Marcus Garvey taught, “Man know thyself.” The Power of the Mind, Purpose, and Perseverance begins there. It is a course grounded in the conviction that liberation starts with clarity of thought, disciplined purpose, and unwavering perseverance. Designed through The Garvey Classroom and guided by the Marcus Garvey Education Academy, the program transforms Garvey’s philosophy into a structured learning path that connects self-knowledge to collective freedom.
Garvey believed that education must build both character and capacity. “If you have no confidence in self, you are twice defeated in the race of life,” he declared in The Philosophy and Opinions of Marcus Garvey (1923). This principle anchors the course, which integrates intellectual rigor with cultural restoration.
Foundations and Framework
The course stands on two pillars of African thought: Ma’at and Ubuntu.
From ancient Kemet, Ma’at names the principles that hold the universe together—truth, balance, reciprocity, justice, and harmony. These form the Ma’at Ledger, the moral architecture of the classroom:
– Truthfulness — support every claim with credible evidence. – Usefulness — design learning that helps others think or act. – Beauty — write and speak with clarity and coherence. – Sustainability — create work that endures for self and community.
Ubuntu complements Ma’at by affirming that identity is relational: I am because we are. Where Ma’at orders the world, Ubuntu binds it through compassion and mutual care. Together they express Garvey’s view that the progress of the individual must serve the uplift of the race and, by extension, humanity.
Each principle connects directly to Garvey’s teaching that “education is the medium by which a people are prepared for the creation of their own particular civilization.” Knowledge and responsibility are inseparable; intellect without community is incomplete.
Mind: Clarity as Power
The first module begins with Garvey’s charge, “Man, know thyself.” Through readings such as The Foundation of Self and The Power of Real Education, students explore self-definition as the cornerstone of freedom. Frederick Douglass and Carter G. Woodson stand beside Garvey as guides who understood that knowledge is a form of resistance.
These lessons correct the distortions of traditional schooling. They rebuild confidence through study of Africa’s civilizations, from the Nile Valley to modern Pan-African thought. Learners see that history is not distant memory but living inheritance.
Purpose: Action with Meaning
“Always have a purpose,” Garvey wrote. The second module demonstrates that purpose grows through steady work and service. In Purpose as Power, Garvey’s writings are paired with the discipline of Rosa Parks, whose quiet strength reflected years of preparation, not chance.
Freeing the Mind deepens this by connecting Garvey’s 1937 address in Nova Scotia to the legacy of Bob Marley, who carried his words—“None but ourselves can free the mind”—into the global imagination. The following unit, Purpose in Action, features journalist and organizer Claudia Jones, whose creation of Britain’s first Caribbean Carnival showed that culture itself can be an act of liberation.
Perseverance: Endurance as Leadership
Perseverance, Garvey said, is the will to act “with hope of a greater life.” In Strength That Endures, students study Paul Robeson, whose artistry and activism embodied Garvey’s belief that leadership requires sacrifice. “Leadership means martyrdom,” Garvey wrote, describing the cost of standing firm when silence would be safer.
The Strength to Continue links this ethic to the work of Thomas Sankara, whose reform in Burkina Faso reflected Garvey’s model of self-reliant governance. Together, these figures reveal that endurance is not passive waiting but daily, decisive courage.
Liberation: Confidence and Collective Destiny
The final module, Confidence as Liberation, builds toward the course’s culmination—African Redemption. Garvey’s declaration that “Princes shall come out of Egypt and Ethiopia shall stretch forth her hands unto God” frames liberation as both prophecy and duty.
Students end the program by designing community-based projects rooted in the Garveyite triad: One God, One Aim, One Destiny. Their capstone essays become blueprints for practical service—linking study to rebuilding.
Academic and Cultural Integrity
The teaching philosophy combines Garvey’s clarity with the Africana frameworks of Linda James Myers and Greg Carr, and the liberatory approaches of Frantz Fanon, bell hooks, Paulo Freire, and Howard Zinn. Each influence reinforces the same outcome: students who think critically, act purposefully, and persevere with moral courage.
Assignments, reflections, and essays are evaluated through the Ma’at Ledger Rubric. Ubuntu shapes peer collaboration—students are responsible for one another’s growth. Learning is both intellectual and ethical: knowledge must serve justice and community.
