liberty in America one hundred and forty years ago. All men who call themselves reformers are perforce radicals. They cannot be anything else, because they are revolting against the conditions that exist. Conditions as they exist reveal a conservative state, and if you desire to change these conditions you must be a radical. I am, therefore, satisfied to be the same kind of radical, if through radicalism I can free Africa..

GOVERNMENT
Government is not infallible. Government is only an executive control, a centralized authority for the purpose of expressing the will of the people. Before you have a government you must have the people. Without the people there can be no government. The government must be, therefore, an expression of the will of the people.

EVOLUTION AND THE RESULT
Evolution brings us changes that sometimes make us fail to recognize ourselves even after a lapse of centuries. When the great white race of today had no civilization of its own, when white men lived in caves and were counted as savages, this race of ours boasted of a wonderful civilization on the Banks of the Nile.
It may sound good for some Negroes to say that they were born here or there, and they do not intend to go anywhere else but where they saw the light of day. But let me say to you men, the world is small and humanity in the many and various race groups, is growing larger every day.

A race that was ten millions fifty years ago is today sixty millions. A race that was thirty millions fifty years ago is today ninety millions; how many will they be tomorrow and the world is not growing larger?
What will happen through the multiplication of all these various race groups, of those who are in power, of those who are strong, those who have at their command the forces of nature, through which they can exploit the weak and ultimately exterminate them? What will happen to you, the weak and unprepared, when the strong becomes more numerous even though the world remains at its present size? Ah, if you will but think down the future and compare the possibilities of that future with the happenings of the past you will come to the conclusion that there is no other salvation for the Negro but through a free and independent Africa.

Whilst geographically speaking the world has ever been in its natural divisions as we know it, and see it, yet, politically speaking, the world has changed, and is still changing. Yesterday we had the Roman Empire, we had the Grecian Empire, we had even before the Carthaginian, the Assyrian and the Babylonian empires. What has become of them? They have gone into the oblivion of the past, because of human progress, because of the development of certain races as against the stagnation of others; but even yesterday we also had the great German Empire; we had the Russian Empire; we had the Empire of Austria and Hungary. Where are they now? They too, are traveling toward the oblivion of the past. Today we have the great French Empire, the British Empire and other great commonwealths. Will they stand  Ah, methinks not, because evolution and human progress bring changes, and in the changes no man can tell what will happen tomorrow as against what exists today. Therefore, I say to the four hundred million Negroes of the world, prepare yourselves for the higher life, the life of liberty, industrially, educationally, socially and politically.

POVERTY
A hellish state,  to be in. It is no virtue. It is a crime. To be poor, is to be hungry without possible hope of food; to be sick without hope of medicine; to be tired and sleepy without a place to lay one’s head; to be naked without the hope of clothing; to be despised and comfortless. To be poor is to be a fit subject for crime and hell. The hungry man steals bread and thereby breaks the eighth commandment; by his state he breaks all the laws of God and man and becomes an outcast. In thought and deed he covets his goods; comfortless as he is he seeks his neighbor’s wife; to him there is no other course but sin and death. That is the way of poverty. No one wants to be poor.

POWER
Power is the only argument that satisfies man. Except the individual, the race or the nation has POWER that is exclusive, it mean that that individual, race or nation will be bound by the will of the other who possesses this great qualification. It is the physical and pugilistic power of Harry Wills that makes white men afraid to fight him. It was the industrial and scientific power of the Teutonic race that kept it for years as dictator of the economic and scientific policies of Europe. It is the naval and political power of Great Britain that keeps her mistress of the seas. It is the commercial and financial power of the United States of America that makes her the greatest banker in the world. Hence it is advisable for the Negro to get power of every kind. POWER in education,  science, industry, politics and higher government. That kind of power that will stand out signally,  so that other races and nations can see, and if they will not see, then FEEL.  Man is not satisfied or moved by prayers or petitions, but every man is moved by that power of authority which forces him to do even against his wilL

UNIVERSAL SUSPICION
Humanity everywhere is struggling toward political freedom and economic opportunity. In this struggle we are confronted with the rivalry of the keenest minds of the age; each race and nation seeking to present its best to the world. So much is expected of each by the different rivals, that it becomes impossible to reach an amicable settlement and to establish universal confidence. It can be plainly seen that no one race or nation trusts the other. There is a UNIVERSAL SUSPICION that hovers over the conduct of every great leader representative of his race or nation. It is this suspicion that limited the Washington Four pact Treaty; it is this suspicion that caused the failure of the Genoa Conference; it is this suspicion that is going to wreck ultimately many of the nations and empires of today, thereby throwing into obscurity many of the races that now dominate the affairs of men. We as a race are called upon to play our part, and we must do it well.
In the spread of this universal suspicion that causes nation to distrust nation, and race to distrust race, we also have our distrust which makes it impossible for us to believe in anyone else but ourselves.

