The Trial of Marcus Garvey
Marcus Garvey was born on August 17, 1887 in Jamaica. United African Movement was established on August 17, 1988 at Friendship Baptist Church in Brooklyn, NY. Judge Albert Sabo, who has put more Black men to death than any other judge in the nation, scheduled an execution of Mumia Abu-Jamal for August 17, 1995. This was no accident.
Garvey was a printer. He had an appreciation for the written word and used this skill to communicate effectively with African people throughout the world. He learned printing at fifteen years of age and started publishing a newspaper and engaging in political campaigns by the age of twenty-three.
Duse Mohammed Ali, a journalist and author of In the Land of the Pharaoh, had an influence on Garvey’s life. He also published African Times and Orient Review. Garvey became a contributor in 1913 and developed an appreciation of ancient African civilization and its influence on history and culture.
Garvey launched “The Universal Negro Improvement Association” on August 1, 1914. The motto for the UNIA is “One God! One Aim! One Destiny! It was during his one month’s voyage from Southampton to Jamaica in 1914 that he acquired the idea of forming the UNIA.
Within two years after the formation of the UNIA, Garvey arrived in the United States on March 23, 1916. By 1920, Garvey had sponsored a convention without historical precedent and he had created the Black Star Line which would be used later to imprison Garvey.
In January 1922, Garvey and three of his cohorts were indicted for mail fraud. Amid his trial, Cornelius W. McDougal, his Black lawyer, encouraged Garvey to enter a plea to a technical offense. His critics could have used this plea to derail the Black Star Line.
After dismissing his attorney, Garvey represented himself pro se. Because no lawyer would represent him competently and zealously, Garvey was denied his rights under the Sixth Amendment. Afterwards, McDougal was appointed special deputy attorney general of New York with a hefty compensation. This appointment was a first for a Black lawyer.
It could be argued that Garvey was denied the right of effective representation and the opportunity to prepare a defense. Approximately ten years later the U.S. Supreme Court would decide Powell v. Alabama. This was the Scottsboro Boys Case. The perennial, lack of effective representation continues to haunt Black defendants in the criminal justice system.
Garvey was convicted of one count of mail fraud, sentenced to five years in prison and fined one thousand dollars. His co-defendant, Elie Garcia, was acquitted of all criminal charges. His Black attorney was Henry Lincoln Johnson, Sr. of Washington, DC.
An objective observer could argue that Garvey displayed no criminal conduct and should have only been subjected to civil and administrative penalties. Black lawyers abandoned him. Wilford Horace Smith, an ally of Booker T. Washington, had represented Garvey until Smith smelled legal trouble.
It was clear that Garvey would be unable to receive competent and zealous representation and any counsel for him would also have to be a double agent. Any lawyer who represents an unpopular defendant while refusing to become a deputy prosecutor, will be disbarred from the practice of law. The government has always hit below the belt and grievance committees are agents of government.
Subsequent to Garvey’s conviction for one count of mail fraud in 1923 and his being sent to federal prison for five years, nine members of the jury, in 1926, signed an affidavit recommending that his sentence be commuted. In 1927, President Calvin Coolidge commuted his sentence. He was also deported to Jamaica in 1927 as an undesirable alien.
In the case of Ed Johnson who was railroaded in Tennessee by an all-white jury and summarily hanged, in 1909, despite a stay of execution by the U.S. Supreme Court, Tennessee granted a motion in February 2000 to set aside and dismiss the rape conviction.
Similarly, an effort should be made in Manhattan Federal Court to vacate, set aside and dismiss the one count of mail fraud because the prosecution was politically-motivated, the charges were based on flimsy evidence, the legal representation was inadequate and Garvey was railroaded.
The United African Movement should be in the vanguard of the effort to clear Garvey’s name. UAM should secure a lawyer to initiate appropriate legal action in Manhattan Federal Court. This must follow UAM developing a solid infrastructure for itself. The cart must never precede the horse.