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Marcus Mosiah Garvey, Jr. was born on August 17, 1887, in St. Ann's Bay, Jamaica.
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At age 14, Marcus became a printer's apprentice. In 1903, he traveled to Kingston, Jamaica, and soon became involved in union activities.
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In 1907, he took part in an unsuccessful printer's strike and the experience kindled in him a passion for political activism.
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Three years later, he traveled throughout Central America working as an newspaper editor and writing about the exploitation of migrant workers in the plantations.
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Inspired by these experiences, Marcus Garvey returned to Jamaica in 1912 and founded the Universal Negro Improvement Association (UNIA) with the goal of uniting all of African diaspora to "establish a country and absolute government of their own."
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After corresponding with Booker T. Washington, the American educator who founded Tuskegee Institute, Garvey traveled to the United States in 1916 to raise funds for a similar venture in Jamaica.
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In 1918, Garvey began publishing the widely distributed newspaper Negro World to convey his message.
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By 1919, Marcus Garvey and UNIA had launched the Black Star Line, a shipping company that would establish trade and commerce between Africans in America, the Caribbean, South and Central America, Canada and Africa.
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In August 1920, UNIA claimed 4 million members and held its first International Convention at Madison Square Garden in New York City.
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In 1922, Marcus Garvey and three other UNIA officials were charged with mail fraud involving the Black Star Line.
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On June 23, 1923, Garvey was convicted and sentenced to prison for five years.
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In 1927 he was released from prison and deported to Jamaica.
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Garvey continued his political activism and the work of UNIA in Jamaica, and then moved to London in 1935.
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Marcus Garvey died in London in 1940 after several strokes. Due to travel restrictions during World War II, his body was interred in London.
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In 1964, his remains were exhumed and taken to Jamaica, where the government proclaimed him Jamaica's first national hero and re-interred him at a shrine in the National Heroes Park.