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NO OTHER COPY KNOWN
277
●
GARVEY, MARCUS.
All Thoughtful Negroes Who Desire to Prepare
Against the Future and Who Seek Comfort and Happiness Will Invest in The
Black Star Line Inc. Buy Your Shares Today.
Large folio sheet, 14 x 25 inches, folded
to form a double-sided “accordion” style promotional prospectus, with six panels, each
measuring 14 x 8
3
/
8
inches. With a full-length portrait of Garvey in one section, Captain
Cockburn, First Commander of the Black Star Line in another, Jeremiah Curtain and
George Tobias in another, a drawing of a proposed ship in yet another and two other offi-
cers of the Line in another; some wear at the folds, but still whole.
New York, 1919
[3,000/4,000]
A RARE SURVIVAL
,
OF WHICH NO OTHER WHOLE COPY IS KNOWN
.
The Black Star Line was
to be Marcus Garvey’s signal achievement in terms of offering the American Negro a chance at eco-
nomic parity with whites. However it would prove to be the weapon used by his nemesis J. Edgar
Hoover and the Bureau of Investigation to undo him. As early as 1917, Garvey and his allies advo-
cating economic and social equality with whites had set off alarms within the U.S. Government. J.
Edgar Hoover was in charge of a special unit devoted to rooting out “seditious individuals or groups,”
and Marcus Garvey was high on Hoover’s list. This elaborate brochure introduced Captain
Cockburn, the Commander of the Frederick Douglass, the first ship of the Line, as well as the officers
of the Line. The last page of the brochure is a subscription blank for ordering shares. An illustration of
one panel of this piece appears the U.N.I.A Papers, edited by Robert Hill (University of California
Press, 1983), vol. 1, page 136.
MARCUS GARVEY
LOTS 277-279