Symposium to explore impact and legacy of Garveyism — a pivotal movement in the black freedom struggle

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A symposium at Virginia Commonwealth University will bring together about 20 international scholars to discuss the global impact and legacy of Garveyism, an antiracist, anticolonial, and race-conscious political movement that spread across the United States, the Caribbean and Africa in the years following World War I.

The “Global Garveyism Symposium” will be held April 21–23 and will explore the movement launched by Jamaican activist Marcus Garvey (1887-1940) that aimed to liberate Africa from European rule and unite peoples of African descent — and, more broadly all people of color — in the struggle against global white supremacy. It will be free and open to the public.

The symposium will be the first gathering of its size of Garvey scholars in nearly 30 years, arriving at a moment when Garvey studies are poised to break into the academic mainstream, as scholars are increasingly arguing that the study of Garveyism forces us to rethink our understanding of established narratives about the black freedom struggle both in the U.S. and globally, said organizer Adam Ewing, Ph.D., assistant professor in the Department of African American Studies in the College of Humanities and Sciences.

“Garveyites developed a practice of mass-based, grassroots, liberationist politics that offers important lessons for students and advocates of social justice today,” said Ewing, author of “The Age of Garvey,” which won the 2015 Stuart L. Bernath Book Prize, awarded by the Society for Historians of American Foreign Relations. “The symposium will be hosting a community forum that will invite participants to consider the legacy and lessons of Garveyism in the era of Black Lives Matter.”

Ewing said the symposium will offer an opportunity for VCU students and the wider community to learn about one of the most important mass movements in the history of the African diaspora.

The Garvey movement is a reminder of — and exceptional example of — the black freedom struggle’s global reach.

“The black freedom struggle is often understood in the United States as an American phenomenon,” he said. “The Garvey movement is a reminder of — and exceptional example of — the black freedom struggle’s global reach.”

Garveyism, he added, has deep roots in Virginia, where the Universal Negro Improvement Association, a black nationalist fraternal organization founded by Garvey, once operated nearly 50 divisions.

“[Richmond’s] Maggie Lena Walker hung a large photograph of Marcus Garvey in her study, alongside a framed copy of Garvey’s well-known essay, ‘African Fundamentalism,’” he said. “Divisions of the UNIA still operate in Richmond and in Washington, D.C.”

As part of the symposium, Robert A. Hill, Ph.D., editor-in-chief of the Marcus Garvey and UNIA Papers Project, will give a keynote lecture, “On the Genealogy of ‘Africa for the Africans,’ 1858–1958,” from 7–8:30 p.m. on Thursday, April 21, in the Academic Learning Commons, 1000 Floyd Ave.

It will also feature a community forum led by current Garveyites and community activists, and which will draw together community members, students and scholars to discuss the lessons for, and relevance of, Garveyism today. The community symposium, “The Lessons and Legacies of Garveyism in the Post-Ferguson Age,” will be held at 7:30–9 p.m. on Friday, April 22, at The Depot, 814 W. Broad St.

The symposium is sponsored by the Department of African American Studies, the College of Humanities and Sciences, the Office of Multicultural Student Affairs, the Global Education Office, the Humanities Research Center and the Office of the President.

For a full schedule, visit http://rampages.us/garvey/sample-page/.

 

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