GARVEY IN THE WHIRLWIND.

Byline: David Kronke TV Critic

When I was matriculating through the public school system, Marcus Garvey was not a man whose name came up in civics classes - we were lucky to hear Martin Luther King Jr.'s name - which is bewildering, because he's the sort of larger-than-life character who makes history interesting. ``Marcus Garvey: Look for Me in the Whirlwind,'' a PBS ``American Experience'' documentary, essays the fractious and sometimes inspirational life of a black-empowerment activist whose reach exceeded his grasp.

Born in Jamaica, Garvey began his Universal Negro Improvement Association there in 1914, but left the island with the movement in debt. He came to America in 1916 and was swept up in this country's civil rights movement. Although his first public lecture was a disaster (he fell off the stage at one point), he soon became a charismatic leader with declarations such as, ``I am the equal of any white man. I want you to feel the same way. We have come now to the turning point of the Negro where we have changed from the old, cringing weakling and transformed into full-grown men, demanding our portion as men.''

For a while, the UNIA was a sensation - members were issued pride-instilling uniforms, and even the government, in the personage of J. Edgar Hoover (who inevitably referred to him as a ``notorious Negro agitator'') began pursuing him. He began economic programs giving blacks autonomy, none so ambitious or as ill-fated as the Black Star Steamship Corp., which was undermined by government infiltrators (Garvey was responsible for the government hiring its first black federal agent to investigate him).

Garvey was as visionary as he was megalomaniacal: While instilling black pride, he sought to create a segregated black nation and even named himself ``provisional President of Africa.'' But his propensity for surrounding himself more with yes-men than competent men (he once physically attacked a follower who questioned one of his decisions) led to his almost comically inept but spectacularly sad downfall.

``Look for Me in the Whirlwind,'' which premiered last month at the Sundance Film Festival, interviews historians, family members (his son ruefully recalls, ``I never saw him laugh'') and people who were swept up in Garvey's movement, and mixes it with rare archival footage and songs from the UNIA movement. It's a smart, enlightening portrait of a man who saw huge things for his race but was brought down by his own - and others' - pettiness.

``MARCUS GARVEY: LOOK FOR ME IN THE WHIRLWIND''

What: ``American Experience'' documentary on the black-empowerment activist.

Where: KCET.

When: 9 tonight.

Our rating: Three stars

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The life of black-empowerment activist Marcus Garvey is examined in an ``American Experience'' documentary tonight on KCET.