Marcus Garvey ENSHRINED
Jamaica’s first national hero, Marcus Garvey, was enshrined at state and church ceremonies at the King George VI Memorial Park on November 15, 1964, after his body was brought home from England from the Kendal Green Cemetery in London, where he was interred on his death in June 1940.
The Gleaner covered this historic event and brings you highlights from its archives on this the 55th anniversary.
ATHRONG of more than 30,000 witnessed the enshrinement of Marcus Mosiah Garvey as Jamaica’s first national hero in state and church ceremonies at the King George VI Memorial Park on November 15.
But the occasion was marred at the end of the day when a gang of hooligans rushed his memorial tomb and scattered wreaths laid by leaders of State, members of the Garvey family, and visiting parliamentarians from the Commonwealth.
The final phase of homage to Garvey began at 3 o’clock with a Solemn Requiem High Mass at the Holy Trinity Cathedral, where his body had lain in state since Wednesday.
A long motorcade followed the casket borne on a police vehicle to the park shortly after 4 o’clock when the Mass had ended and thousands lined the route along North Street and up East Street to the park.
There was an air of subdued chatter along the route in contrast to the noisier crowds that had watched Wednesday’s procession from Victoria Pier to the cathedral.
DISTURBANCE
But among the great throng in the park around the tomb, a section on the western side created an almost continuous disturbance when church ceremonies began to consecrate the tomb.
The Minister of Development and Welfare, Edward Seaga, told the crowd why Garvey was a national hero:
“Garvey’s stage was not Jamaica; it was the continents of coloured peoples. Yet he is a national hero of Jamaica because his thoughts and his works carried a message which definitely helped to shape and structure the whole character of the people of his own country, among millions of other peoples throughout the world.”
Frank Hill, chairman of the Jamaica National Trust Commission, after sketching the social climate in which Garvey lived, defined his greatness:
“And the greatness of Garvey, I think, is the fact that the vision of the prophet has at last come true. The star of freedom that Garvey foresaw is shining brightly and proudly. The black men and women of America, staking their claim to equality with the relentless chant that ‘they’re not afraid to die for their rights’, have just won a resounding victory as the federal law swings its ponderous strength in their support.
“Here in Jamaica, we’re building our new nationhood on Garvey’s principles of absolute racial equality ... . ”
UNIA PRESIDENT GENERAL
Thomas Harvey, presidentgeneral of the UNIA, which Garvey founded, widened the scope of
his stature:
“He is not only the national hero of Jamaica. He is the hero of the Negro peoples of the world ... . Garvey was loved by the millions living in America because he gave them the greatest gift they ever had from the only leader they ever had: new hope and pride in themselves.”
The governor general, Sir Clifford Campbell, and the prime minister, the Rt Hon Sir Alexander Bustamante, headed the dignitaries at Mass in the cathedral and in the park.
Leaders of Commonwealth Parliamentary delegations from the United Kingdom, Canada, and Australia attended the Mass, and later, the ceremonies in the park where representatives from other delegations, including the African territories, had gathered.
A large congregation, nearly filling the cathedral, attended the Mass, and thousands on the street outside heard the proceedings.
Celebrant was the Rt Rev Msgr Richard Watson. Deacon was the Rev Fr Stanley Shearer and subdeacon, the Rev Fr Maurice Ferres, SJ.
The sermon was preached by The Rev Fr Roy Campbell, SJ.
Father Campbell said that Garvey’s death was necessary so that his ideals could live.
“He died only a physical death, for his spirit lives on.
“What he sought to impinge on the consciousness of the moral world has come to pass, not in its completeness, but certainly in its birth. His ideals have triumphed, his death has been vindicated, his courage has finally been marked with victory.”
He concluded: “... We have brought home a son to rest on the fair soil of his native land.
“Whatever he may have done will be interred with his bones. The good he loved, we will take to our hearts. We will let it live in our lives. We will proclaim up and down from hilltop to verdant dale, all over this blessed isle of ours. This will be our lasting tribute to Marcus Mosiah Garvey.”
At the end of the Mass, the procession of priests, casket, family and leaders of State moved slowly to the street.
As the pall-bearers, representatives of the U N I A, and the two Garvey sons struggled to lift the casket on to the decorated police vehicle, the two wreaths of artificial poppies fell to the street.
The wreaths were replaced as six white-uniformed policemen righted the casket on the police Land Rover, and shortly after 4 o’clock, the procession began towards the park.
Forty-five minutes later, the Very Rev Fr William Connolly, SJ, representative of the Roman Catholic Bishop of Kingston, led a religious ceremony at the tomb as the casket was slowly lowered in the vault.
But his prayers were made inaudible by a noisy section of the crowd behind a barrier on the western side of the tomb. There was some heckling during the prayers.
The Jamaican Choral and Orchestral Society sang a selection, Shine on Eternal Light, accompanied by the Jamaica
Military Band.
Then the Rev Leo Rhynie, Chairman, Jamaica Council of Churches, said prayers for the start of the state function. His prayers were similarly disturbed by noises from the crowd. There was an uproar as a limb of a tree on which some had perched broke away.
Three flags, which had been flying at half mast, were raised fully by the two Garvey sons, Dr Julius and Marcus Jr, and by Mr Eustace Whyte of the UNIA at 4:55 p.m.
FINAL SEAL
Frank Hill presided at the state function that followed. In his opening remarks, he said that the tremendous gathering “puts the final seal of popular approval on our Government’s decision to confer on Marcus Garvey the highest honour that lies within the power and authority of our nation: the title of National Hero”.
Hill said that most of the population was not born when Garvey died in 1940 and was not mature enough to appreciate the value and significance of his work. It was, therefore, necessary to sketch the social climate in which Garvey lived so that “this generation can grasp the full relevance of his vision to the Jamaican society of his day and the extent to which that vision has been fulfilled in the Jamaican society of our day.”
Hill proceeded to sketch Garvey’s activities in the 1920s and early ‘30s when he propagated the gospel “that the black race was equal to the white race in worth and dignity and in their inherent, natural qualities as human beings”.
The gospel was a direct challenge to the concepts and practices that had prevailed for nearly 300 years in Jamaica, in America, in Africa, all over the world: the concept that the black race was inherently inferior to the white race.
Read full story at: https:// gleaner.newspaperarchive.com/ kingston-gleaner/1964-11-16/