I think there's a reasonable chance that he was both a charlatan and an important civil rights leader. As for whether he was a charlatin, he was certainly very self-centered and egotistic, which was most clearly shown by his desire to be King of 400 million Africans and their descendants (which, according to Robert Bagnall, was more that existed in the whole world at the time). He certainly had no trouble asking for help (e.g. the forms in his newspapers allowing readers to donate to his Black Star line), or in making enemies. The financial failure of the Black Star Line, particularly after receiving donations from readers to strengthen the business, also supports the view that he was a charlatan (although there is a chance that the FBI was involved in sabotaging the line). However, there is little doubt in my mind that he was an important civil rights leader. The fact that he had around 80,000 followers, compared to a much smaller number for the NAACP, shows that his ideas of racial segregation and empowerment for African-Americans resonated strongly. The fact that the FBI went to the trouble to use their first-ever African-American operative to spy on him suggests that they thought they movement to be influential.
I think there's a reasonable chance that he was both a charlatan and an important civil rights leader. As for whether he was a charlatin, he was certainly very self-centered and egotistic, which was most clearly shown by his desire to be King of 400 million Africans and their descendants (which, according to Robert Bagnall, was more that existed in the whole world at the time). He certainly had no trouble asking for help (e.g. the forms in his newspapers allowing readers to donate to his Black Star line), or in making enemies. The financial failure of the Black Star Line, particularly after receiving donations from readers to strengthen the business, also supports the view that he was a charlatan (although there is a chance that the FBI was involved in sabotaging the line).
ReplyDeleteHowever, there is little doubt in my mind that he was an important civil rights leader. The fact that he had around 80,000 followers, compared to a much smaller number for the NAACP, shows that his ideas of racial segregation and empowerment for African-Americans resonated strongly. The fact that the FBI went to the trouble to use their first-ever African-American operative to spy on him suggests that they thought they movement to be influential.