CaribWorldNews, BRONX, NY, Fri. Aug. 14, 2009: A cross-section of an area in a Caribbean-populated neighborhood in the Bronx, NY, is set to be renamed after Jamaican-born, national hero, Marcus Mosiah Garvey, Jr.

The four corners of Gun Hill Road and White Plains Road in the Bronx will be renamed the `Marcus Garvey Square` next weekend, City Councilman Larry Seabrook revealed Thursday.

The councilman and chairman of the Civil Rights Committee in the New York City Council, said he will host elected officials and foreign dignitaries at the street renaming on Saturday, August 22nd

 `I worked with my colleagues in the City Council to rename the four corners of Gun Hill Road and White Plains Road to `Marcus Garvey Square` because not only is Marcus Garvey a Jamaican national hero, he is an African-American hero; he was also an accomplished entrepreneur, journalist and publisher who came to this country and founded a movement that empowered all people of African heritage,` Seabrook said yesterday. `His impact on the progress of Africans, African Americans and all Pan-Africans in the Diaspora is phenomenal and we must honor his legacy.`
 
Dr. Julius Garvey, son of the late Marcus Garvey, is set to deliver the keynote address while Jamaican Consul General, the Honorable Geneive Brown Metzger; the Jamaica Progressive League; and the Jamaica Ex-Soldiers Association NY, Inc. will also participate in this historic special event. 

 `I am looking forward to congregating with the community as we celebrate the life of this great man. Coming together as a people and honoring his life`s work is the highest tribute we can pay.` added Councilman Seabrook.

The street renaming will come some five days after Garvey`s birthday. The Universal Negro Improvement Association and African Communities League founder  was born on August 17, 1887 and was a publisher, journalist, entrepreneur, Black Nationalist, Pan-Africanist, and orator.  Garvey was found guilty of using the mail service to defraud and on June 23, 1923, he was sentenced to five years in prison. He initially spent three months in the Tombs Jail awaiting approval of bail. While on bail, he continued to maintain his innocence, travel, speak and organize the UNIA.

After numerous attempts at appeal were unsuccessful, he was taken into custody and began serving his sentence at the Atlanta Federal Penitentiary on February 8, 1925. Two days later, he penned his well known `First Message to the Negroes of the World From Atlanta Prison.`

Garvey`s sentence was eventually commuted by President Calvin Coolidge. Upon his release in November 1927, Garvey was deported via New Orleans to Jamaica.

He died on June 10, 1940 after two strokes. Because of travel conditions during World War II, he was interred at Kensal Green Cemetery in London. In 1964, his remains were exhumed and taken to Jamaica. On 15 November 1964, the government of Jamaica, having proclaimed him Jamaica`s first national hero, re-interred him at a shrine in National Heroes Park. Rastafarians consider Garvey a religious prophet, and sometimes even the reincarnation of Saint John the Baptist.