Unless one is Jamaican, or raised in a household suffused with Black consciousness, it is unlikely that the name Marcus Garvey is familiar to you.
There was a time, during the first quarter of the 20th century, when he was among the most famous men in the world.
Raised in Jamaica, Garvey was a fiery orator, a gifted writer and a master organizer. Although he left this life a generation before the ‘60s, no Black leader, before or since, has ever amassed more members in its grassroots organization.
Garvey, upon coming to the U.S., built the Universal Negro Improvement Association (UNIA), its affiliate, the African Communities League (ACL), and opened chapters in every major Black population center in the country. Headquartered in Harlem, NY, Garvey’s paper, Negro World, brought Black news to readers in English, Spanish and French.
His organizations grew rapidly, and touched the lives of millions. Perhaps it shouldn’t surprise us that disaffected members would conspire with government agencies to disrupt the UNIA, jail him, and later deport him.
For Black nationalists, their efforts are ever measured against the enormous success of Garvey, against whom they are often found wanting.
His voice and his presence gave hope and purpose to a community choking on the twin toxins of racist violence and white supremacy.
Among such a constituency, the name and life of Marcus Garvey should be, and will be, long remembered.
![Prison Radio is sharing an abbreviated version of a press release covering recent racist incidents at SCI Rockview in PA and the organizing to demand accountability. We are reaching out to people incarcerated at Rockview as well as recently transferred folks, inviting them to call, in hopes of hearing commentaries from them.
Benner Township, PA.-
On November 24th, 2023, imprisoned people at SCI Rockview found two nooses hanging in the CO’s office, displayed visibly for many prisoners to see. When the prisoners asked the staff why the nooses were hung, they were told it was a joke.
By December 4th, prisoners filed a grievance to document what they saw, noting that the hanging of the nooses was “unethical, racially motivated, hateful, [a] deliberate debasement of black inmates" and “unsafe for inmates, staff, [and] the whole prison in general.” In the grievance, they demanded that Sgt. Mosser and CO Richard be fired and investigated for a hate crime, and for CO Kirchner to get therapy. Captain Andrews, the head of security, denied the grievance.
The sergeant and COs are still working in the prison to this day, with no repercussions...
As of March 10th, prisoners have reached out to Pennsylvania officials at the Dept. of Corrections in a letter campaign, sending 100 copies of the grievance. Copies of the letter also were mailed to Governor Shapiro, Senator Fetterman, Senator Street, and various advocacy groups. The demands for relief in the original grievance have now become the platform of demands for this campaign. About 20 of the 100 letters were withheld by the prison.
Activists on the outside are joining forces with prisoners to elevate their demands, flooding the phone lines of DOC offices, assisting with outreach to media, and circulating the stories of prisoners who have found unity in opposition to the facility's virulent institutional racism.
In any other workplace, hanging a noose would be grounds for immediate termination. However, Nicki Paul, the superintendent's assistant and "grievance coordinator" informed the public that they self-investigated their staff and found they did nothing wrong.
Read the full article at i
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