Marcus Garvey, a legendary hero, was born on August 17, 1887 in St. Ann's Bay, Jamaica. He was the youngest child of 11 children. His family was comprised of poor peasants, who only survived because of his mother. Garvey's mother had to supply the family with money by selling cakes and pastries. Garvey's father worked irregularly as a 'village lawyer' (Edwards 5). Growing up he was influenced by his father, who was a stonemason descended from the Maroon tribes (Davis 66). Marcus grew up knowing what it was like being poor and what deprivation meant. He attended elementary school and secondary school at St. Anne's Bay. He ended up graduating from high school at a private school called Church of England High School. After high school he could not afford college so he had to go straight to work. As such, at age fourteen, he decided to go and work for his grandfather who was a printer at St.
Marcus Garvey, National Hero of Jamaica, full-leng...
English: 20 Jamaican dollars from 2000.
Marcus Garvey Park in Harlem, Manhattan, NYC, NY, ...Anne's Bay.
While he was working for his grandfather he experienced something that affected him deeply. There was a group of white kids with whom Marcus Garvey would play. He started to like one of the white girls who was the daughter of a Methodist minister. Her parents found out that they were hanging out with a black person and they made her write a letter telling Garvey that she could not ever see him again anymore because in the parents own words, "he was a nigger". He was furious ever since, and decided not to hang out with any more white girls while growing up. "After my first lesson in race distinction I never thought of playing with white girls any more, even if they might be next-door neighbors" (Edwards 4).
Because of his bad experience, he decided to move...