Historians studied Garvey the man instead of the UNIA masses he led

Evidence

In this way the UNIA became known as “the Garvey movement.” This has always implied or bespoken the presence of autocratic authority and demagoguery. As principal spokesman and symbol of the UNIA, Garvey became the object of study rather than the masses of people involved in making the organization. Robert Hill, Tony Martin, and Theodore Vincent are three historians who have recently begun to correct that fault. — Cedric J. Robinson, Black Marxism_ The Making of the Black…, 1011