Speech by Marcus Garvey - 28 August 1924

Speech by Marcus Garvey

New York, 28 August 1924

MARCUS GARVEY IN CLEAR SPEECH REVEALED THE MOTIVE BEHIND THE RAPE OF THE REPUBLIC OF LIBERIA THE CONVENTION INFORMED OF THE TRICKS OF DIPLOMACY IN DEPRIVING LIBERIA OF HER FREEDOM · . .

The order of the day is discussing the report of the delegates from Liberia bearing on the arrangements with the Liberian Government and people to colonize that country.

You heard the report yesterday from the secretary and from Lady Davis, a member of the delegation, as well as the report of the President-General and the statements of the Hon. Van Richards, chaplain to I the Senate of Liberia· Now we are going to discuss it this morning ....

The present government consists of a family arrangement. The President is brother-in-law to the Secretary of State, the Secretary of State is brother-in-law to the Attorney-General, the Attorney-General is brother-in-law to the other heads of depa~unents, and so it is a family ring.

While the common people of Liberia have been suffering for over one hundred years, nothing has done to bring the great bulk of the native people, two millions of them, the pale of Westem civilization, which we are seeking to do through the of the Universal Negro Improvement Association.

And the position is when we publish, as we published in The Negro World some time in intention of building the first American city on the Cavalla River, saw we were in earnest, because the program that we laid out building on the Cavalla River was on a modem American plan, and they well that when American Negroes and West Indian Negroes had gone Liberia it would be a question of about 25 years when we would have a first-class nation on the West Coast of Africa, proving the Negro's ability for self-government, a thing the great powers do not want.

THE ANGLE OF SELFISHNESS

That is the whole sum and substance of the situation from the intema- angle. Then from the angle of selfishness. After we had incurred expense, so the delegates from Liberia explained, after we had two arrangements with the Liberian officials, one in I92I welcoming the association Liberia and signing the document of welcome, the other in I923, the of Liberia himself outlining the manner, the method in which we proceed, appointing his Vice-President as Chairman of the committee was to perfect the arrangements, the Chief Justice of the country, and of Customs, a member of his own cabinet, with some of the prominent men in the country, after they had outlined the plan under k we should work, they suggested the first group should reach in October, prior to reaching there we should send out a group of expert men to homes so that when the people get there they would have homes to live We sent away from here in June the first group of experts, six engineers the direction of a licensed civil engineer of z5 years' experience, work-for one of the biggest companies in this country out West. We sent out two shipments of materials, one on the 25th of June and the last on z;ch of July. They accepted the landing of the materials, and then, after all that, without an official word to us, they decided to send through Consul-General