3.18 The Universal Negro Improvement Association

Marcus Garvey founded the Universal Negro Improvement Association (UNIA) in Jamaica in 1914 and moved its headquarters to Harlem a few years later. The UNIA aimed to unite all people of African descent. It became the largest pan-African movement in African American history, with branches and members across the US, the Caribbean, Latin America and Africa. Pan-Africanism is the idea that people of African descent everywhere share common interests and should unite.

The UNIA's newspaper, the Negro World, cofounded by Garvey's first wife, Amy Ashwood, circulated in more than 40 countries; some colonial governments banned it.

Garvey's Back-to-Africa movement popularized the phrase 'Africa for the Africans'. He called for Africa to be freed from European colonial rule and for people of African descent to build a strong, independent Black nation there.

In 1919 the UNIA founded a steamship company, the Black Star Line, to promote trade among Black communities and eventually carry African Americans to Africa. Thousands of supporters bought shares. The company had serious financial and management problems and failed within a few years, and Garvey was convicted of mail fraud in connection with it and later deported to Jamaica.

After years of racial violence and discrimination (3.6), Garvey inspired millions of African Americans to embrace their shared African heritage with pride. He championed industrial, political and educational advancement and self-determination through separate Black institutions, such as businesses, newspapers and the UNIA itself. UNIA parades in Harlem, with members in uniforms, showed Black dignity and strength. The required 1924 photographs show Garvey at his desk and in Harlem.

Garvey's 1921 address to the UNIA's second convention, a required source, set out the goal of liberating Black people from colonialism across the diaspora.

Garvey had critics. W.E.B. Du Bois and other Black leaders opposed his separatism and questioned his business practices, and the federal government investigated him. But his influence was enormous. His framework became a model for later Black nationalist movements, including the Nation of Islam (4.9), and inspired African independence leaders like Kwame Nkrumah of Ghana (4.2). The UNIA's red, black and green flag is still used as a symbol of Black solidarity and freedom worldwide.