DISSERTATION ON MAN
Man is the individual who is able to shape his own character, master his own will, direct his own life and shape his own ends. When God breathed into the nostrils of man the breath of life, made him a living soul, and bestowed upon him the authority of “Lord of Creation,” He never intended that that individual should descend to the level of a peon, a serf, or a slave, but that he should be always man in the fullest possession of his senses, and with the truest knowledge of himself. But how changed has man become since creations” We find him today divided into different classes—the helpless imbecile, the dependent slave, the servant and the master. These different classes God never created. He created MAN. But this individual has so retrograded, as to make it impossible to find him—a real man.

As far as the Negro race is concerned, we can find but few real men to measure up to the higher purpose of the creation, and because of this lack of manhood in the race, we have stagnated for centuries and now find ourselves at the foot of the great human ladder. After the creation, and after man was given possession of the world, the Creator relinquished all authority to his lord, except that which was spiritual. All that authority which meant the regulation of human affairs, human society, and human happiness was given to man by the Creator, and man, therefore, became master of his own destiny, and architect of his own fate.

In process of time we find that only a certain type of man has been able to make good in God’s creation. We find them building nations, governments and empires, as also great monuments of commerce, industry and education (these men realizing the power given them exerted every bit of it to their own good and to their posterity’s) while, on the other hand, 400,000,000 Negroes who claim the common Fatherhood of God and the Brotherhood of Man, have fallen back so completely, as to make us today the serfs and slaves of those who fully know themselves and have taken control of the world, which was given to all in common by the Creator. I desire to impress upon the 400,000,000 members of my race that our failings in the past, present and of the future will be through our failures to know ourselves and to realize the true functions of man on this mundane sphere.

RACE ASSIMILATION
Some Negro leaders have advanced the belief that in another few year, The white people will make up their minds to assimilate their black populations; thereby sinking all racial prejudice in the welcoming of the black race into the social companionship of the white. Such leaders further believe that by the amalgamation of black and white, a new type will spring up, and that type will become the American and West Indian of the future.

This belief is preposterous. I believe that white men should be white, yellow men should be yellow, and black men should be black in the great panorama of races, until each and every race by its own initiative lifts itself up to the common standard of humanity, as to compel the respect and appreciation of all, and so make it possible for each one to stretch out the hand of welcome without being able to be prejudiced against the other because of any inferior and unfortunate condition.

The white man of America will not, to any organized extent, assimilate the Negro, because in so doing, he feels that he will be committing racial suicide. This he is not prepared to do. It is true he illegitimately carries on a system of assimilation; but such assimilation, as practiced, is one that he is not prepared to support because he becomes prejudiced against his own offspring, if that offspring is the product of black and white; hence, to the white man the question of racial differences is eternal. So long as Negroes occupy an inferior position among the races and nations of the world, just so long will others be prejudiced against them, because it will be profitable for them to keep up their system of superiority. But when the Negro by his own initiative lifts himself from his low state to the highest human standard he will be in a position to stop begging and praying, and demand a place that no individual, race or nation will be able to deny him.

CHRISTIANITY
A form of religion practiced by the millions, but as misunderstood, and unreal to the majority as gravitation is to the untutored savage. We profess to live in the atmosphere of Christianity, yet our acts are as barbarous as if we never knew Christ. He taught us to love, yet we hate; to forgive, yet we revenge; to be merciful, yet we condemn and punish, and still we are Christians.

If hell is what we are taught it is, then there will be more Christians there than days in all creation. To be a true Christian one must be like Christ and practice Christianity, not as the Bishop does, but as he says, for if our lives were to be patterned after the other fellow’s all of us, Bishop, Priest and Layman would ultimately meet around the furnace of hell, and none of us, because of our sins, would see salvation.

God placed man on earth as the lord of Creation. The elements—all nature are at his command—it is for him to harness them subdue them and use them. Edison harnessed electricity. Today the world reflects the brilliancy of his grand illumination. Stephenson, through experiments, has given us the use of the steam engine, and today the railroad train flies across the country at a speed of sixty miles an hour.
Marconi conquered the currents of the air and today we have Wireless telegraphy that flashes news across the continents with a rapidity never yet known to man. All this reveals to us that man is the supreme lord of creation, that in man lies the power of mastery, a mastery of self, a mastery of all things created, bowing only to the Almighty Architect in those things that are spiritual, in those things that are divine.

TRAITORS
In the fight to reach the top the oppressed have always been encumbered by the traitors of their own race, made up of those of little faith and those who are generally susceptible to bribery for the selling out of the rights of their own people. As Negroes, we are not entirely free of such an encumbrance. To be outspoken, I believe we are more encumbered in this way than any other race in the world, because of the lack of training and preparation for fitting us for our place in the world among nations and races. The traitor of other races is generally confined to the mediocre or irresponsible individual, but, unfortunately, the traitors among the Negro race are generally to be found among the men highest placed in education and society, the fellows who call themselves leaders.

