Marcus Garvey : The Universal Negro Improvement Association ( Unia )

This book illustrates how demeaning it is for blacks to beg for basic rights that inherently belong to them. This book encouraged him to meet with black scholars whom he named the "talented tenth." In 1905, he began to meet with these scholars to discuss civil rights issues (Lewis, 1). These meeting were known as the Niagara Movement (Lewis, 1). After five years of meeting the NAACP was formed and Dubois was Director of Publicity and Research (Lewis, 1).

During the 19th and 20th century African Americans faced Discrimination in the United States. Three African Americans took roles of leadership and began trying to uplift the lives of blacks in society. Those who took control of this movement were Booker T. Washington, Marcus Garvey and W.E.B Dubois. These activists wanted the same result and implemented different techniques to follow their similar hopes for blacks in America. Each of these leaders has allowed America to develop in extensive ways for several years and those yet to come. Alternate pathways were taken by each leader to resolve the overall issue of racism. These issues include things such as not having the right to vote,own property and prevent lynchings. This paper will argue that had Garvey's theory of the new negro and Dubois’ ideas of education been implemented, racism in America would have been reduced because the allocation of education would allow for their to become a new negro. The application of Marcus Garvey's theory including thoughts of W.E.B Dubois’ on racism would have brought white power to an end.

Slavery was abolished after the Civil War, but the Negro race still was not accepted as equals into American society. To attain a better understanding of the events and struggles faced during this period, one must take a look at its' literature. James Weldon Johnson does an excellent job of vividly depicting an accurate portrait of the adversities faced before the Civil Rights Movement by the black community in his novel “The Autobiography of an Ex-Colored Man.” One does not only read this book, but instead one takes a journey alongside a burdened mulatto man as he struggles to claim one race as his own.

Soon after World War I, Garvey concluded that the anger that engulfed many Black communities after the war could be used as a catalyst to end both imperialism in Africa and discrimination in the United States. He combined the economic nationalist ideas of Booker T. Washington with various Pan-Africanist idealists of the time. Garvey’s goals were modern and urban. He wanted to end imperialist rule and create modern societies in Africa. He formed black communities on three continents with his newspaper the “Negro World ,” and in 1919 he established the Black Star Line, an international shipping company to provided transportation and encourage trade among the Blacks in Africa and Blacks in the United States. In the same year he founded the Negro Factories Corporation to establish such

Reconstruction failed for African Americans. By the 1890’s all optimism that came as a result of the Constitutional rights guaranteed to them by the 13th, 14th, and 15th amendments was gone. Their reality, particularly for those in the South, was one of lynchings, Jim Crowe laws, and voting restrictions. They faced discrimination, segregation, limited educational opportunities, and a tenant farming system that only slightly differed from slavery. In the early twentieth century, visionaries such as Booker T. Washington, W.E.B. DuBois, and Marcus Garvey recognized the urgent need for change. These great leaders were in agreement that action was required to uplift the African American race. However, their philosophies on how to approach it were vastly different.

The struggle for equality and the battle to have one’s suppressed voice be heard is prevalent throughout the history of the United States. The Native Americans, women, and even Catholics have all encountered discrimination and belittlement in one shape or form, which eventually urged individuals within those groups to rise up and demand equal opportunity. As the United States began to shift away from slavery, one of the most deep rooted, controversial dilemmas aroused- what do black people need to do in order to gain civil rights both economically and socially? Booker T. Washington’s “Atlanta Exposition Address” and W.E.B. Du Bois's “The Soul of Black Folks” were pieces of writings influenced by the puzzle that black people were left to solve. Booker T. Washington and W.E.B Du Bois had contrasting ideas, but they both contributed a piece to the puzzle in hopes of solving the never ending mind game.

According to Matthew Mason’s academic journal “A Missed Opportunity? The Founding, Postcolonial Realities, And The Abolition Of Slavery,” African Americans have been enslaved in America since the early 17th century.” The first slaves were brought by the Dutch to the colony of Jamestown, Virginia to help harvest tobacco. The institution of slavery was practiced in America through the 17th, 18th and 19th centuries. Slavery helped to build the economic foundation of the United States. When the Emancipation Proclamation was passed by Abraham Lincoln in the year 1893 it changed the lives of over three million slaves who were reclassified as “slave” to “free.” Former slaves struggled to find their place within this new world of freedom which they had not yet known before. However, African Americans still faced problems such as discrimination, lack of opportunity, stereotyping, and mortality. Booker T. Washington and W. E. B. Du Bois both confronted these issues. These two men advocated for the advancement of Black people within society, however in this essay I argue that Du Bois was more effective than Booker T. Washington because of his idea that African Americans should have the same possibility to achieve the same rights as any other race in the United States.

