Discovery VII: TEI Interview with Professor Tony Martin

Discovery Series VII: TEI Exclusive Interview With Professor Tony Martin

Professor Tony Martin

Though threatened with physical violence, targeted by censors for career ruin and the victim of repeated attempts at character assassination, Professor Tony Martin has weathered the storm and is still standing, as one of the foremost Africana scholars to be found anywhere today.

Professor Martin is currently semi-retired, teaching at Wellesley College during the Spring and spending each Fall in Trinidad.

We are pleased to bring you a very insightful and instructional interview conducted with Professor Martin. He ook time out of his schedule to answer questions from the Truth Establishment Institute Research Staff.

Truth Establishment Institute (TEI): You are considered the pre-eminent scholar on the life and works of the Honorable Marcus Garvey. Those interested in studying his thoughts, formation of ideologies and activities often cite your works. What was the spark that lit the fire leading you to delve so deeply into understanding him?

Professor Tony Martin (TM): I discovered Garvey ca 1967 while a student in England. By then the Black Power movement had begun to influence us over there. I had heard Malcolm X speak at the London School of Economics in 1965. I met Stokely Carmichael/Kwame Ture when he visited in 1967. The West Indian Students Association at my university tried unsuccessfully to have Martin Luther King, Jr speak while he was in England. We hosted members of SNCC who were on a fundraising tour.

I was impressed by Garvey's success in building a movement based on ideas similar to those of the Black Power generation. I couldn't believe that I had grown up without ever hearing of him. It seemed that Garvey had invented the wheel and we, in our ignorance of him, were trying to reinvent it.

The book that I read (Black Moses),was the only one available at the time. It was under-researched and somewhat disparaging of Garvey and painted him as a buffoon. Still, Garvey's message could not be stifled. I asked myself the question that I repeated in the preface of my first book, Race First -- "What kind of a buffoon is this who builds the largest and most successful mass movement in our history?" My question led me toselect Garvey as my Ph.D. dissertation topic when I came to Michigan State University in 1969. Of course, Garvey was no buffoon. He was an inspired organizer with a fine grasp of history and politics and a well-honed intellect. He also had a superb mastery of the English language.

My dissertation (1973) was later published as Race First in 1976. I later wrote and compiled other works on Garvey which are now collected in the eight titles of The New Marcus Garvey Library, published by The Majority Press. Other volumes are in preparation.

Truth Establishment Institute (TEI): Since publication and release of your book The Jewish Onslaught, what have you been doing and are you still being pursued and harassed by those behind the onslaught?

Professor Tony Martin (TM): The Jewish Onslaught diverted my attention for a few years but I have now returned to expanding The New Marcus Garvey Library and other works. I have recently published two articles on Eric Williams, for example, and have others in the works.

Truth Establishment Institute (TEI): Over the years, The Anti-Defamation League of B’nai B'rith (ADL) has been very strident in their opposition to you. How did you survive their attack – fueled by their annual average budget of over 48 million dollars – with your reputation and position still in tact?

Professor Tony Martin (TM): I am not sure how I survived the ADL's attack. As you say, they have vast resources at their disposal. Throughout the onslaught I tried to stay on the path of truth. I knew that truth was on my side, so there was never any question of backing down. One does not back down from the truth.

Truth Establishment Institute (TEI): What are the dangers of allowing Black intellectuals and academic research from Black professors to be marginalized?

Professor Tony Martin (TM): Marginalization is a kind of death. The attempt to marginalize me has been intense, but I suppose that I have been more fortunate than most in that my academic reputation was already so strong that the onslaught could not quite demolish it. Several times in the past ten years the perpetrators of the onslaught have written scurrilous letters to prestigious journals that either published me or referred approvingly to my scholarship. The best antidotes to attempted marginalization are water tight scholarship and institutions (publishing houses, Africana Studies departments, community organizations, etc.) of support.

Truth Establishment Institute (TEI): At any time during your research and mission, have you ever felt like giving up in your battle for truth and historical accuracy?

Professor Tony Martin (TM): No.

Truth Establishment Institute (TEI): Do you have a person or an organization that you would consider your arch nemesis, or archenemy?

Professor Tony Martin (TM): I can't think of any single person or organization.

Truth Establishment Institute (TEI): Can you tell us more about your appearance as a witness at Ernst Zundel’s Internet Hearing before the Canadian Human Rights Tribunal?

Professor Tony Martin (TM): I was unaware of Zundel until his people asked me to appear as an expert witness for him. I read the materials they sent me from his website, including a pamphlet (I think the title was something like, "Did Six Million really Die?"which he had apparently republished, if I remember right. I stated in my brief to the tribunal that I had never studied the Jewish holocaust and had no basis for an opinion one way or another on the numbers involved. But the pamphlet seemed to me to fall within the normal range of scholarly revisionism. I pointed out that revisionism is at the very core of the historical profession and it seemed unwise to persecute people for differing historical analysis.

I was of course acutely aware of our own situation, where other historians have been whittling away with impunity at estimates of the numbers of victims of the Transatlantic slave trade. I was also mindful of the unprecedented announcement of the American Historical Association in the mid-1990s, that Jews were only marginally involved in the African slave trade.

This was at the behest of three influential Jewish members of the AHA. This tendency to decree historical interpretation from on high, rather than letting contending views compete in the marketplace of ideas I find very alarming.

Truth Establishment Institute (TEI): What can students, researchers, and others who are interested in establishing truth and getting the word out regarding misrepresented historical realities?

Professor Tony Martin (TM): They must be diligent students. They must work hard at exhausting sources before they publish conclusions.

Truth Establishment Institute (TEI): What are your future plans, and for those interested in assisting you, what is the best way to do so?

Professor Tony Martin (TM): I am now semi-retired. I plan to do a lot of writing, especially on Marcus Garvey. I suppose that reading my books is as good a means of support as any.

Truth Establishment Institute (TEI): Thank you.

TEI - P.O. BOX 308 - CHICAGO, ILLINOIS - 60690 - USA

The TEI Discovery Series is a collection of pedagogical writings designed to provide high school and college students opportunities for educational enhancement.

FACTUAL ANALYSIS · RESEARCH MATERIALS · BOOK REVIEWS · TRUTH OUTLETS
TEI PDF FILE LIBRARY · TEI HOME · ABOUT TEI · CONTACT TEI · SITE INDEX