George Schuyler

George Samuel Schuyler
George S. Schuyler photo taken by Carl Van Vechten, 1941
Born	(1895-02-25)February 25, 1895 Providence, Rhode Island, U.S.
Died	August 31, 1977(1977-08-31) (aged 82) New York City, U.S.

George Samuel Schuyler (/ˈskaɪlər/; February 25, 1895 – August 31, 1977) was an African-American author, journalist, and social commentator known for his conservativism after he had supported socialism.

George Samuel Schuyler was born in Providence, Rhode Island, to George Francis (a chef) and Eliza Jane (Fischer) Schuyler. Schuyler's paternal great-grandfather was believed to be a black soldier working for Philip Schuyler, whose surname the soldier adopted. Schuyler's maternal great-grandmother was a Malagasy servant who married a ship captain from Saxe-Coburg in Bavaria. Schuyler's father died when he was young. George spent his early years in Syracuse, New York, where his mother moved their family after she remarried. In 1912, Schuyler, at the age of 17, enlisted in the U.S. Army and was promoted to the rank of First Lieutenant, serving in Seattle and Hawaii. He went AWOL after a Greek immigrant, who was tasked to shine his shoes, refused to do so because of Schuyler's skin color. After turning himself in, Schuyler was convicted by a military court and sentenced to five years in prison. He was released after nine months as a model prisoner.

After his discharge, Schuyler moved to New York City, where he worked as a handyman, doing odd jobs. During this period, he read many books which sparked his interest in socialism. He lived for a period in the Phyllis Wheatley Hotel, run by black nationalist Marcus Garvey's Universal Negro Improvement Association (UNIA) and attended UNIA meetings. Schuyler dissented from Garvey's philosophy and began writing about his perspectives.