For us to examine ourselves thoroughly as a people we will find that we have more traitors than leaders, because nearly everyone who essays to lead the race at this time does so by first establishing himself as the pet of some philanthropist of another race, to whom he will go and debase his race in the worst form, humiliate his own manhood, and thereby win the sympathy of the “great benefactor”, who will dictate to him what he should do in the leadership of the Negro race. It is generally “You must go out and teach your people to be meek and humble; tell them to be good servants, loyal and obedient to their masters. If you will teach them such a doctrine you can always depend on me to give you $1,000 a year or $5,000 a year for the support of yourself, the newspaper or the institution you represent.

I will always recommend you to my friends as a good fellow who is all right,” With this advice and prospect of patronage the average Negro leader goes out to lead the unfortunate mass. These leaders tell us how good Mr. So and So is, how many good friends we have in the opposite race, and that if we leave everything to them all will work out well. This is the kind of leadership we have been having for the last fifty years. It is nothing else but treachery and treason of the worst kind. The man who will compromise the attitude of his country is a traitor, and even so the man who will compromise the rights of his race can be classified in no other way than that of a traitor also. Not until we settle down as four hundred million people and let the men who have placed themselves in the lead of us realize that we are disgusted and dissatisfied, and that we shall have a leadership of our own and stick by it when we get it, will we be able to lift ourselves from this mire of degradation to the heights of prosperity, human liberty and human appreciation.

MAN KNOW THYSELF
For man to know himself is for him to feel that for him there is no human master. For him Nature is his servant, and whatsoever he wills in Nature, that shall be his reward. If he wills to be a pigmy, a serf or a slave, that shall he be. If he wills to be a real man in possession of the things common to man, then he shall be his own sovereign. When man fails to grasp his authority he sinks to the level of the lower animals, and whatsoever the real man bids him do, even as if it were of the lower animals, that much shall he do. If he says “go.” He goes. If he says ‘come,” he comes. By this command he performs the functions of life even as by a similar command the mule, the horse, the cow, perform the will of their masters.

For the last four hundred years the Negro has been in the position of being commanded even as the lower animals are controlled. Our race has been without a will; without a purpose of its own, for all this length of time. Because of that we have developed few men who are able to understand the strenuousness of the age in which we live. Where can we find in this race of ours real men? Men of character,  men of purpose, men of confidence, men of faith, men who really know themselves? I have come across so many weaklings who profess to be leaders, and in the test I have found them but the slaves of a nobler class. They perform the will of their masters without question.

To me, a man has no master but God. Man in his authority is a sovereign lord. As for the individual man,  so of the individual race. This feeling makes man so courageous, so bold, as to make it impossible for his brother to intrude upon his rights. So few of us can understand what it takes to make a man—the man who will never say die; the man who will never give up; the man who will never depend upon others to do for him what he ought to do for himself; the man who will not blame God, who will not Love Nature, who will not blame Fate for his condition; but the man who will go out and make conditions to suit himself. Oh, how disgusting life becomes when on every hand you hear people (who bear your image, who bear your resemblance) telling you that they cannot make it, that Fate is against them, that they cannot get a chance. If 400,000,000 Negroes can only get to know themselves, to know that in them is a sovereign power, is an authority that is absolute, then in the next twenty-four hours we would have a new race, we would have a nation, an empire, — resurrected, not from the will of others to see us rise,—but from our own determination to rise, irrespective of what the world thinks.

     An Appeal To The Soul of White America

Surely the soul of liberal, philanthropic, liberty-loving, white America is not dead. It is true that the glamour of materialism has, to a great degree, .destroyed the innocence and purity of the national conscience, but, still, beyond our politics, beyond our soulless industrialism, there is a deep feeling of human sympathy that touches the soul of white America, upon which the unfortunate and sorrowful can always depend for sympathy, help and action. It is to that feeling that I appeal for four hundred million Negroes of the world, and fifteen millions of America in particular.

There is no real white man in America, who does not desire a solution of the Negro problem. Each thoughtful citizen has probably his own idea of how the vexed question of races should be settled. To some the Negro could be gotten rid of by wholesale butchery, by lynching, by economic starvation, by a return to slavery, and legalized oppression, while others would have the problem solved by seeing the race all herded together and kept somewhere among themselves; but a few—those in whom  they have an interest—should be allowed to live around as the wards of a mistaken philanthropy; yet, none so generous as to desire to see the Negro elevated to a standard of real progress and prosperity, welded into a homogeneous whole, creating of themselves a mighty nation, with proper systems of government, civilization and culture, to mark them admissible to the fraternities of nations and races without any disadvantage.

