Marcus Garvey's Black Star Line Begins Sailing

Incorporated June 27, 1919, the Black Star Line Shipping Company—financed by selling $5 shares to Black investors worldwide through UNIA networks and the Negro World newspaper—purchased four steamships and carried cargo between the U.S. and Caribbean. The corporation represented the largest Black-owned business enterprise of its era before collapsing by April 1922 amid mismanagement and federal infiltration orchestrated by J. Edgar Hoover.