GARVEY MARCUS Harlem Weeps over Garvey Jailbound

Sale 2342 - Lot 326

Unsold

Estimate: $ 2,500 - $ 3,500

GARVEY, MARCUS. Harlem Weeps over Garvey--Jailbound. Photograph, 4-1/2 x 5-1/2 inches of Garvey leaving New York City "Tombs." Some wrinkling. New York, 1923

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a scarce photo showing garvey leaving the "tombs" in lower manhattan where he had been held during the course of a long trial on charges of mail fraud. By 1919, Garvey's huge success among African Americans had triggered an all-out effort by J. Edgar Hoover and the FBI to find some weakness, something criminal with which they could discredit the leader. But Garvey was to all intents and purposes "squeaky clean." That is until someone in the Black Star Line office made a grave mistake. In 1921, Garvey's Black Star Line had begun negotiating for a large freighter to be christened the " S.S. Phillis Wheatley." In their efforts to raise money for this purchase, they ran pictures of the vessel with that name on the bow-before the Black Star Line actually owned it. This constituted mail fraud. The FBI threw the proverbial book at Garvey, even though he was clearly not personally responsible. But the government made the charges stick, and Garvey was sent to prison in the Spring of 1923. He was then deported to Jamaica, and eventually went to England, where he died in1940.