Endorsements from Garvey Scholars
“The Power of the Mind, Purpose, and Perseverance is a course that faithfully carries forward my father’s vision.” — Julius W. Garvey, M.D., O.J. Founder and Chairman, Marcus Garvey Institute for Human Development
“I endorse this initiative by Geoffrey Philp because the teaching of the philosophy of Marcus Garvey, which guided the movement for decolonization and civil rights, is imperative for our economic, social, and cultural goals in the 21st century.” — Rupert Lewis, Professor Emeritus of Political Thought, University of the West Indies, Mona
The Broader Mission
Garvey warned that “a race without authority and power is a race without respect.” This course answers that challenge through education that rebuilds authority from within. Students examine how confidence, purpose, and endurance form a single process of self-determination.
Each participant leaves with a deeper understanding that freedom is both inner and collective. Ma’at gives them order; Ubuntu gives them belonging. Knowledge becomes not a possession but a shared responsibility—to think, to act, and to build institutions that uplift the race and serve humanity.
Continuing the Work
The Power of the Mind, Purpose, and Perseverance stands as the cornerstone of The Garvey Classroom, a digital and in-person learning platform that links scholarship, art, and civic action. It offers educators, parents, and students a model of Pan-African pedagogy for the present age.
In Garvey’s words, “What you do today that is worthwhile inspires others to act at some future time.” Through this course, that inspiration becomes structure—a curriculum of clarity, purpose, perseverance, and communal grace grounded in Ma’at and Ubuntu.
For more information or partnership inquiries: Visit thegarveyclassroom.com or contact info@thegarveyclassroom.com.
Our children inherit more than names and faces. They inherit stories—some told proudly, others buried under the weight of colonial lies. Too often, history textbooks shrink Africa to a footnote, skip over Garvey’s thunder, and flatten the voices of women, rebels, and dreamers.
The Liberation Library is here to change that. It is not a playlist. It is a map of resistance, purpose, and liberation across centuries. Each film is a spark. Each voice pushes back against forgetting.
By pairing each module with living voices, students experience Garvey’s blueprint as practice: rooted identity, clear purpose, steady perseverance, and collective liberation. Garvey said, ‘We are going to emancipate ourselves from mental slavery, because whilst others might free the body, none but ourselves can free the mind.’ Each film is a mirror for that work.
I was in my late teens when I discovered The Philosophy and Opinions of Marcus Garvey. I knew that Garvey was saying something important, but at that time, I neither had the skill nor the experience to process what he was teaching. His words felt urgent and necessary, but the meaning eluded me. Yet, I kept getting hints about the depth of his message, especially when I decided to become a teacher at West Miami Middle School.
Even though I had a master’s degree in English, the State of Florida mandated that I take education courses through the Department of Education. At first, I thought it was a waste of time—more red tape standing between me and my students. Then, something shifted as I studied developmental education and encountered the theories of Piaget, Erikson, and especially Maslow.
When I combined my newfound knowledge of human development with my ongoing study of Garvey, everything clicked. I realized that Garvey wasn’t just giving speeches or building organizations—he was teaching Black people how to assert our full humanity in a country designed to deny it.
His quotes didn’t just inspire; they mapped perfectly onto Maslow’s hierarchy of needs, but with a crucial difference. They transformed universal human needs into a specific survival and liberation guide for Black people navigating the particular violence of life in America.
How Marcus Garvey’s Quotes Address the Specific Reality of Black Needs in America
Abraham Maslow proposed that all humans are motivated by five levels of needs: physiological, safety, love and belonging, esteem, and self-actualization. When I examine Marcus Garvey’s quotes through this lens, I see something more specific and urgent: a liberation strategy that speaks to what it means to pursue human needs through the Black experience. Garvey’s teachings systematically address how anti-Black racism distorts and denies every level of human motivation.
The genius of Garvey’s approach becomes clear when we understand that he wasn’t speaking about abstract human development. He was speaking to Black people whose access to basic humanity was constantly under attack. His quotes become instructions for claiming and protecting our humanity within systems designed to crush it.
