Event puts Garvey’s ideas to practical use
Marcus Garvey wanted blacks to come together as a community.
By SEAN BARRON
VINDICATOR CORRESPONDENT
YOUNGSTOWN — Joseph Thomas has lived many places and is dismayed by what he sees as lack of progress for many black people.
He also would like to see blacks and others more accurately exposed to their history.
“It’s about time we start learning to put America in its proper perspective,” when it comes to teaching history, said Thomas, of Youngstown, an artist who had several of his paintings on hand during Saturday’s African Cultural Festival at the Mill Creek Community Center, 496 Glenwood Ave., on the city’s South Side.
It’s also time for TV and other media to stop putting out mainly negative images of blacks, added Thomas, whose paintings included a portrait of jazz trumpeter Dizzy Gillespie.
The event, organized by the Marcus Garvey Association and the Buckeye Review, was symbolic of Garvey’s key ideas, which included having blacks come together as a community and operating with self-sufficiency. Garvey, who was a social activist and journalist in the early 20th century, also espoused blacks’ treating one another with respect, event organizers said.
The festival seemed to have that and more, as people of all ages visited a variety of vendors who sold T-shirts, soap, African paintings and artifacts and numerous other items. Activities included arts and crafts, face-painting, music, food, dancing, drill teams and someone dressed as a clown.
Vendors
Among the vendors were Caroline Vellar and Rosa Garcia, both of whom work for Home Interior Mix Media, a company Garcia started from her North Side home. The two specialize in designing and selling jewelry, paintings, dishes and other merchandise.
Vellar and Garcia raffled off a set of ebony statues they made, and the proceeds went toward buying book bags and school supplies for some area children, they said.
The high incidence of black-on-black crime in the city, combined with drugs as well as the incarceration rate and dropout rate in the city schools, makes it more imperative that black people come together as a community, said Pamela Collins, a founder of the 24-member Marcus Garvey Association.
“We’re in a state of emergency,” Collins said, adding that she wants to see a return to when many in the black community looked out for one another and took responsibility for their actions.
Television also is a big problem, in part because of negative images of blacks being portrayed, Collins said. It’s also important to “get back to reading and a family structure,” she continued.
Among Garvey’s teachings were encouraging black people to pull together their resources and form their own businesses. Self-reliance and respecting others also were core principles he taught, noted Dr. Nathaniel Chism, owner of the African Holistic Healing Center on Youngstown’s North Side.
Two of Garvey’s main contributions were his ability to unite people economically and encourage black pride, said Charles Penny, the association’s president. It’s a myth to think that Garvey formed the United Negro Improvement Association mainly to persuade blacks to return to Africa, he pointed out.