By Shirley Hawkins
Contributing Writer
LEIMERT PARK — Hundreds of community residents attended the 35th annual Marcus Garvey Parade and Festival Aug. 17 in Leimert Park to celebrate the birthday of Marcus Moziah Garvey, the Jamaican-born political activist and journalist who spurred the Back to Africa movement in the early 20th century.
Hosted by Garvey’s United Negro Improvement Association, the event featured a parade, entertainment and speeches that highlighted Garvey’s message of racial pride, self empowerment and self determination.
Community members were invited to take to the stage to express why Garvey’s influence continues to still be relevant today.
“I’m just so proud to be part of a community here in North America where year in and year out we continue to acknowledge Marcus Mosiah Garvey,” said Allen Jones, a longtime Leimert Park resident. “Ten years ago, there were only two people in the parade, but I was so proud to wave my flag today as the parade marched down Crenshaw Boulevard. It was a great feeling to be a part of a Black community in North America that acknowledges and celebrates the life of Marcus Garvey.”
“Marcus Garvey was a Black man who knew himself,” said King Oji Anekder, a drummer and a member of the local chapter of the United Negro Improvement Association. “When a Black man knows himself, he has no human master.”
Ngozi Klee, the day’s event coordinator, said, “I am honored to be a representative of Marcus Garvey in South Central Los Angeles and I am grateful to Marcus Garvey for what he gave to the world.
“Marcus Garvey’s philosophies and opinions are beautiful and genius at the same time. He was the only Black man who ever said Africa was for the Africans and it pleases my soul to hear Garvey’s motto which is ‘Race first, self-reliance and nationhood, one God, one aim, one destiny.’”
Laron Johnson, another United Negro Improvement Association member, spoke about Garvey’s connection to other Black leaders.
“We have to keep on pushing things like the Garvey parade … or Garvey will be forgotten,” he said.
“It’s important for the world to see that we originated Pan Africanism so that we are not replaced as the originators.
“When a Black man rises to uplift his own people especially worldwide, there is always a scheme to challenge his strength and malign him or assassinate him in some way Including Marcus Garvey, Martin Luther King, and Malcolm X — that’s why we need more leaders to fulfill their goals,” he added.
Brothers Selassie, 10, and Kwame 12, entertained the crowd with their spirited drumming.
“We love the drums and we love to share our drumming with others,” Selassie said.
Pausing, he delivered a quote by Garvey: “Without confidence in self, you are twice defeated in the race of life. With confidence, you have won before you started.”
Garvey left his native Jamaica in 1916 to travel to the United States to spread a message of an independent Black nation in Africa. He urged Blacks in America to board ships and return to Africa on his Black Star shipping line in an effort to forge a link between North America and Africa and facilitate African-American migration to Liberia.
Garvey also established a chain of businesses including factories, hotels, restaurants, grocery stores and laundries. He was the founder of the Negro World newspaper, the Black Star shipping line, and the United Negro Improvement Association. He established 700 branches in 38 states by the early 1920s, at one time having more than two million members.
Garvey also is credited with coining the phrase “Black is beautiful.”
Shirley Hawkins is a freelance reporter for Wave Newspapers. She can be reached at metropressnews@gmail.com.