Level 1: Physiological Needs – When Being Black Makes Survival Political
At the foundation of Maslow’s pyramid sit our most basic needs: food, water, shelter, and safety. For Black people in America, even these fundamental requirements become sites of struggle. According to the Federal Reserve’s 2022 Survey of Consumer Finances, the median wealth gap between white and Black households reached $240,120, meaning Black families have only $44,890 in median wealth compared to $285,000 for white families. When Garvey declared, “Chance has never yet satisfied the hope of a suffering people,” he was addressing the specific reality that Black communities couldn’t rely on American systems to meet even our most basic needs.
Garvey understood that waiting for white America to feed, house, and employ us was waiting for death. He launched the Negro Factories Corporation, established the Black Star Line shipping company, and created businesses that could meet physiological needs through Black ownership. His quote speaks to the urgency of Black self-reliance: “A race that is solely dependent upon another for economic existence sooner or later dies.”
This wasn’t abstract economic theory—it was Black survival strategy. Today’s food deserts in Black neighborhoods, predatory lending that denies Black homeownership, and employment discrimination prove that meeting basic needs while Black requires intentional community-building and economic independence that white Americans take for granted.
Level 2: Safety and Security – When Protection Becomes Self-Defense
Once physiological needs are met, humans seek safety and security. Garvey recognized that for Black people in America, traditional forms of protection—police, courts, social services—often became sources of danger rather than safety.
Data from the U.S. Department of Education shows that Black students are 3.8 times more likely to receive out-of-school suspensions than white students and 2.3 times more likely to be referred to law enforcement, demonstrating how systems designed to protect actually criminalize Black children. He advocated for intellectual and institutional self-defense as the only reliable protection for Black communities.
“The man who is not able to develop and use his mind is bound to be the slave of the other man who uses his mind,” Garvey taught. Through the UNIA, he established schools, trained the Black Cross Nurses, and created newspapers because he understood that for Black people, knowledge was protection from violence and exploitation.
Garvey’s emphasis on mental development as security remains essential when Black people must navigate systems designed to trap and harm us. We cannot depend on America to keep us safe—we must create our own safety through knowledge, organization, and community control.
Level 3: Love and Belonging – Healing What White Supremacy Broke
The third level of Maslow’s hierarchy addresses our need for love, belonging, and connection. For Black people in America, anti-Black racism systematically destroys our sense of belonging and sometimes to each other.
According to the Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration, 19.7% of Black adults experienced a mental health condition in the past year, yet only 39% of Black Americans received mental health services compared to 52% of white Americans. Garvey’s words attempt to heal these specific psychological wounds by creating a global sense of Black belonging that transcends the boundaries of white supremacy.
When he proclaimed that Black skin was “a glorious symbol of national greatness,” he was directly countering the daily messages that told Black people we were unwanted, unworthy, and unlovable. His vision extended beyond individual healing to collective belonging: “Africa for the Africans—those at home and those abroad!” he declared, creating a sense of global Black family that made us citizens of something larger than America’s limited imagination.
This quote addresses the love and belonging needs that white supremacy systematically attacks from birth. It provides the counter-narrative that Black communities need to feel worthy of love and capable of creating our own systems of care and connection when America fails us. We belong to each other, and that belonging transcends what any nation offers or denies us.
Level 4: Esteem and Recognition – Building Black Standards in a White World
The fourth level involves esteem needs—both self-respect and recognition from others. Garvey understood that Black people would never gain true esteem by seeking approval from systems designed to diminish us.
The National Assessment of Educational Progress shows that Black students scored 30 points lower than white students in 8th-grade mathematics, while only 57% of Black students have access to the full range of math and science courses necessary for college readiness, compared to 71% of white students. He advocated for creating independent Black standards of excellence and recognition that didn’t require white validation.
“We must canonize our own saints, create our own martyrs, and elevate to positions of fame and honor Black men and women who have made distinct contributions to our racial history,” he taught. Through parades, ceremonies, and public celebrations, Garvey made Black achievement visible and honored within Black communities, regardless of whether white America acknowledged our greatness.
This quote remains revolutionary because it rejects the idea that white approval is necessary for Black worth. It calls for the creation of Black cultural institutions that celebrate our excellence on our own terms, building the esteem that healthy human development requires. When America tells us we’re nothing, we must have our own mirrors that reflect our true magnificence back to us.
Level 5: Self-Actualization – Becoming Fully Human Despite America
At the pinnacle of Maslow’s hierarchy sits self-actualization: the realization of one’s full potential. For Black people in America, self-actualization requires overcoming centuries of programming that tells us we’re less than human. Garvey’s most powerful quotes call Black people to our highest possibilities while acknowledging the specific barriers we face.
