Mar 31, 2016 - Sale 2408

Sale 2408 - Lot 278

Price Realized: $ 4,250
?Final Price Realized includes Buyer’s Premium added to Hammer Price
Estimate: $ 1,500 - $ 2,500
GARVEY, MARCUS. 5 stock certificates for shares in several of Marcus Garvey's businesses. 3 certificates for the Black Star Line, one of which is signed by garvey; a rare certificate for the Negro Factories Corporation signed by garvey, and a certificate for the Parent Body of Universal Negro Improvement Association Construction Loans. Standard stock certificate size, some chips and tears; condition varies, should be seen. New York, 1920-1921

Additional Details

a group of scarce stock certificates for businesses established by marcus garvey. The Negro Factories Corporation is rare, as is the Parent Body of Universal Improvement Association certificate. All five were issued between 1920 and 1921, before Garvey began to have problems with the Government. From the beginning, Garvey caught the attention of the Bureau of Investigation, later renamed the Federal Bureau of Investigation. When the young J. Edgar Hoover took command of the Bureau in 1923-24, he made Garvey his mission. Hoover looked everywhere, paying off noted Negroes like musical director Noble Sissle and others to spy on Garvey and the U.N.I.A. Finally, a fluke; a piece of fundraising material for a second ship for the Black Star Line was found to be technically mail fraud because the name on the ship that the Line did not as yet own (Phillis Wheatley), appeared in the Association's mailings. This toppled Garvey and with him the entire movement.