Marcus Garvey’s son dies at 90 after battle with Alzheimer’s

Marcus Jacques Garvey Jr., the eldest son of Jamaica’s first national hero and Pan-African activist Marcus Mosiah Garvey, has died. He was 90.

How Marcus Jacques Garvey Jr passed away

Garvey Jr reportedly died Dec. 8 in Wellington, Florida, after a battle with Alzheimer’s disease, according to The Jamaica Observer.

His legacy

Garvey, an electrical engineer, physicist, and mathematician, spent much of his life touring and lecturing across the Caribbean, Africa, Europe, and North America.

He followed in his father’s footsteps serving as president of the United Negro Improvement Association, which his father founded decades ago.

The senior Garvey, who died in 1940, was a Black nationalist who sought to unify people of African descent worldwide.

Speaking with New York’s Caribnews, Garvey’s widow Jean said, “the departure of Marcus Jr, whom I had been married to for over 30 years, will leave a void that cannot be filled, and he will be greatly missed by numerous family, friends, and colleagues from all over the world, in many places where he had left indelible footprints.”

Garvey Jr is survived by:

• Jean, younger brother Dr. Julius Garvey
• sons Colin and Kyle-Sekou
• stepdaughter Michelle Morris
• four grandchildren.