According to Marcus Garvey, the “Negro’s greatest enemy” were white people and politicians. Essentially, politicians, of every race, were blocking his efforts. Garvey communicated that there was no solution to this problem, unless black people created their own country. This would have given them economical and social freedom. Since God was their inspiration, it was always intended that everyone was free, and not was not to be enslaved by others. Garvey thought that no one should ever feel superior, when it came to race. Although, Garvey did not outright convey who the “enemy” was, it can be interpreted that white people were the enemy.

The 1920’s were a time of change for African Americans. They were beginning to retain a sense of pride in their background and culture, were becoming more independent socially and economically, and were becoming more militant. Part of this was because of the Great Migration, in which a proliferation of African Americans moved from the Southern states to the Northern states, and the excessive levels of racism and prejudice they faced during the process. African Americans were really starting to make their voices and identities prevalent, especially through movements like the Harlem Renaissance and Marcus Garvey’s Universal Negro Improvement Association (UNIA). This mentality of independence and militance that African Americans adopted which is represented through the actions of Ossian Sweet is what makes up the 1920s cultural construct of the “New Negro” which allowed me to understand the realness and effectiveness of cultural constructs.

Nonetheless, Garvey’s vision for Negroes was that we can do anything that we set our minds to regardless of the circumstances that we could face. Garvey writes, “ Let no man pull you down, let no man destroy your ambition, because man is but your companion, your equal; man is your brother; he is not your lord; he is not your sovereign master”. (p.1003) Garvey’s vision to the Negroes was that man is not the one you live for, God is the one who will be their with you to the end and he will never leave you.

This idea has taken on many different forms over the past century and a half, and its discourse has evolved alongside the major works of prominent figures like W.E.B. Du Bois, Martin Delany, and Marcus Garvey. A common theme among these thinkers is the notion of historicizing the development of black culture relative to diasporic movements in the preceding centuries. However, they differ significantly in their visions and aspirations for the culture at large, as well as in their interpretations of how peoples of African descent should behave with respect to the dominant (primarily white) societies in which they live and function. In particular, earlier scholars like Du Bois tended to “sustain their faith in a partnership with white allies, wagering that [their] commitments to ‘civilization building’ ... would hasten the day when they and their race would be respected as equal partners” (Ewing 16). In contrast, Garvey, a contemporary of Locke, supported a radical agenda for African independence, and a mass migration to bring peoples of African descent back to Africa (Ewing 76).

During the presentation “Paying Homage to Black/African-American Military History”, the first subject was with regards of Crispus Attucks a hero of the Revolutionary War. While Dr. Warren Miller elaborate about Crispus Attucks protesting against British tariffs by dock workers, he then transitioned to another marvel figure in the late 19th century named Marcus Garvey a spokesman for black self reliance. During the time of his presentation, Garvey was the founder and president of the Universal Negro Improvement Association. In addition, Garvey was associated with the “black to Africa” movement after WWⅠ. Subsequently, during that topic I recall another meaningful event in history with reference to “W.E.B. Du Bois, The Returning Soldier (1919)”

All of them shared a unified desire to shed the image of servitude and inferiority of the "Old Negro" and achieve a new image of pride and dignity for the revamped “New Negro”.

In many ways it could be argued that Marcus Garvey was the most significant African American civil rights leader of this time because of his role in tackling the social issues African American’s faced. He aimed to improve the lives of African Americans by encouraging them to take control of their own affairs and education. His role surrounding this issue is illustrated by his founding of the UNIA. This Universal Negro Improvement Association was an organisation dedicated to racial pride, economic self sufficiency and the formation of an independent black nation in Africa. Through this and the magazine the ‘Negro World’ he urged African Americans to be proud of their race, and argued “a people without the knowledge of their past history, origin and culture is like a tree without roots”. It has been said that through Garvey’s dedication to social improvement for his race he managed to capture the imagination of many blacks for whom the American Dream was a dirty joke.

During this week, I found learning about Marcus Garvey to be interesting. He urged African Americans to rediscover their heritage of Africa and take pride in what they had done. I could use the FIU Libraries to answer my questions from Week 5 by researching the topics more. I learned that the Boxers hunted down and killed Chinese Christians and missionaries because they blamed them for their poor standard of living. The Boxers saw the missionaries and what they believed as evil. I also learned that violence was used in the Homestead Lockout because the workers were upset and they felt this was the way to make a statement. They didn’t want the Pinkertons to make it to the factory. Finding some of the answers for the Investigation Worksheet for