I do not desire to offend the finer feelings and sensibilities of those white friends of the race who really believe that they are kind and considerate to us as a people; but I feel it my duty to make a real appeal to conscience and not to belief. Conscience is solid, convicting and permanently demonstrative; belief is only a matter of opinion, changeable by superior reasoning. Once the belief was that it was fit and proper to hold the Negro as a slave and in this the bishop, priest and layman agreed. Later on, they changed their belief or opinion, but at all times, the conscience of certain people dictated to them that it was wrong and inhuman to hold human beings as slaves. It is to such a conscience in white America that I am addressing myself.
Negroes are human beings—the peculiar and strange opinions of writers, ethnologists, philosophers, scientists and anthropologists notwithstanding. They have feelings, souls, passions, ambitions, desires, just as other men, hence they must be considered.

Has white America really considered the Negro in the light of permanent human progress? The answer is NO.
Men and women of the white race, do you know what is going to happen if you do not think and act now? One of two things, You are either going to deceive and keep the Negro in your midst until you have perfectly completed your wonderful American civilization with its progress of art, science, industry and politics, and then, jealous of your own success and achievements in those directions, and with the greater jealousy of seeing your race pure and unmixed, cast him off to die in the whirlpool of economic starvation, thus getting rid of another race that was not intelligent enough to live, or, you simply mean by the largeness of your hearts to assimilate fifteen million Negroes into the social fraternity of an American race, that will neither be white nor black! Don’t be alarmed! We must prevent both consequences. No real race loving white man wants to destroy the purity of his race, and no real Negro conscious of himself, wants to die, hence there is room for an understanding, and an adjustment. And that is just what we seek.

Let white and black stop deceiving themselves. Let the white race stop thinking that all black men are dogs and not to be considered as human beings. Let foolish Negro agitators and so- called reformers, encouraged by deceptive or unthinking white associates, stop preaching and advocating the doctrine of “social equality,” meaning thereby the social intermingling of both races, intermarriages, and general social co-relationship. The two extremes will get us nowhere, other than breeding hate, and encouraging discord, which will eventually end disastrously to the weaker race.

Some Negroes, in the quest of position and honor, have been admitted to the full enjoyment of their constitutional rights. Thus we have some of our men filling high and responsible government positions, others, on their own account, have established themselves in the professions, commerce and industry. This, the casual onlooker, and even the men themselves, will say carries a guarantee and hope of social equality, and permanent racial progress. But this is the mistake. There is no progress of the Negro in America that is permanent, so long as we have with us the monster evil—prejudice.

Prejudice we shall always have bet black and white, so long as the latter believes that the former is intruding upon their rights. So long as white laborers believe that black laborers are taking and holding their jobs, so long as white artisans believe that black artisans are performing the work that they should do; so long as white men and women believe that black men and women are filling the positions that they covet; so long as white political leaders and statesmen believe that black politicians and statesmen are seeking the same positions in the nation’s government; so long as white men believe that black men want to associate with, and marry white women, then we will ever have prejudice, and not only prejudice, but riots, lynching, burnings, and God to tell what next will follow!

It is this danger that drives me mad. It must be prevented. We cannot allow white and black to drift along unthinkingly toward this great gulf and danger that is nationally ahead of us. It is because of this that I speak, and now call upon the soul of great white America to help. It is no use putting off. The work must be done, and it must be started now. Some people have misunderstood me. Some don’t want to understand me. But I must explain myself for the good of the world and humanity.

Those of the Negro race who preach social equality, and who are working for an American race that will, in complexion, be neither white nor black, have tried to misinterpret me to the white public, and create prejudice against my work. The white public, not stopping to analyze and question the motive behind criticisms and attacks, aimed against new leaders and their movements, condemn without even giving a chance to the criticized, to be heard. Those of my own race who oppose me because I refuse to endorse their program of social arrogance and social equality, gloat over the fact that by their misrepresentation and underhand methods, they were able to have me convicted and imprisoned for crime which they calculate will so discredit me as to destroy the movement that I represent, in opposition to their program of a new American race; but we will not now consider the opposition to a program or a movement, but state the facts as they are, and let deep soiled white America pass its own judgment.

In another one hundred years white America will have doubled its population; in another two hundred years it will have trebled itself. The keen student must realize that the centuries ahead will bring us an over-crowded country; opportunities, as the population grows larger, will be fewer; the competition for bread between the people of their own class will become keener, and so much more so will there be no room for two competitive races, the one strong, and the other weak. To imagine Negroes as district attorneys, judges, senators, congressmen, assemblymen, aldermen, government clerks and officials, artisans and laborers at work, while millions of white men starve, is to have before you the bloody picture of wholesale mob violence that I fear, and against which I am working.

