Amy Garvey Jacques...Pioneering Black Woman Journalist and Activist.

Amy Jacques Garvey was born in 1895. A time when Jamaica was still under the British rule & many Jamaicans were uneducated. Amy was raised in a middle-class home and was referred to as "mulatto".  Amy was included in the minority that attended high school. She always had a keen interest in books and was known to be a forward thinker. After school, Amy worked at a law firm for four years before migrating to USA.

It is said Amy advised her mother & manger that she had to see "the land of opportunities and its limitations" and would return after three months if she found it unfit. Amy was already dedicated to dissemination of philosophy & principles of race, self-reliance & black pride. While in America, It is said that she attended a conference held by Marcus Garvey and was drawn to Garveyism. Shortly after, she became his private secretary and worked alongside him and his organization, Universal Negro Improvement association (UNIA). She soon became Marcus Garvey's second wife.

Within several months of marriage, Amy started out being a mere editor of volume 1 of the Philosophy and Opinions of Marcus Garvey (a compilation of Marcus's writings and speeches). She soon became more involved with the UNIA's work and started representing the females of this movement. Much of Garvey's speeches resulted from her own research. She would read through significant new sources and relay its importance to him, allowing Garvey to gather the information he needed to include in his speech. Amy was said to be an excellent speaker and a passionate activist in her own right. She often toured with her husband. It is alleged that Marcus Garvey was scheduled (while Amy wasn't) to speak in New York and when it was his time to speak, the audience shouted "We Want Mrs. Garvey!". She was allowed to speak even though she was not scheduled to. It is said that Marcus took to the podium and said he was grateful that Amy was his wife and not his rival.

 Less than a year after marrying Garvey,Marcus was convicted for mail fraud. Amy was forced to assume leadership while Marcus was in prison. She spoke all over the country to raise money for Garvey's defense fund. She also edited and published volume 2 of the Philosophy and Opinions of Marcus Garvey, two volumes of his poetry, The Tragedy of White Injustice and Selections from the Poetic Meditations of Marcus Garvey. Despite working tirelessly with lawyers to get her husband out of prison, Amy was dedicated to moving the UNIA forward.

Marcus was deported back to Jamaica in 1927. Amy went with him. They had two sons: Marcus Mosiah Garvey Jr. (b. 1930) and Julius Winston Garvey (b. 1933). Marcus moved to England in 1934 and Amy remained in Jamaica with the children. After Marcus’s death in 1940, Amy never stopped fighting for black nationalism and African independence.  In 1944 she wrote “A Memorandum Correlative of Africa, West Indies and the Americas,” which she used to convince U.N. representatives to adopt an African Freedom Charter.

In 1963, she published her book “Garvey and Garveyism” as well as a booklet “Black Power in America”. She assisted John Henrik Clark in editing “Marcus Garvey and the Vision of Africa”. Her last work was the “Philosophy and Opinions of Marcus Garvey volume 111” which she wrote in conjunction with E.U. Essien-Udom. In 1971, she was awarded the Musgrave Medal which is an annual award by the Institute of Jamaica in recognition of achievement in art, science, and literature.

She died in 1973 in her native parish, Kingston, Jamaica. Amy Euphemia Jacques Garvey will always be remembered a pioneering journalist and activist of the Pan-African movement. We salute you, Amy now and forever. 

Amy Jacques Garvey Video