RASTAFARIAN attorney-at-law and Garveyite Miguel Lorne says the recent renaming of the Mountain View-based Jacques Road Community Centre, in honour of late National Hero and Pan-Africanist Marcus Garvey’s second wife Amy Jacques Garvey, is poised to give rise to a string of lucrative heritage tourism businesses.

According to Lorne, the renaming of the community centre which took place on December 31, 2022 provides an opportunity for residents to come together and begin the process of empowering the community, which has received negative publicity over many years due to crime and violence in and around the space.

By painting images of Jacques Garvey and her husband on the walls of the community centre, it is the hope of Lorne, community leaders and Garveyites that the profile of the community and the lives of the residents will be transformed to greatness. The murals were sponsored by the United States-based Rudolph Prendergast Foundation. The artwork was done by artist Jimmy Stewart.

Jacques Garvey, who was said to have owned acres of land on Jacques Road and surrounding areas, was born in on December 31, 1895 and died July 25, 1973. She was a journalist, and an activist.

Further, Lorne said if Motown Records in the United States can conduct tours which attract people from all over the world, Jacques can do the same.

“Once, I went to Detroit which was where Berry Gordy started Motown Records. He started the music industry in his little house, in his basement and backyard. Signed to Motown was The Jackson Five, Smokey Robinson and The Miracles, Diana Ross and the Supremes, the Temptations. All those great black groups started at Motown. You can see the piano that Michael Jackson used to play and there are pictures on the wall, and so on. When I was there, I saw about 10 buses lined up on the road. For the entire day, people from all over the world and America went inside that place to see that museum where so many great people started.

“Everybody paid, like, US$10. Imagine if you add up all that US$10. It could be enough to help a community and to keep the thing going. We have to learn, brothers and sisters, that we have a gold mine here. There is no other place in the world where Amy Jacques Garvey comes from and owns. Anybody studying Garveyism must come here. Anybody trying to understand the Universal Negro Improvement Association (UNIA) and all those people who regard the Honourable Marcus Garvey as one of the greatest black men to have walked the earth will come here. That will empower the community. It means we will have more shops out here, selling ital food, natural drinks and ice-cream and people will come and buy it. The more the community is empowered, the less problems we will have and the more proud we will be,” Lorne said, sharing that when he travels to different parts of the world, people revere Marcus Garvey; others see him as a deity.

According to Lorne, once the residents of Jacques Road start to promote the legacy of Jacques Garvey, the community will eventually begin to produce mostly scholars.

“You will be able to enrich those children that they can write books about Amy Jacques Garvey and Marcus Garvey. When people come into the community they will be able to buy books and memorabilia. There must be some of you in the community who can draw and carve. I bet you that when we get going now and people see the building paint up, you are going to see how much of them come and try to take it over from us. We have to make sure that does not happen.”

According to YouTube vlogger and philanthropist Claude “Big Stone” Sinclair, who was encouraged by Jacques Road stalwart Frank “Snatcher” Marshal to help make the renaming of the centre a reality, “I said Snatcher, renaming it to the Amy Jacques Garvey Community Centre would bring a spirit of love and bring a universal look. She is revered right around the world. She is the one responsible for putting the philosophy and opinions of Marcus Garvey together. She was a beautiful woman.”