Weston, George A. and Maudelle

Reverend George A. Weston was born in Green Bay, Antigua in 1885. After dropping out of school at an early age, he worked as a carpenter for a few years. He travelled to Dominica and attempted to stow away on a boat bound for the United States before gaining employment as a sailor. Working on a trading ship allowed Weston to travel throughout the West Indies, to Europe, Canada, and the United States. From 1910 until 1919, he held various jobs at sea and on land in Canada and the United States. In Boston, Massachusetts he enrolled in night classes in order to receive his high school degree. It was in these classes that he learned about Marcus Garvey's movement, the United Negro Improvement Association (UNIA).

In 1919 Weston became a member of the Boston chapter of the UNIA. He continued to work as a seaman and travelled to St. Thomas where he spread Garvey's philosophies and helped people there to organize a UNIA branch. In the same year, Weston was declared a Local Preacher of the Methodist Episcopal Church in Boston, and was elected First Chaplain of Boston's UNIA. In the early 1920s he established the Trinity Mission as a branch of the African Methodist Episcopal Church and became increasingly involved with the UNIA. By 1924 Weston was a recognized leader in Garvey's movement. He was appointed Vice President of the New York City Division of the UNIA, the organization's largest branch which at its height claimed to have thirty-five thousand members. He travelled to cities such as Cleveland and Pittsburgh on assignments to reestablish order among UNIA factions that developed in these cities.

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