Rastafari Movement in The United States - The Black Star Line

The Black Star Line

Marcus Garvey’s most famous initiative of black societal reform came from the institution of the Black Star Line. Created as an off shoot of the Negro Factories Corporation, and designed to correlate with the Back to Africa movement, the Black Star Line was announced on June 23, of 1919. The Black Star Line was created as a shipping company that would link black communities in America, Jamaica, Canada, Central America, and Africa. Ideally, the Black Star Line would transport black labored goods, including raw materials and manufactured items, to black consumers across the globe.

To purchase the company’s first ship, as well as to get the shipping line to sea, Garvey had to raise $500,000, which he did though the sale of stocks to only blacks. This economic enterprise was so important to the black community, that over 15,000 spectators came to see the S.S. Fredrick Douglass take sail for its first trip to Jamaica. Unfortunately, the company eventually sunk in 1922, with net losses estimated to be over $1,000,000. But the Black Star Line still had profound effects on America, giving blacks the opportunity to invest in stock was new to the country, and thus gave them a modernized way of investing their money. Again, it proved that blacks could act as successful business men and contribute economically to America. The fact that the Black Star Line was an independent black movement showed that blacks were capable of organizing international businesses.

The social and cultural results of the Black Star Line were unheard of in the 1920s, and consequently presented blacks with more economic and social opportunities than ever before.