No preaching, no praying, no presidential edict will control the passion of hungry unreasoning men of prejudice when the hour comes. It will not come, I pray, in our generation, but it is of the future that I think and for which I work. A generation of ambitious Negro men and women, out from the best colleges, universities and institutions, capable of filling the highest and best positions in the nation, in industry, commerce, society and politics! Can you keep them back? If you do so they will agitate and throw your constitution in your faces. Can you stand before civilization and deny the truth of your constitution? What are you going to do then? You who are just will open the door of opportunity and say to all and sundry,

“Enter in.” But, ladies and gentlemen, what about the mob, that starving crowd of your own race? Will they stand by, suffer and starve, and allow an opposite, competitive race to prosper in the midst of their distress? If you can conjure these things up in your mind, then you have the vision of the race problem of the future in America.

There is but one solution, and that is to provide an outlet for Negro energy, ambition, and passion, away from the attractions of white opportunity and surround the race with opportunities of its own. If this is not done, and if the foundation for same is not laid now, then the consequence will be sorrowful for the weaker race, and disgraceful to our ideals of justice, and shocking to our civilization. The Negro must have a country and a nation of his own. If you laugh at the idea, then you are selfish and wicked, for you and your children do not intend that the Negro shall discommode you in yours. If you do not want him to have a country and a nation of his own; if you do not intend to give him equal opportunities in yours. then it is plain to see that you mean that he must die, even as the Indian, to make room for your generations.

Why should the Negro die? Has he not served America and the world? Has he not borne the burden of civilization in this Western world for three hundred years? Has he not contributed of his best to America? Surely all this stands to his credit. But there will not be enough room and the one answer is “find a place.” We have found a place; it is Africa, and as black men for three centuries have helped white men build America, surely generous and grateful white men will help black men build Africa.

And why shouldn’t Africa and America travel down the ages as protectors of human rights and guardians of democracy? Why shouldn’t black men help white men secure and establish universal peace? We can only have peace when we are just to all man kind; and for that peace, and for the reign of universal love, I now appeal to the soul of white America. Let the Negroes have a government of their own. Don’t encourage them to believe that they will become social equals and leaders of the whites in America, without first on their own account proving to the world that they are capable of evolving a civilization of their own. The white race can best help the Negro by telling him the truth and not by flattering him into believing that he is as good as any white man without first proving the racial, national, constructive metal of which he is made.

Stop flattering the Negro about social equality, and tell him to go to work and build for himself. Help him in the direction of doing for himself, and let him know that self-progress brings its own reward. I appeal to the considerate and thoughtful conscience of white America not to condemn the cry of the Universal Negro Improvement Association for a nation in Africa for Negroes, but to give us a chance to explain ourselves to the world. White America is too big. And when informed and touched,  too liberal, to turn down the cry of the awakened Negro for “a place in the sun.”

Declaration of Rights of The Negro Peoples of The World

DECLARATION OF RIGHTS OF THE NEGRO PEOPLES
OF THE WORLD
Drafted and adopted at Convention held in New York, 1920, over which Marcus Garvey presided as Chairman, and at which he was elected Provisional President of Africa.

(Preamble)
“Be it Resolved, That the Negro people of the world, through their chosen representatives in convention assembled in Liberty Hall, in the City of New York and United States of America, from August 1 to August 31, in the year of our Lord, one thousand nine hundred and twenty, protest against the wrongs and injustices they are suffering at the hands of their white brethren, and state what they deem their fair and just rights, as well as the treatment they propose to demand of all men in the future.”

We complain:
I. “That nowhere in the world, with few exceptions, are black men accorded equal treatment with white men, although in the same situation and circumstances, but, on the contrary, are discriminated against and denied the common rights due to human beings for no other reason than their race and color.” We are not willingly accepted as guests in the public hotels and inns of the world for no other reason than our race and color.”

II. “In certain parts of the United States of America our race is denied the right of public trial accorded to other races when accused of crime, but are lynched and burned by mobs, and such brutal and inhuman treatment is even practiced upon our women.”

III. “That European nations have parceled out among themselves and taken possession of nearly all of the continent of Africa, and the natives are compelled to surrender their lands to aliens and are treated in most instances like slaves.”

IV. “In the southern portion of the United States of America, although citizens under the Federal Constitution, and in some states almost equal to the whites in population and are qualified land owners and taxpayers, we are, nevertheless, denied all voice in the making and administration of the laws and are taxed without representation by the state governments, and at the same time compelled to do military service in defense of the country.”

V. “On the public conveyances and common carriers in the Southern portion of the United States we are jim-crowed and compelled to accept separate and inferior accommodations and made to pay the same fare charged for first-class accommodations, and our families are often humiliated and insulted by drunken white men who habitually pass through the jim-crow cars going to the smoking car.”

VI. “The physicians of our race are denied the right to attend  their patients while in the public hospitals of the cities and states where they reside in certain parts of the United States.”
“Our children are forced to attend inferior separate schools for shorter terms than white children, and the public school funds are unequally divided between the white and colored schools.”

