Marcus Garvey

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1. Declaration of the Rights of the Negro Peoples of the World
2. Explaination of the Objectives of the UNIA

Malcolm X

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Martin Luther King

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1. I Have a Dream

Marcus Garvey was born in St Ann's Bay, Jamaica in 1887. After traveling abroad and witnessing the hardships , discrimination and sub-standard living and working conditions faced by black people across the globe, the young Marcus Garvey established the Universal Negro Improvement Association (UNIA) in an effort to fight for their equality. By the 1920s, the UNIA had a presence in over 40 countries world wide promoting an African nation state, as well as black self help, black nationalism, entrepreneurship, numerous publications, and the establishment of several businesses, most notably the Black Star Shipping Line. Garvey's efforts to take blacks out of oppression were eventually crushed when he was falsely accused of mail fraud in the U.S. and given a 5 year jail sentence which was then commuted to 2 years. Garvey died in West Kensington, England in 1940 but left behind an important legacy of literary works including poetry and speeches based on his mission to understand and improve the plight of all black men and women.

One of the most controversial figures in the civil rights movement, Malcolm X's career was cut short by an assassin. Born Malcolm Little, his minister father died when he was 6. After a childhood spent in institutions and foster homes, Malcolm headed east, settling in Boston and supporting himself with odd jobs and pimping. In 1943 he moved to New York where he began to lead an increasingly marginal life. After receiving a 10-year sentence for burglary in 1946, he was transformed in prison, becoming a follower of Elijah Muhammad's Nation of Islam movement. Paroled in 1952, he was ordained as a minister, taking the name Malcolm X. His militant stance and depiction of whites as "blue-eyed devils" won him considerable press coverage and a good deal of suspicion from the white community; in many ways he seemed the antithesis of Martin Luthor King, Jr., who preached non-violence. In 1963 he formed the Organization of Afro-American Unity, and in 1964 he made a pilgrimage to Mecca and converted to orthodox Islam. At the time of his death, Malcolm X seemed to be moderating his hostile view of whites. Nonetheless, he spoke in the months before his death of his fear that he might be assassinated by opponents in the Nation of Islam or by the U.S. government. His assassin was apparantly a member of a dissident black group, though mystery still remains about the event.

The most influential leader in modern civil rights, Martin Luther King, Jr. was born in Atlanta, Georgia. His father was a Baptist minister, providing a strong religious tradition for King. He attended the Atlanta public schools and was graduated with his A.B. from Morehouse College in 1948 when he was 19 years old. He went on to Crozer Theological Seminary and graduated in 1951 at the top of his class, going from there to Boston University for his Ph.D. There he met and married Coretta Scott in 1953. By then an ordained minister, King took the pastorate of the Dexter Avenue Baptist Church in Montgomery, Alabama, and quickly became involved in the civil rights movement. He soon found himself in the forefront of a boycott of Montgomery's segregated buses, which led to a Supreme Court decision in 1956 against Alabama's segregation laws. Following this triumph King was made president of the newly formed Southern Christian Leadership Conference, committing his life to nonviolent activism and bringing the civil rights movement to the forefront of American public life. Between 1960 and 1965, King continued to lead numerous demonstrations and protests on behalf of civil rights, leading the 1963 March on Washington where he delivered his most quoted speech, "I have a dream. . . ." In 1964 he was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize. Martin Luther King, Jr. was shot and killed on April 3, 1968 in Memphis, Tennessee; he was there to support striking sanitation workers. His death devastated the nation.