by the older African-American elite but supported by the mass of ordinary African-Americans, was GarveyÆs way to marshal the new African-American insurgency to provide the opportunity and recognition that had been denied to him and others like him. Initial enthusiasm and success were deceptive. Although the launching of the Black Star line had been predicated upon the growth of an African-American working class, Garvey still believed that progress was created by men like himself who used the African-American economic surplus to create modern enterprises, which he saw as the engine of racial progress.
However, the sharp recession of 1920-1921 revealed that GarveyÆs enterprise depended directly on working-class progress. The ordinary supporters deserted the UNIA and the Black Star line en masse, showing that most African-American workers relied upon the larger outside world, not upon racial association, to provide work, the basis of their pride.
The promise of Garveyism, supported by ideologies genera
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