Message to the People. Marcus Garvey
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Living in caves for as many centuries, the white man, therefore, became colorless and the length of time made it so that he was born naturally white. You must interpret anthropology to suit yourself. The thing for you to do is to refute every pertinent statement of the white man that tends to degrade you and to elevate him. Turn the tables on him and search for all reasons in the world you can find to justify it. That is how new thoughts are given out by creation. Never yield to the statement of your inferiority.
In reading Christian literature and accepting the doctrine of Jesus Christ, lay special claim to your association with Jesus and the Son of God. Show that while the white and yellow worlds, that is to say, the worlds of Europe and Asia Minor, persecuted and crucified Jesus the Son of God, it was the Black Race through Simon, the Black Cyrenian, who befriended the Son of God and took up the cross and bore it alongside of Him, up to the heights of Calvary. Therefore, the Roman Catholics have no rightful claim to the cross, nor any other professing Christian, before the Negro makes his claim. The cross is the property of the Negro in his religion because it was he who bore it.
Never admit that Jesus Christ was a white man, otherwise, he could not be the Son of God, and the God to redeem all mankind. Jesus Christ had the blood of all races in his veins, and tracing the Jewish race back to Abraham and to Moses from which Jesus sprang through the line of Jesse, you will find Negro blood everywhere; therefore, Jesus had mostly Negro blood in him.
Read the genealogical tree of Jesus in the Bible and you will learn from where he sprang. It is a fact that the white man has borrowed his civilization from other peoples. The first civilization was the Negro’s, Black people. The second civilization was the brown people’s, Indians; the third civilization belonged to yellow people, the Chinese or Mongol’s; the last civilization, up to the present, belongs to the white man. All civilization goes back to the Black man in the Nile Valley of Africa. Therefore, in your reading search for all these facts. Never stop reading and never stop until you find the proof of them.
You must pay great attention to sociology. Get the best books on the subject that you can and read them thoroughly. Find out the social relationship among other races so that you may know how to advise your people in their social behavior. Never admit that the Negro is more immoral than the white man, try to prove the contrary. Socially, the white man has debauched and debased all other races because of his dominant power. He is responsible for more illegitimacy among the races than any other race. He has left bastard children everywhere he has been. Therefore, he is not competent to say that he is socially and morally purer than any other race.
The mixed population among Negroes from slavery to the present, in certain countries, is due to the white man’s immorality. Therefore, if you should hear anyone talking about moral depravity among Negroes and the moral excellence of the whites; draw the above facts to their attention.
When through reading and research you have discovered any new fact helpful to the dignity, prestige, character and accomplishment of the Negro, always make a noise about it. You should always keep with you a note book and fountain pen or indelible pencil and make a note in that book of anything you hear or see that you would like to remember. Always keep at home a larger note book in which you must transfer the thought or experience so that it will not be lost to your memory. At least once every three months read over that book and as the book becomes more voluminous with facts, read it over at least once a year.
By constantly reading these facts they will be planted in your subconscious mind and you will be able to use them without even knowing that you are doing so. By keeping your facts and your very important experiences on record, at the end of a full life you may have a volume of great value; such as Elbert Hubbard’s Scrap Book. Get a copy of this book. It contains valuable inspiration. Always have a thought. Always make it a beautiful thought. The world is attracted to beauty, either in art or in expression. Therefore, try to read, think and speak beautiful things.
Out of the night that covers me,
Black as the Pit from pole to pole,
I thank whatever Gods may be
For my unconquerable soul.
In the fell clutch of circumstance
I have not winced nor cried aloud,
Under the bludgeoning of chance
My head is bloody, but unbowed.
Beyond this place of wrath and tears
Looms but the horror of the Shade,
And yet the menace of the years
Finds, and shall find, me unafraid.
It matters not how straight the gate,
How charged with punishments the scroll,
I am the master of my fate;
I am the captain of my soul.
“Invictus” by W. E. Henley
Lesson 2
LEADERSHIP
TO LEAD SUGGESTS that you must have followers. For others to follow you, you must be superior to them in the things that they must follow you for.
You must have superior ability in the particular. You must always be ahead by way of knowledge of all those you lead. The moment you fall down from the position of superior ability, you will automatically fail to lead and you will have to follow others. Therefore, you must be ever vigilant in keeping ahead of those you lead by getting the latest and most correct information for which they are searching, because for it they are following you. People only respect leaders and follow them, when there is something superior in them.
A leader must have personality; he must be clean cut in his appearance so as not to be criticized. An untidy leader is always a failure. He must be neatly dressed and his general appearance must be clean and presentable because people are supposed to follow him in his manner, behavior and his general conduct. A leader’s hair should always be well kept; his teeth must also be in perfect order for people will criticize him for his unkempt hair, and his bad teeth.
Your shoes and other garments must also be clean. If you look ragged, people will not trust you. They will critically say, he has no clothing, his shoes are very poor, and it is logical that whatever money he gets hold of he will use it on himself rather than for the purpose for which he makes his appeal.
Never show your personal poverty to those you lead. They will never trust you. This does not mean that you should not reveal the poverty of the cause you represent, because that cause is your cause and the people’s cause; in which both of you are interested. Never tell lies to those you lead; sooner or later they will find you out and then your career will come to an abrupt end. NO MAN EVER TRUSTS A PERSON A SECOND TIME whom he disbelieves once and has proof for his disbelief.
A leader, under all circumstances, must carry himself with dignity. He must not be a snob, but he must maintain his pride.