Dissemination of the Lessons

Garvey's School of African Philosophy was advertised in the Black Man throughout 1938, and in February 1939 Garvey announced that several more students had completed the lessons. In May 1939 a second session of the school was taught by Garvey at the Beaumont Crescent headquarters in London, and in June he released a new list of graduates, most of whom were from the United States. African graduates included Mr. J. O. Nwanolue, Onitsha, Nigeria; Mr. D. S. Musoke, Kampala, Uganda; and Mr. H. Illitintro, Cape Province, South Africa. African interest in the school did not go un-noticed by colonial authorities. On 22 June 1939 an intelligence report was sent to the chief secretary in Nairobi, Kenya, by the provincial commissioner of Nyanza province, reporting that collections were being taken up in North Kavirondo, Kenya, to pay for Garvey's correspondence course.

In the years immediately following Garvey's death the correspondence lessons from the School of African Philosophy continued to be circulated. Charles James of Philadelphia and James Stewart of Cleveland, both graduates of the original 1937 session in Toronto, continued to offer the course to applicants by mail. Later, William Sherrill offered the course to students through advertisements in the Philadelphia Garvey's Voice in the 1950s, and Clifford Barnes, commissioner of Louisiana, served as examiner for those students who subscribed to the correspondence course through Stewart's wing of the movement in the late 1940s.