The Impact & The Influence Of Marcus M. Garvey w/ Dr Julius Garvey

Our special guest on Mic Check today is DR. JULIUS GARVEY, son of the pioneer of modern black nationalism, the Hon Marcus Mosiah Garvey.

In many ways, Dr. Garvey, who lives in New York continues along the path of black pride that his father blazed more than 100 years ago. Marcus Garvey, who was the first national hero of Jamaica was a powerful orator who rallied hundreds of thousands of blacks across the country in his quest to reclaim Africa for Africans and build black economic power. He is counted among the greatest men to have walked the earth. In his relatively short life Garvey inspired the founders of the Nation of Islam as well as influenced the pioneers of Rastafarianism.

Like his father, who started a shipping company that he hoped would inspire and link black businesses worldwide, Dr. Garvey believes that blacks must become stronger economically.

Dr. Garvey, who was 8 years old when his father died,  started school in England, where his father had moved the family after being jailed and deported from the United States. He spent most of his childhood in Jamaica, before going to Canada, where he received his undergraduate and medical degrees from McGill University in Montreal. In 1962 he came here to the United States as a resident in surgery at Mount Sinai Medical Center. He later studied cardiovascular surgery at the University of Maryland Hospital in Baltimore and returned to New York in 1970.

Since then he has held several appointments at hospitals in New York. He has also taught at several universities in New York and has been the keynote speaker at many events around the globe.

Last April Dr Garvey was part of a contingent of nearly 70 exponents of reggae music who went to  Abidjan in West Africa, to participate in the inaugural staging of the Abi-Reggae International Music Festival and Conference. The event featured  A-list Jamaican acts including Third World, Morgan Heritage, Marcia Griffiths, Judy Mowatt and Ky-mani Marley. Today he is our special guest on Mic Check.