NEW YORK, Mar 3, CMC –The New York-based Institute of the Black World 21st Century (IBW), says it will be dedicating this year to the life and legacy of Jamaican-born Pan-Africanist and liberation leader Marcus Mosiah Garvey.

IBW president, Dr. Ron Daniels, said Garvey, Jamaica’s first national hero, founded the Universal Negro Improvement Association and African Communities League (UNIA-ACL), “which rapidly developed into the largest mass-based organization of people of African descent in the history of the US and globally.

“The UNIA-ACL was completed financed by Black people,” Dr. Daniel said, noting that, in 1920 Garvey took “the extraordinary step of convening an International Convention of the Negro People of the World, which attracted more than 2,000 delegates from Africa, the Caribbean, Great Britain, France and the US. “The convention began with a rally at Madison Square Garden, which drew some 25,000 attendees,” he said.

“In commemoration of the anniversary of this amazing feat and the vision and accomplishments of Marcus Mosiah Garvey, IBW is declaring 2020 ‘The Year of Marcus Garvey’ and urging Black organizations in the US and the Pan African World to join us in mounting a year-long educational campaign to teach our people about this remarkable leader and to rekindle a spirit of self-support for Black organizations and institutions in his memory,” Daniels said.

“We intend to utilize the educational campaign as an organizing tool leading straight into SOBWC V (State of the Black World Conference V),” he said, adding that SOBWC V is tentatively scheduled for Newark, New jersey from December 2-6. Daniels said Dr. Julius Garvey, the son of the Jamaican hero, a retired surgeon and highly acclaimed Pan Africanist in his own right, has agreed to serve as the Honorary Chairman of SOBWC V and that the IBW intends to invite at least two heads of state from Africa and two from the Caribbean to attend and address the conference.

He said IBW will hold a major rally on Saturday, March 7 at the historic House of the Lord Church, downtown Brooklyn “to mount a major campaign to mobilize support for State of the Black World Conference V.” Daniels said that IBW convenes State of the Black World Conferences every four years to assess the impact of the US presidential election on Black America and the Pan African World.

State of the Black World Conference IV (SOBWC IV) was also convened in Newark in 2016. “We selected Newark for the last conference because of the history of rebellion, resistance and resiliency of Black people in this city and the progressive policies of Mayor Ras J. Baraka, son of Amiri Baraka, one of the greatest cultural artists and revolutionary leaders in the era of the 60’s and beyond,”  Daniels said.

“We return to Newark because the hundreds of participants who attended SOBWC IV embraced the Declaration of Intent and Call to Action which mandated a focus and commitment to work with Mayor Baraka to make Newark a model for progressive social, economic and political development for Black people and marginalised communities.

“True to that commitment, since 2016, IBW convened a Marshall Plan Symposium and Economic Summit in 2018 and a National Emergency Summit on Gentrification in 2019, which focused national attention on Newark.” Organised around the theme “Reimagining Marcus Garvey’s Vision for Black Empowerment,” Daniels indicated that the goal of the March 7 rally is to enlist the support of IBW friends, allies and supporters in the greater New York/New Jersey area and nationally to organize to make SOBWC V “one of the most significant and impactful gatherings of people of African descent in the 21st century”.