“Up, you mighty race, accomplish what you will!” he proclaimed, seeing no limits to Black potential when properly nourished and developed despite American attempts to stunt our growth. His famous declaration, “Liberate the minds of men and ultimately you will liberate the bodies of men,” speaks to the ultimate goal of Black liberation: becoming fully human in a context designed to keep us fractured.
When he said, “God and Nature first made us what we are, and then out of our own created genius we make ourselves what we want to be,” he was describing Black self-actualization as both birthright and resistance. These quotes don’t just inspire individual achievement; they call for collective Black self-actualization where entire communities realize their full potential as an act of defiance against white supremacy’s limitations.
Why Marcus Garvey Quotes and the Hierarchy of Needs Remain Essential for Black Liberation
When I look at contemporary movements for Black liberation, I see Garvey’s blueprint everywhere. From mutual aid networks addressing the specific ways anti-Blackness creates food insecurity to community education initiatives building safety through knowledge that centers Black experiences, the pattern persists. What makes Garvey’s approach timeless is its specificity to the Black experience in America.
Unlike universal approaches to human development that ignore how racism distorts basic needs, Garvey’s quotes provide a framework specifically designed for Black people navigating white supremacy. They recognize that our liberation requires meeting all human needs while simultaneously resisting the systems that deny us access to those needs.
The hierarchy also reveals why surface-level diversity initiatives fail to create lasting change for Black communities. When systems address esteem needs through representation while ignoring how anti-Blackness creates poverty, educational inequality, and violence, the foundation crumbles. We need strategies that understand how being Black in America transforms every level of human need into a site of struggle and resistance.
Building Black Liberation with Garvey’s Blueprint
Marcus Garvey quotes and the hierarchy of needs offer us more than historical insight—they provide a roadmap for contemporary Black liberation work that understands our specific context. When we map current organizing strategies onto this framework, we can identify gaps and strengthen our approaches to building Black power in America.
The work begins with asking specifically Black questions: How are we addressing physiological needs through Black cooperative economics and mutual aid when white systems fail us? How are we building safety through Black-controlled education and community defense when police and courts harm us? How are we fostering belonging through Black cultural celebration and global connection when America rejects us? How are we creating independent Black standards of esteem and recognition that don’t require white approval? Finally, how are we calling Black people to our highest potential while working toward collective liberation from white supremacy?
These questions guide Black liberation work that builds sustainable freedom. They honor Garvey’s understanding that our liberation must be as specific as the oppression we face and as complete as the Black human beings it seeks to free.
Ready to explore how Marcus Garvey’s wisdom can guide your own growth and development? Discover Unstoppable You, a comprehensive guide that connects Garvey’s most powerful quotes to daily practices, historical heroes, and actionable steps for personal and collective liberation.
Works Cited
Garvey, Marcus. Philosophy and Opinions of Marcus Garvey. Edited by Amy Jacques Garvey, The Majority Press, 1923.
Garvey, Marcus. Selected Writings and Speeches of Marcus Garvey. Edited by Bob Blaisdell, Courier Corporation, 2012.
Maslow, Abraham H. “A Theory of Human Motivation.” Psychological Review, vol. 50, no. 4, 1943, pp. 370-396.
Martin, Tony. Race First: The Ideological and Organizational Struggles of Marcus Garvey and the Universal Negro Improvement Association. Majority Press, 1976.
On June 22, 2025, I launched Marcus Garvey GPT –something I’ve been preparing for most of my professional life.
Marcus Garvey GPT is a culturally grounded learning tool that answers real questions about Garvey’s life, philosophy, and global impact. The purpose is straightforward: to provide our communities with a trustworthy record of Marcus Garvey.
For two decades, I’ve researched, blogged, taught, and led workshops on Garvey. I’ve heard the confusion in students’ voices, the hunger in parents’ questions, and the pride in elders who remember. This GPT consolidates all that learning in one accessible location.
Marcus Garvey GPT draws directly from The Philosophy andOpinions of Marcus Garvey,Message to the People, twenty years of handwritten notes, blogs, annotated texts, PowerPoint presentations, and the work that shaped my children’s book My Name is Marcus. I studied the most frequently asked questions using Google, TikTok, and Answer the Public (answerthepublic.com).
