FREE ESSAY ON BLACK NATIONALISM

BLACK NATIONALISM

Black nationalism is the name given to revitalization movements among black Americans,
emphasizing their African origins and identity, their pride in being black, their
desire to control their own communities, and sometimes the desire to establish a black
nation in Africa or some part of the United States. 
The exact origins of black nationalist movements are lost in the largely unwritten
history of blacks in early America, but it is clear that such movements began as
protests
against the brutal and dehumanizing conditions of SLAVERY. A few records indicate that
early African protest against slavery conditions had overtones of black
nationalism. Organized black nationalist movements appear to have begun with Paul Cuffe
(1759-1817), a black sea captain. 
Between 1811 and 1815 he made the first attempt to establish a black American colony in
Africa, transporting several dozen people to Africa. Early in the 20th century
W. E. B. DU BOIS developed a sophisticated rationale for a Pan-African movement that
would join blacks in America and Africa. But not until after 1910 did a mass
movement emerge with black nationalism as its central theme. 
The leader of this new movement, Marcus GARVEY, recruited thousands into his Universal
Negro Improvement Association (UNIA). Its goals included a black nation
oriented toward Africa but controlled by black Americans. The UNIA developed the first
major black capitalist enterprises, including restaurants, grocery stores, hotels,
and a steamship line. Because of antagonism from whites and mismanagement at the top,
this movement failed, but it was soon followed by a number of Africa-oriented
movements, the most important of which was the Nation of Islam, known inaccurately as the
Black Muslims. 
Marcus Garvey's Back to Africa movement developed the spirit of Ethiopianism to its
fullest extent....since the white people have seen their God through white spectacles, we
have only now started out (late though it be) to see our God through our own spectacles.
The God of Isaac and the God of Jacob let him exist for the race that believe in the God
of Isaac and the God of Jacob. We Negroes believe in the God of Ethiopia, the everlasting
God -- God the Son, God the Holy Ghost, the one God of all ages. That is the God in whom
we believe, but we shall worship him through the spectacles of Ethiopia..
The Universal Improvement Association represents the hopes and aspirations of the
awakened Negro. Our desire is for a place in the world, not to disturb the tranquility
of other men, but to lay down our burden and rest our weary backs and feet by the banks
of the Niger and sing our songs and chant our hymns to the God of Ethiopia(Wilson 217).
Garvey's goal of repatriation was expressed in his famous slogan Africa for the Africans.
His well-known Black Star Line steamship company was established to
trade and eventually carry New World blacks to Africa. This prophet of African redemption
was not always successfull in his countless business ventures, but by the
1920s Garvey was the most powerful leader among the black masses in the United States.