The Organization of American States (OAS) a Washington-based hemispheric organization, has re-named its Hall of Culture in honor of Jamaican national hero, Marcus Mosiah Garvey, a according to a Jamaica government statement issued in New York on Friday.
Located on the first floor of the historic main building of the OAS headquarters, in downtown Washington, D.C., the Marcus Garvey Hall of Culture, is a venue for major cultural events.
In addition to the unveiling, an exhibition of books, papers and artifacts entitled “Marcus Garvey: National Hero of Jamaica,” was mounted by the OAS Columbus Memorial Library.
Miguel Insulza, OAS secretary general, said it was appropriate that Garvey be recognized for his activism in the United States, the Caribbean and Latin America.
“This great Jamaican travelled throughout Central and South America, where he observed the difficult conditions under which his people lived and worked,” he said.
“He was not only perceived to be a trouble-maker, he was a trouble-maker demanding an improvement in living conditions and human rights for citizens all over the Americas,” he added.
Insulza said the OAS is still working on the convention against discrimination, hoping to complete it shortly.
“While this convention speaks against all forms of discrimination, it was conceived as a convention against racial discrimination,” he said.
Insulza challenged the audience to use Garvey’s bust, donated to the OAS by the Jamaican government in the early 1980s and displayed in the OAS’ Hall of Heroes, as well as the renamed Hall of Culture, as” symbols of equality and justice in the Americas.”
Anthony Johnson, Jamaica’s permanent representative to the OAS, said that the ceremony in honor of Garvey was “significant for Jamaica and the Caribbean,” the government statement said.
He said that Garvey’s marches through Harlem, Kingston and Havana, as well as his exhibitions of paintings and sculptures, were “among his arsenal of tools to build up self-esteem among black people, and to use that self-esteem to promote commercial and industrial success.”
Garvey’s son, Dr Julius Garvey, recalled his father as a 20th Century leader, who dedicated his life to educating and uniting African people across the globe.
“As we advance into the 21st Century, we must work together and develop and grow as one united people,” he said.