VII. “We are discriminated against and denied an equal chance to earn wages for the support of our families, and in many instances are refused admission into labor unions, and nearly everywhere are paid smaller wages than white men.”

VIII. “In Civil Service and departmental offices we are everywhere discriminated against and made to feel that to be a black man in Europe, America and the West Indies is equivalent to being an outcast and a leper among the races of men, no matter what the character and attainments of the black man may be.”

IX. “In the British and other West Indian Islands and colonies, Negroes are secretly and cunningly discriminated against, and denied those fuller rights in government to which white citizens are appointed, nominated and elected.”

X. “That our people in those parts are forced to work for lower wages than the average standard of white men and are kept in conditions repugnant to good civilized tastes and customs.”

XI. “That the many acts of injustice against members of our race before the courts of law in the respective islands and colonies are of such nature as to create disgust and disrespect for the white man’s sense of justice.”

XII. “Against all such inhuman, unchristian and uncivilized treatment we here and now emphatically protest, and invoke the condemnation of all mankind.” “In order to encourage our race all over the world stimulate it to a higher and grander destiny, we demand and insist on the following Declaration of Rights

1. “Be it known to all men that whereas, all men are created equal and entitled to the rights of life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness, and because of this We, the duly elected representatives of the Negro peoples of the world, invoking the aid of the just and Almighty God do declare all men women and children of our blood throughout the world free citizens, and do claim them as free citizens of Africa, the Motherland of all Negroes.”

2. “That we believe in the supreme authority of our race in all things racial; that all things are created and given to man as a common possession; that there should be an equitable distribution and apportionment of all such things, and in consideration of the fact that as a race we are now deprived of those things that are morally and legally ours, we believe it right that all such things should be acquired and held by whatsoever means possible.

3. “That we believe the Negro, like any other race, should be governed by the ethics of civilization, and, therefore, should not be deprived of any of those rights or privileges common to other human beings.”

4. “We declare that Negroes, whosesoever they form a community among themselves, should be given the right to elect their own representatives to represent them in legislatures, courts of law, or such institutions as may exercise control over that particular community.”

5. ‘“We assert that the Negro is entitled to even-handed justice before all courts of law and equity in whatever country he may be found, and when this is denied him on account of his race or color such denial is an insult to the race as a whole and should be resented by the entire body of Negroes.”

6. “We declare it unfair and prejudicial to the rights of Negroes in communities where they exist in considerable numbers to be tried by a judge and jury composed entirely of an alien race, but in all such cases members of our race are entitled to representation on the jury.”

7. “We believe that any law or practice that tends to deprive any African of his land or the privileges of free citizenship within his country is unjust and immoral, and no native should respect any such law or practice.”

8. “We declare taxation without representation unjust and tyrannous, and there should be no obligation on the part of the Negro to obey the levy of a tax by any law-making body from which he is excluded and denied representation on account of his race and color.”

9. “We believe that any law especially directed against the Negro to his detriment and singling him out because of his race or color is unfair and immoral, and should not be respected.”

10. “We believe all men entitled to common human respect, and that our race should in no way tolerate any insults that may be interpreted to mean disrespect to our color.”

11. “We deprecate the use of the term ‘nigger’ as applied to Negroes, and demand that the word ‘Negro’ be written with a capital ‘N.’

12. “We believe that the Negro should adopt every means to protect himself against barbarous practices inflicted upon him because of color.”

13. “We believe in the freedom of Africa for the Negro people of the world, and by the principle of Europe for the Europeans and Asia for the Asiatic; we also demand Africa for the Africans at home and abroad.”

14. “We believe in the inherent right of the Negro to possess himself of Africa, and that his possession of same shall not be regarded as an infringement on any claim or purchase made by any race or nation.”

15. “We strongly condemn the cupidity of those nations of the world who, by open aggression or secret schemes, have seized the territories and inexhaustible natural wealth of Africa, and we place on record our most solemn determination to reclaim the treasures and possession of the vast continent of our forefathers.”

16. “We believe all men should live in peace one with the other, but when races and nations provoke the ire of other races and nations by attempting to infringe upon their rights, war becomes inevitable, and the attempt in any way to free one’s self or protect one’s rights or heritage becomes justifiable.

17. “Whereas, the lynching, by burning, hanging or any other means, of human beings is a barbarous practice, and a shame and disgrace to civilization, we therefore declare any country guilty of such atrocities outside the pale of civilization.”

18. “We protest against the atrocious crime of whipping, flogging and overworking of the native tribes of Africa and Negroes everywhere. These are methods that should be abolished, and all means should be taken to prevent a continuance of such brutal practices.”

19. “We protest against the atrocious practice of shaving the heads of Africans, especially of African women or individuals of Negro blood, when placed in prison as a punishment for crime by an alien race.”

