School of African Philosophy

Garvey's long-standing interest in establishing a school to train individuals in his racial philosophy was realized a decade after his deportation from the United States, when he launched the School of African Philosophy in Toronto. Garvey reported to the readers of the December 1937 Black Man:

The School of African Philosophy has come into existence after twenty-three years of the Association's life for the purpose of preparing and directing the leaders who are to create and maintain the great institution that has been founded and carried on during a time of intensified propaganda work. The philosophy of the school embodies the most exhaustive outlines of the manner in which the Negro should be trained to project a civilization of his own and to maintain it.

The first session of the school was held in September 1937, following the second regional conference of the American and Canadian branches of the UNIA in August. Garvey served as principal of the school and led the classes, which met daily, in day and evening sessions, from 1 to 23 September. Entrance was restricted to individuals with a high school education. Eleven students enrolled in the session, including four women and seven men, all from the northern or eastern United States or Canada. Ten of them passed the final examination and received appointments as UNIA regional commissioners.

Garvey described the course in African philosophy as including "a range of over forty-two subjects" and announced that an extensive correspondence course had been drawn up, open "only to Negroes." The course was available through mail order from UNIA headquarters at 2 Beaumont Crescent, West Kensington, London, for a fee of twenty-five dollars. According to a press release issued by Garvey from his London headquarters, the course "guarantees to prepare each man and woman for a useful career and sure success and prosperity."