Amy Ashwood
| Amy Ashwood Garvey | |
|---|---|
| Born |
Amy Ashwood 10 January 1897 Port Antonio, Jamaica |
| Died | 3 May 1969 (aged 72) Kingston, Jamaica |
| Known for | Activism, black nationalism, Pan-Africanism |
| Spouse(s) | Marcus Garvey (1919–22; divorced) |
| Parent(s) | Delbert Ashwood and Maudriana Thompson |
Amy Ashwood Garvey (10 January 1897 – 3 May 1969) was a Jamaican Pan-Africanist activist, director of the Black Star Line Steamship Corporation, and founded the Negro World newspaper. She was married to Marcus Garvey between 1919 and 1922.
Amy Ashwood was born in Port Antonio, Jamaica, on 10 January 1897, the only daughter of the three children of businessman Michael Delbert Ashwood and his wife, Maudriana Thompson. As a child, Amy was told by her grandmother that she was of Ashanti descent. Taken to Panama as an infant, she returned in 1904 to Jamaica, and attended the Westwood High School for Girls in Trelawny, where she met Marcus Garvey, with whom she founded the Universal Negro Improvement Association (UNIA) in 1914.The UNIA was the most influential anti-colonial organization in Jamaica up to 1938. Its legacy lies in giving women an opportunity to be leaders and influence in the public sphere. At the age of 17, while in UNIA, Amy Ashwood wrote romantic letters to Marcus, in which she said: "Our joint love for Africa and our concern for the welfare of our race urged us to immediate action." She organised a women's section of the UNIA, and in 1918, she moved to the United States, where she worked as Garvey's aide and as Secretary of the UNIA's New York City branch.
She met Marcus Garvey in 1914 and married on 25 December 1919, but the marriage quickly broke down, (there were accusations of infidelity on both sides) ending in divorce in 1922. There followed lawsuits and counter suits for annulment, divorce, alimony and bigamy. Garvey divorced Ashwood in Missouri in 1922 and quickly married Amy Jacques, Ashwood's former roommate and maid of honour. Marcus Garvey accused Ashwood of infidelity, theft, alcoholism and laziness. Amy Ashwood reportedly never accepted the divorce and contended to the end of her days that she was the "real" Mrs. Garvey. Amy Ashwood did, however, move on with her life, to become a pan-Africanist, politician, cultural feminist and feminist in the U.S., Jamaica and England.
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