Marcus Garvey GPT is a living document. As I discover new questions, or if someone asks something they can’t find an answer to, I will add it. When I do, I will thank the person directly in the response. That is how a community grows: through shared inquiry, mutual respect, and the belief that our knowledge must remain alive.
As Garvey taught us: “We are going to emancipate ourselves from mental slavery.” This project begins with the mind.
A Companion for Learning and Teaching
A curated learning tool trained on over 150 verified questions and answers, each entry on Marcus Garvey GPT is crafted with intention and cultural care. These answers reflect Garvey’s own writings, speeches, and strategies. They are supported by primary sources, Pan-African scholarship, and lived experience.
The GPT answers some of the most widely asked questions about Marcus Garvey:
Who was Marcus Garvey?
How did Marcus Garvey die?
When was Marcus Garvey arrested?
What organizations did Marcus Garvey found?
Was Marcus Garvey married?
Did Marcus Garvey have any children?
It also addresses some of the most obscure questions rarely answered with depth or accuracy:
Who was Bag O’ Wire?
What was the connection between Leonard Howell and Marcus Garvey?
What was the “Garvey Must Go” campaign?
Each response is clear, respectful, and historically sound. Whether you’re teaching in a classroom, homeschooling your child, preparing a sermon, or seeking deeper understanding, Marcus Garvey GPT provides accurate guidance grounded in truth.
This tool serves as a companion. It offers cultural clarity where there has been confusion. It stands firm where too many resources retreat.
Why I Created Marcus Garvey GPT
From Bag O’ Wire to Du Bois, Garvey faced resistance on every side. There were traitors in the street, rivals in the press, and critics in elite institutions. That resistance reveals something essential. Leading a global Black movement requires courage and clarity. Garvey had both. And so must we.
For too long, the story of Marcus Garvey has been told in fragments. Some focus only on the Black Star Line. Others highlight legal troubles or personal rivalries. But Garvey’s true legacy is larger, deeper, and more enduring. His ideas reshaped the global conversation about race, power, identity, and purpose.
I created this tool to share the whole picture. Our children and communities deserve to learn from Garvey without distortion. The stakes are high. When we teach Garvey honestly, we teach history that shapes futures.
The Garvey Classroom: Where the Work Lives
The Garvey Classroom is the digital home for the work I’ve developed over the past twenty years. It offers culturally rooted tools that build confidence, literacy, and historical understanding.
The platform includes free lesson plans, vocabulary resources, SEL-aligned materials, and now Marcus Garvey GPT. Every resource is designed to center Black voices, affirm identity, and support real learning across age levels and learning styles.
If you are an educator building a curriculum, a parent teaching from home, or a community leader working with youth, you will find practical support and inspiration here. You can also subscribe to the newsletter for early access to new releases, behind-the-scenes updates, and personal reflections grounded in Garvey’s teachings.
Unstoppable You: What’s Next
This launch is part of a larger vision for transformative learning. My new book, Unstoppable You, builds on this work by introducing young readers to Black heroes who lived with purpose and remained true to themselves.
Each chapter focuses on a guiding principle—belief, courage, integrity, and creativity—and pairs it with the story of a cultural giant, such as Marcus Garvey, Bob Marley, Shirley Chisholm, Stevie Wonder, or Thomas Sankara. The book blends biography, affirmation, and creative reflection to help young people build inner strength and self-awareness.
Unstoppable You is deeply aligned with the values behind Marcus Garvey GPT. It affirms cultural pride, personal purpose, and a clear understanding of legacy. If you would like to receive sample chapters, educator guides, or classroom posters, subscribe to The Garvey Classroom Newsletter.
Final Word
Marcus Garvey GPT was created to tell the truth about Garvey’s legacy. It reflects the questions our communities have been asking for generations and offers answers that stand on solid ground.
This work continues the tradition of self-reliance and mental emancipation that Garvey championed. It is a tool for teachers, a guide for learners, and a spark for anyone ready to reclaim what was taken.
“With confidence, you have won before you have started.” (The Philosophy and Opinions of Marcus Garvey, Vol. 1)
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Updates on new resources like Marcus Garvey GPT
Reflections on Garvey’s legacy and liberatory education
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