20. “We protest against segregated districts, separate public conveyances, industrial discrimination, lynching and limitations of political privileges of any Negro citizen in any part of the world on account of race, color or creed, and will exert our full influence and power against all such.”

21. “We protest against any punishment inflicted upon a Negro with severity, as against lighter punishment inflicted upon another of an alien race for like offense, as an act of prejudice and injustice, and should be resented by the entire race.”

22. “We protest against the system of education in any country where Negroes are denied the same privileges and advantages as other races.”

23. “We declare it inhuman and unfair to boycott Negroes from industries and labor in any part of the world.”

24. “We believe in the doctrine of the freedom of the press, and we therefore emphatically protest against the suppression of Negro newspapers and periodicals in various parts of the world, and call upon Negroes
 everywhere to employ all available means to prevent such suppression.”

25. “We further demand free speech universally for all men.”

26. “We hereby protest against the publication of scandalous and inflammatory articles by an alien press tending to create racial strife and the exhibition of picture films showing the Negro as a cannibal.”

27. “We believe in the self-determination of all peoples.”

28. “We declare for the freedom of religious worship.”

29. “With the help of Almighty God, we declare ourselves the sworn protectors of the honor and virtue of our women and children, and pledge our lives for their protection and defense everywhere and under all circumstances from wrongs and outrages.”

30. “We demand the right of unlimited and unprejudiced education for ourselves and our posterity forever.”

31. “We declare that the teaching in any school by alien teachers to our boys and girls, that the alien race is superior to the Negro race, is an insult to the Negro people of the world.”

32. “Where Negroes form a part of the citizenry of any country, and pass the civil service examination of such country, we declare them entitled to the same consideration as other citizens as to appointments in such civil service.”

33. “We vigorously protest against the increasingly unfair and unjust treatment accorded Negro travelers on land and sea by the agents and employees of railroad and steamship companies and insist that for equal fare we receive equal privileges with travelers of other races.”

34. “We declare it unjust for any country, State or nation to enact laws tending to hinder and obstruct the free immigration of Negroes on account of their race and color.”

35. “That the right of the Negro to travel unmolested through out the world be not abridged by any person or persons, and all Negroes are called upon to give aid to a fellow Negro when thus molested.”

36. “We declare that all Negroes are entitled to the same right to travel over the world as other men.”

37. “We hereby demand that the governments of the world recognize our leader and his representatives chosen by the race to look after the welfare of our people under such governments.

38. “We demand complete control of our social institutions without interference by any alien race or races.”

39. “That the colors, Red, Black and Green, be the colors of the Negro race.”

40. “Resolved, That the anthem ‘Ethiopia, Thou Land of Our Fathers, etc., shall be the anthem of the Negro race.”
The Universal Ethiopian Anthem (Poem by Burrell and Ford.)
                       I
Ethiopia, thou land of our fathers,
Thou land where the gods loved to be,
As storm cloud at night suddenly gathers
Our armies come rushing to thee.
We must in the fight be victorious
When swords are thrust outward to gleam;
For us will the vict’ry be glorious
When led by the red, black and green.
Chorus
Advance, advance to victory,
Let Africa be free;
Advance to meet the foe
With the might
Of the red, the black and the green.
                II
Ethiopia, the tyrant’s falling,
Who smote thee upon thy knees,
And thy children are lustily calling
From over the distant seas.
Jehovah, the Great One has heard us,
Has noted our sighs and our tears,
With His spirit of Love he has stirred us
To be One through the coming years.
CHORUS—Advance, advance, etc.
              III
O Jehovah, thou God of the ages
Grant unto our sons that lead
The wisdom Thou gave to Thy sages
When Israel was sore in need.
Thy voice thro’ the dim past has spoken,
Ethiopia shall stretch forth her hand,
By Thee shall all fetters be broken,
And Heav’n bless our dear fatherland.
CHORUS—Advance, advance, etc.

41. “We believe that any limited liberty which deprives one of the complete rights and prerogatives of full citizenship is but a modified form of slavery.”

42. “We declare it an injustice to our people and a serious impediment to the health of the race to deny to competent licensed Negro physicians the right to practise in the public hospitals of the communities in which they reside, for no other reason than their race and color.”

43. “We call upon the various governments of the world to accept and acknowledge Negro representatives who shall be sent to the said governments to represent the general welfare of the Negro peoples of the world.”

44. “We deplore and protest against the practice of confining juvenile prisoners in prisons with adults, and we recommend that such youthful prisoners be taught gainful trades under humane supervision.”

45. “Be it further resolved, that we as a race of people declare the League of Nations null and void as far as the Negro is concerned, in that it seeks to deprive Negroes of their liberty.”

46. “We demand of all men to do unto us as we would do unto them, in the name of justice; and we cheerfully accord to all men all the rights we claim herein for ourselves.”

