Established in the year 2000, the WNYC Archives are the station's physical link to its rich and storied past.
MoreTo celebrate Black History Month, the New York Public Radio Archives has pulled together some of the department's leading preservation work concerning African-American history.
MoreMarcus Garvey, the promoter of Pan-Africanism and black pride, had a vision of economic independence for his people. Those who followed him were called Garveyites. He was the founder of the Universal Negro Improvement Association, (UNIA) the single largest black organization ever. In the 1920s and 30s, the UNIA had an estimated six million followers around the world.
Marcus Garvey came to this country from Jamaica in 1916. His efforts to 'uplift the race' through the free enterprise system were met with skepticism, ridicule and even sabotage. In 1927 he was deported from the United States as an undesirable alien. In the passing years there has been a renewed interest in Garvey reflected in books, music and attempts to clear his name. In this 1992 documentary, I take a look at Marcus Garvey, the man whose legacy has influenced black activists and organizations for almost a century. We hear from Garvey's sons, Garvey scholars and those who followed him. But first we hear from Garvey himself in his only known recording made in the summer of 1921 after a long tour of Caribbean and Central America. Listen in. _________________________________________________________
This documentary first aired on the NPR Horizons series and was broadcast on WNYC in 1990. Special thanks to David Rapkin, Steve Shapiro, and Brian Glassman. With Engineering by Spider Ryder, the program was edited by Donna Limerick with production assistance by Eileen Ellis.
In this documentary you hear the singing of Amy Gordon, a veteran member of the UNIA who hailed from Jamaica and remembered some of the organization's songs. They are reproduced -to the best of her memory - below from my original field recording.
UNIA Song 1
UNIA Song 2 - Father of Our Great Nation
UNIA Song 3 - Oh Shine On Eternal Light
UNIA Song 4
Growing up in New Jersey, Archivist Andy Lanset was probably the only 8-year-old who spent all of his paper route money on records and wind-up phonographs at the flea market and then cataloged them all in a 3x5 card file. Since then, he has gone on to amass an archive of his own as well as to collect, organize, and preserve thousands of recordings, photographs, and station-related ephemera for the WNYC and WQXR archive collections.
Comments [2]
Dear Betty from Augusta,
I would suggest you contact the folks at the Marcus Garvey Papers project at UCLA. See: http://www.international.ucla.edu/africa/mgpp/ They should be able to tell you if there are any Black Star Line ship manifests that can be searched.
Is there a list of Marcus Garvey's Passengers? I was told that my great-great uncle returned to Africa with Mr. Garvey but was never heard from again. It was rumored that he was lost at sea with Garvey, however, now I read that Garvey was deported to his home country. That list certainly would be helpful. I think my great-great uncle's last name was Daniels and he was a twin.
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