The Pan-African Unity Dialogue and its convener, The Institute of the Black World 21st Century (IBW), mourns the recent death of Marcus Garvey Jr. in West Palm Beach, Florida, and extends their sincere condolences to his wife Jean and the rest of his family and, in particular, to his younger brother Dr. Julius Garvey, an active participant in the Pan-African Unity Dialogue. He was 90 years old, and had been ailing for some time.
Marcus Garvey, Jr. taught mathematics and physics at high schools in Jamaica, at the University of the West Indies in Kingston, and at City and Hunter Colleges, (CUNY), in NY.
Since retirement in 1993, he served as an Adjunct Professor in the Department of Mathematics at La Guardia Community College, NY, and at the College of Aeronautics in Flushing, New York. He practiced engineering on a part-time basis, and consulted in his specialties.
Prior to migrating to the USA, Marcus Garvey, Jr. was a member of the UNIA & ACL in Jamaica. In 1968, Garvey Jr., started his own political party, the African Nationalist Union, because he felt the country needed it at the time. The political climate at that time was rife with divisiveness, disenchantment and corruption.
The ruling elite in Jamaica considered him a threat, and did everything to prevent the rise of a credible third party in the country. Frustrated and motivated by concern for his young children, he abandoned his political ambitions and decided to leave the country to pursue a doctoral degree in the U.S.
“Marcus Garvey Jr. distinguished himself with many brilliant academic and professional accomplishments,” commented Dr. Ron Daniels, President of the Institute of the Black World. “And, he also left a rich legacy of continuing his father’s Pan-Africanism both in the Caribbean and in the USA”.
Internationally-acclaimed Garvey scholar, Professor Emeritus Rupert Lewis, the University of the West Indies, said that Marcus Garvey Jr, “lived his father’s message in science and technology; earned an Arts degree in his teens and followed it up with a Law degree from the University of London; later successfully pursued a Masters degree in Physics from the University of the West Indies and then went on to become an electrical engineer”.
Prof. Lewis also remembers him as “a Pan- Africanist who continued his father’s legacy in the era when political independence was achieved in Africa and the Caribbean and the civil rights legislation was enacted in the United States. He admired Kwame Nkrumah and Julius Nyerere and argued that they represented the contemporary expression of Garveyism on the African continent”.
Dr. Ron Daniels,
President, IBW and Convener of PAUD
