In his own time he was known as a redeemer and a "Black Moses."

These days, Marcus Garvey, the leader of the largest organized mass movement in black history, is best remembered as a champion of the back-to-Africa movement and progenitor of the modern "black is beautiful" ideal. Garvey and the Universal Negro Improvement Association, the or-ganization he founded, formed a critical link in black America's centuries-long struggle for freedom, justice and equality.

But despite his pivotal role, Marcus Garvey remains largely overlooked by those who follow in his footsteps.

"Garvey continues to be an understudied and underappreciated figure among 20th-century black leaders," said Richard Yarborough, director of UCLA's Center for African American Studies. And that, among other factors, makes UCLA's ambitious Marcus Garvey Universal Negro Improvement Association Papers Project, the only one of its kind at any university in the country, "quite simply one of the most important such archival initiatives in black studies today," said Yarborough.

"He and his United Negro Improvement Association provide us with a unique opportunity to engage in such critical issues as the nature of black mass political movements, the roots of modern black nationalism, black emigration in the 20th century and the impact of West Indian intellectuals on black culture in the United States," Yarborough explained.

The director of the project, which has been housed at UCLA since 1977 and is currently at the James S. Coleman African Studies Center, is history Professor Robert Hill. He was also executive consultant on the new PBS documentary, "Marcus Garvey: Look for Me in the Whirlwind," which premiered Feb. 12. In recent years, Hill, a leading authority on Garvey, has received invitations to speak at institutions throughout the United States, the Caribbean, England and Africa.

Hill's interest in Garvey began in high school, when he wrote a prize-winning essay about him. He later began meeting dozens of Garvey followers in his native country, Jamaica. Hill went on to become an internationally recognized authority on the life of Garvey and the movement he founded.

Garvey was born in 1887 in St. Ann's Bay, Jamaica. He left school at 14, worked as a printer, joined Jamaican nationalist organizations, toured Central America and spent time in London. He arrived in America at the dawn of the "New Negro" era. Black discontent, punctuated by East St. Louis' bloody race riots in 1917 and intensified by postwar disillusionment, peaked in 1919 when 40 race riots swept across the nation.

A gifted speaker, Garvey preached economic and cultural independence to create a new gospel of racial pride. In 1919, the Universal Negro Improvement Association incorporated the Black Star Line to foster black trade and transport passengers among America, the Caribbean and Africa and to serve as a symbol of black enterprise.

By 1920, the association had hundreds of chapters worldwide. Over the next few years, however, the movement began to unravel due to internal dissension, opposition from black critics and government harassment.

Garvey's message of taking back Africa for blacks and regaining political control resonated with many people, but it was also a source of conflict with African-American leaders, Hill explained.

In 1922, the federal government indicted Garvey on mail-fraud charges. Although his sentence was commuted, he was deported back to Jamaica in 1927. His final move was to London, where he died in obscurity in 1940.

"The big question people ask is how did he do it?" Hill said. "How did Garvey pull off this extraordinary success? Did his movement fail, or did he?"

Although historians are still seeking answers, there is no doubt that "Garvey's message forms an intrinsic part of American blacks' struggle for freedom," Hill said. "He's become a real icon of 20th-century black thought."