47. “We declare that no Negro shall engage himself in battle for an alien race without first obtaining the consent of the leader of the Negro people of the world, except in a matter of national self-defense.”

48. “We protest against the practice of drafting Negroes and sending them to war with alien forces without proper training, and demand in all cases that Negro soldiers be given the same training as the aliens.”

49. “We demand that instructions given Negro children in schools include the subject of ‘Negro History,’ to their benefit.”

50. “We demand a free and unfettered commercial intercourse with all the Negro people of the world.”

51. “We declare for the absolute freedom of the seas for all peoples.”

52. “We demand that our duly accredited representatives be given proper recognition in all leagues, conferences, conventions or courts of international arbitration wherever human rights are discussed.”

53. “We proclaim the 31st day of August of each year to be an international holiday to be observed by all Negroes.”

54. “We want all men to know we shall maintain and contend for the freedom and equality of every man, woman and child of our race, with our lives, our fortunes and our sacred honor.”

These rights we believe to be justly ours and proper for the protection of the Negro race at large, and because of this belief we, on behalf of the four hundred million Negroes of the world, do pledge herein the sacred blood of the race in defense, and we hereby subscribe our names as a guarantee of the truth fullness and faithfulness hereof in the presence of Almighty God, on the 13th day of August, in the year of our Lord one thousand nine hundred and twenty

Marcus Garvey, James D. Brooks, James W. H. Eason, Henrietta Vinton Davis, Lionel Winston Greenidge, Adrion Fitzroy Johnson, Rudolph Ethelbert Brissaac Smith, Charles Augustus Petioni, Thomas H. N. Simon, Richard Hilton Tobitt, George Alexander McGuire, Peter Edward Baston, Reynold R. Felix, Harry Walters Kirby, Sarah Branch, Marie Barrier Hous ton, George L. O’Brien, F. 0. Ogilvie, Arden A. Bryan, Benjamin Dyett, Marie Duchaterlier, John Phillip Hodge, Theophilus H. Saunders, Wilford H. Smith, Gabriel E. Stewart, Ar nold Josiah Ford, Lee Crawford, William McCartney, Adina Clem. James, William Musgrave La Motte, John Sydney de Bourg, Arnold S. Cunning, Vernal J. Williams, Frances Wilcome Ellegor, J. Frederick Selkridge, Innis Abel Horsford, Cyril A. Crichiow, Samuel McIntyre, John Thomas Wilkins, Mary Thurston, John G. Befue, William Ware, J. A. Lewis, 0. C. Kelly, Venture R. Hamilton, R. H. Hodge, Edward Alfred Taylor, Ellen Wilson, G. W. Wilson, Richard Edward Riley,Nellie Grant Whiting, G. W. Washington, Maldena Miller, Gertrude Davis, James D. Williams. Emily Christmas Kinch, D. D.Lewis, Nettie Clayton, Partheria Hills, Janie Jenkins, John C.Simons, Aiphonso A. Jones, Allen Hobbs, Reynold Fitzgerald Austin, James Benjamin Yearwood, Frank 0. Raines, Shedrick Williams, John Edward Ivey, Frederick Augustus Toote, Philip Hemmings, F. F. Smith, E. J. Jones, Joseph Josiah Cranston, Frederick Samuel Ricketts, Dugald Augustus Wade, E. E.Nelom, Florida Jenkins, Napoleon J. Francis, Joseph D. Gibson, J. P. Jasper, J. W. Montgomery, David Benjamin, J. Gordon,Harry E. Ford, Carrie M. Ashford, Andrew N. Willis, Lucy Sands, Louise Woodson, George D. Creese, W. A. Wallace, Thomas E. Bagley, James Young, Prince Alfred McConney, John E. Hudson, ‘William Incs, Harry R. Watkins, C. L. Halton, J. T. Bailey, Ira Joseph Touissant Wright, 1’. H. Golden, Abraham Benjamin Thomas, Richard C. Noble, Walter Green, C. S. Bourne, G. F. Bennett, B. D. Levy, Mary E. Johnson, Lionel Antonio Francis, Carl Roper, E. R. Donawa, Philip Van Putten, Brathwaite, Jesse W. Luck, Oliver Kaye, J. W. Hudspeth, C. B. Lovell, William C. Matthews, A. Williams, Ratford E. M. Jack, H. Vinton Plummer Randolph Phillips, A. I. Bailey, duly elected representatives of the Negro people of the world. Sworn before me this 15th day of August, 1920. [ Seal]    JOHN G. BAYNE. Notary Public, New York County. New York County Clerk’s No. 378; New York County Reg ister’s No. 12102. Commission expires March 30, 1922.

Our Oppressors Are Determined To Keep Our Eyes To The Sky While They Control The Land Under Our Feet. Elijah Muhammad 1959

                     

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