How did Marcus Garvey become influential?

Written and fact-checked by The Editors of Encyclopaedia Britannica

Marcus Garvey left his native Jamaica for the United States in 1916. He established branches of his Universal Negro Improvement Association throughout predominantly Black communities of the Northeast. He used his gospel of Black pride and hope for an independent Black African nation to gain a following that, he claimed, was about two million people in 1919.