Marcus Jacques Garvey, Jr., was the oldest son of Marcus Mosiah Garvey, Sr., founder of the Universal Negro Improvement Association and African Communities League (UNIA-ACL) and Amy Euphemia Jacques. The UNIA-ACL, a leading black nationalist organization, was founded in 1914 in Jamaica and later headquartered in Harlem, New York City.
Garvey Jr. was born in the Halfway Tree neighborhood in St. Andrew, Jamaica on September 17, 1930. By the 1970’s Garvey, Jr. was head of the African Nationalist Union, a small, Jamaican Black power political organization he founded in 1968. He was also elected as the seventh president-general and Administrator of the National body of the UNIA-ACL at the organization’s 39th Convention in 1992 and served as President until 2004. As president he attempted to revive the UNIA and helped to create the Caribbean Multi-National Business Conference in 1995. The purpose of the conference is to bring businesspeople of color together for collaboration and cooperation.
Garvey Jr. and his brother Dr. Julius Garvey, a thoracic surgeon and professor, are the sons of Amy Jacques and Garvey, Sr. Both were raised in Jamaica. His father, Marcus Garvey passed away on June 10, 1940, and his mother Amy Jacques Garvey passed away on July 15, 1973.
Garvey Jr. matriculated to several universities and colleges. Garvey Jr. graduated from Kingston Technical High School. According to his official obituary he earned a Bachelor of Arts degree in English and Economics and a Bachelor of Laws degree from the University of London. He also earned a BSc. And MSc. degrees in Mathematics and Physics from the University of the West Indies, Mona. He migrated to the United States in 1973 to pursue a PhD degree in Physics and subsequently earned an MSc. In Electrical Engineering from City College of New York (CUNY).
Garvey Jr. taught mathematics and physics at several high schools in Jamaica as well as at the University of Jamaica, Mona, and Hunter College in New York. He worked for several years as an electrical engineer and retired from that profession in 1993. He then taught in the Department of Mathematics at La Guardia Community College and at the College of Aeronautics in Flushing, New York.
His younger brother Julius, continues to work on obtaining a pardon for their father although President Barack Obama rejected a posthumous pardon for Marcus Mosiah Garvey in 2011. Marcus Garvey Jr. divorced Litsy Clare Garvey in 1978. Garvey, Jr., later married Jean Garvey, and had two sons. He lived in Wellington, Florida until his death on December 8, 2020 at the age of 90.
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“Jamaican Black Power Advocate Encounters Recruiting Difficulties, Florence (Florida) Morning News, August 30, 1970: Kristina Webb, “Marcus Garvey Jr., son of major civil rights leader, dies in Wellington,” Palm Beach Post, Dec 14, 2020, https://www.palmbeachpost.com/story/news/local/wellington/2020/12/14/marcus-garvey-jr-son-civil-rights-leader-dies-wellington/6540060002/; West Palm Beach Funeral Home Obituary, https://www.palmswestfuneralhome.com/obituaries/Marcus-Garvey/#!/Obituary.
