Gerald and Ebony McCoy have four children, the oldest of which, Marcellus, was recently assigned a school project inspired by Black History Month. Marcellus had to report on five prominent African-Americans, and he certainly couldn't be faulted for choosing from among the likes Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., Frederick Douglass or Thurgood Marshall.Gerald suggested another name to his son: Marcus Garvey. Garvey founded the Universal Negro Improvement Association in 1914 and was an inspiration to Dr. King himself…facts the elder McCoy had learned during his own schoolwork as a young student in Oklahoma.
"I had to do a report on him and I didn't know who he was," said McCoy.