Black Star Line

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The Black Star Line, deriving its name from the White Star Line, was a shipping line organized by the Universal Negro Improvement Association and African Communities League as a show of economic empowerment and an effort to decrease reliance on white capitalists for the transportation of goods and services. Due to Marcus Garvey's indictment on mail-fraud charges in February 1922, in connection with the sale of stock in the Black Star Line, the company was eventually dissolved two months later following Garvey's deportation from the United States. The affair severely weakened Garvey and his movement and was used by colonial officials to justify claims that Garvey used the UNIA to obtain money fraudulently from Africans. This later prompted the resignation of Ernest Ikoli, the Lagos UNIA division secretary.