Two years after a group of Black booksellers and publishers collaborated with the Caribbean-American Political Action Committee to obtain 100,000 signatures on a global petition asking President Joe Biden to pardon political activist Marcus Garvey 101 years after his conviction for mail fraud, Broadleaf Books is publishing Justice for Marcus Garvey: Look for Me in the Whirlwind, edited by Garvey’s youngest son, Dr. Julius Garvey. The November release is a compilation of essays about Garvey’s life and legacy. The publisher and others associated with the book and the petition drive hope that the release of Justice for Marcus Garvey, amplified by the anticipated publicity around its launch, will galvanize the White House into finally exonerating Garvey. According to its organizers, the 2022 petition drive garnered more than the required 100,000 signatures within a 30-day window of time from people all over the world. The White House has yet to respond.
Garvey, a leading Black nationalist and Pan-Africanist in the early 20th century, was convicted of mail fraud in 1923. He spent two years in prison before being deported to his Jamaican homeland. He died in the U.K. in 1940, when Julius Garvey was seven years old.
Several individuals well-known in the book world contributed essays to Justice for Marcus Garvey. Ta-Nehisi Coates wrote the foreword, and his father, Paul Coates, the publisher of Black Classic Press who spearheaded the coalition of what he says were 30 to 40 booksellers and six or seven publishers that participated in the petition drive, wrote about Garvey’s continuing impact upon the bookselling and publishing communities. Haki R. Madhubuti, publisher of Third World Press; Kassahun Checole, president and publisher of Africa World Press and the Red Sea Press; and Wade Hudson of Just Us Books also contributed essays. Bookseller contributors include Ramunda Lark Young, co-owner of MahoganyBooks in Washington, D.C., who wrote of her bookstore’s participation in the campaign to exonerate Garvey; James Fugate of Eso Won Books in Los Angeles, who wrote about Garvey’s importance to Black bookstores; and Shrikiana Gerima of Sankofa Video and Bookstore and Café in Washington, D.C., who wrote about Garvey’s impact on Black literature as well as activism in the U.S., Europe, Africa, and the Caribbean.
“This effort goes back 100 years to the time Marcus Garvey was convicted,” Coates told PW. “We are going to do whatever we can or need to do from a bookselling or publishing perspective to support this work, because Marcus Garvey is that important to us. He’s still one of the most well-known Black men in the world; until Muhammed Ali, he was the most well-known Black man in the world. This book is a testament to the passion for Marcus Garvey felt around the world.” Coates also noted that the 2022 collaboration between Black booksellers and publishers with the Caribbean-American C-PAC was “the first time Black publishers and booksellers got together and took a political position in this country.”
For her part, Dr. Goulda Downer of Howard University's Center of Excellence, who led the Caribbean-American C-PAC until her eight-year term ended in 2023, hopes that the book not only galvanizes the White House into acting, but will also introduce a new generation to Garvey. "The pain is still here," she said. When Julius Garvey, who is 91, told her, "'I want to see my daddy’s name cleared before I die,’ I got goosebumps," she aid. "No matter how busy I am—and I am busy—and no matter what I have to do—and I have a lot to do— I’m all in. I’m still all in. 'I want to see my daddy’s name cleared before I die'—that was enough for me."
Broadleaf Books promoted Justice for Marcus Garvey at the National Association of African American Librarians’ annual meeting in New Orleans this past weekend and has scheduled a pre-launch virtual roundtable for Black booksellers on Oct. 8 that will feature Julius Garvey, Coates, and Downer, as well as other notables, including Dr. Diane Richards of the Harlem Writer’s Guild and Troy Johnson of the African American Literature Book Club.
Justice for Marcus Garvey is not the only book being published this fall explolring the efforts to redeem those who have been unjustly incarcerated in U.S. prisons. In September, Bold Type Books is releasing I Am Maroon: The True Story of an American Political Prisoner by Russell Shoatz with Kanya D'Almeida and Celedon is releasing The Sing Sing Files: One Journalist, Six Innocent Men, and a 20-Year Fight for Justice by Dan Slepian.
