June 10, 1940: The Man Who Built Black Enterprise and Lost It

In January 2025, a United States president signed a posthumous pardon for a man who had been dead for eighty-five years.That act of official acknowledgment is where this story begins, before traveling back to a London flat in the winter of 1940, where Marcus Garvey lay paralyzed by stroke, reading his own premature obituary in a newspaper.Garvey had built the largest Black mass organization in American history, founded the Black Star Line shipping company capitalized by working people at five dollars a share, and been systematically targeted by J. Edgar Hoover before his first ship had left the dock. He was convicted of mail fraud, deported, and died largely forgotten on June 10, 1940. The business story of what he built, why it failed, and what was done to it is one of the most instructive in American history.From bsnsHistory, the daily podcast about the moments when business quietly reshaped the world.Written and hosted by Ron Trucks. Research and editing by Rodney Russ. Sound design by Angela Cahoy. Music by Cody Martin and Soundstripe.For more daily business stories, visit www.bsnsDAILYpodcasts.com