Universal Negro Improvement Association (The new Georgia Encyclopedia - History & Archeology) The Universal Negro Improvement Association (UNIA) had at least thirty-four divisions in Georgia during the early to mid-1920s. Black Georgians read its newspaper, the Negro World, and contributed generously to many UNIA causes. The UNIA's Jamaican founder, Marcus Garvey, had a significant following in the South, particularly in rural areas among tenant farmers and Marcus Garvey sharecroppers, for his programs of economic independence, racial separatism, and African redemption. His ideas also found strong support in urban areas with large black populations, in the Caribbean, and in Africa. Oscar C. Kelly of Dawson and C. L. Halton of Baxley were early organizers for Garvey's group in Georgia. In 1920 both black men attended the UNIA's first international convention, held in Harlem in New York City, and signed the "Declaration of Rights of the Negro Peoples of the World," which was composed at that seminal meeting. The UNIA's Leader of American Negroes, the Reverend J. W. H. Eason of North Carolina, organized several areas in the southernmost part of Georgia during 1921, with the help of Brunswick's F. W. Ware, the designated state organizer. Black clergymen played an important role in promoting and organizing UNIA divisions in Georgia. Brunswick hosted one of the largest divisions in the state; its membership had grown to 600 by the beginning of 1921. Georgia UNIA divisions formed in Adel, Alma, Atlanta, Baker County, Baxley, Brunswick, Camilla, Center Hill (Colquitt County), Charity Grove (Worth County), Clyatville, Columbus, Coverdale, Damascus, Decatur, Fitzgerald, Gardi, Haylow, Howell, Jesup, Kimbrough (Webster County), Limerick, Moultrie, Oakfield, Patterson, Pelham, Pooler, Powellton (Worth County), Ray City, Savannah, Shingler, Sylvester, Ty Ty, and Waycross. Southwest Georgia, the heart of the state's Black Belt, held the highest concentration of organizations promoting the ideals of Garveyism. Worth County contained five divisions, the most of any Georgia county. The Reverend Eason drew a crowd of 10,000 for a UNIA rally outside of Pelham in May 1922. Garvey first visited Georgia in March 1917 to raise money for a UNIA-sponsored school for industrial education in Jamaica. UNIA FlyerBy the time of his second appearance, Garvey had vastly expanded his plans and organization to include stock sales in the black-owned Black Star Steamship Line, a vast program of economic uplift, the promotion of racial pride and separatism, and the wresting of Africa from the control of white imperialist nations. The most salient of these goals to blacks in rural Georgia were the ideas of racial separatism and the redemption of Africa. Other important visits to Atlanta during Garvey's career included a highly controversial meeting with the Ku Klux Klan's acting imperial wizard, Edward Young Clarke, in 1922. Garvey described the private meeting in detail to an audience of confused supporters in Harlem. The text of this address was later transcribed in the Negro World. According to Garvey, both leaders agreed that sexual relations between the races and miscegenation, or the mixing of the races, were repugnant. Garvey sought Clarke's approval of black men's efforts to prevent such relationships, even if it required using force against whites. This uncorroborated explanation won over most southern UNIA supporters but permanently alienated most of America's black leaders of the day. A few years later, Garvey spent almost three years in the Atlanta Federal Penitentiary after a conviction for mail fraud. In 1927 his five-year sentence was commuted by U.S. president Calvin Coolidge, and he was deported to Jamaica. The UNIA in Georgia faded after his departure, but the ideals of Garveyism, such as pride in blackness and a tendency to rely on self-defense rather than legal protection, persisted. Cynicism about white leadership for black organizations also influenced later strategies for the human rights struggle that blacks faced in subsequent decades. Garvey moved to London, England, in 1935 and died there on June 10, 1940. He is buried in the National Heroes Park in Kingston, Jamaica. Suggested Reading Mary G. Rolinson, "The Garvey Movement in the Rural South, 1920-1927" (Ph.D. diss., Georgia State University, 2002). Mary G. Rolinson, "The Universal Negro Improvement Association in Georgia: Southern Strongholds of Garveyism," in Georgia in Black and White: Explorations in the Race Relations of a Southern State, 1865-1950, ed. John C. Inscoe (Athens: University of Georgia Press, 1994), 202-24. |
99 years old Garveyite |
Division 421 Declaration: We the members of the Dr. Julius Nyerere/CBPM Universal Negro Improvement Association - African Communities League (UNIA-ACL) Division 421 operates proudly from the Leadership of the 9th Successor of the Honorable Marcus Mosiah Garvey and the 10th President General of the UNIA-ACL, the Honorable Senghor Jawara Baye. We, the members of the Dr. Julius Nyerere/CBPM UNIA-ACL Division 421 of Atlanta, Georgia, is hosting the 55th International UNIA-ACL Convention, the first UNIA-ACL Convention to be held in the State of Georgia, in honor of the tens of thousands of Georgians who have been part of the UNIA-ACL from the 1920's until this time. Division 421 pays tribute to our Ancestors who walked on the soils of Georgia to pave the way for Division 421 to be an official Division of the Global Government of the Universal Negro Improvement Association and African Communities League in the 21st Century. One God, One Aim, One Destiny! |
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Declaration of UNIA-ACL Division 421, Atlanta, GA |
Sponsored by the UNIA-ACL Global Government |
CBPM Index: |
UNIA-ACL Global Government: UNIA-ACL Home Page African Redemption Fund Afrikan Struggle Inher. Ambass. Bilal Sunni Ali Ambass. Runoko Rashidi B's Special Event Pl. Baye's Services Black Cross Nurses Garvey's Voice Magazine Harambee Radio Intl Expatriate Movement ithings2 Collard Greens Kujichagulia Citi. Cer. Legal Defense Comm. Legal Defense Fund LDF Survey Garvey's Exoneration Marcus Garvey Speaks Movementunes P.A.I.N.S Peppy Promotions Shea Essentials UNIA-ACL Legacy UNIA-ACL Phil Div 121 UNIA-ACL Clev Div 133 UNIA-ACL Phil Div 178 UNIA-ACL Belize Div 301 UNIA-ACL V.I. Div 307 UNIA-ACL St L Div 313 UNIA-ACL Det Div 317 UNIA-ACL DC Div 330 UNIA-ACL DC Div 332 UNIA-ACL NC Div 369 UNIA-ACL Chi Div 401 UNIA-ACL Det Div 407 UNIA-ACL ATL Div 421 UNIA-ACL LA Div 423 UNIA-ACL Jamaica 427 UNIA-ACL Chi Div 429 UNIA-ACL Brklyn Div 431 UNIA-ACL Queen Div 432 UNIA-ACL LA Div 451 UNIA-ACL Rich Div 456 UNIA-ACL Bal Div 460 UNIA-ACL NO Div 466 UNIA-ACL Brklyn Div 999 UNIA-ACL Links Universal Cooperative |
For more Information: Contact the Dr. Julius Nyerere/CBPM UNIA-ACL Division 421: 678-827-2276 |
Get Listed in the 55th International UNIA-ACL Convention Listing. $10 Non Food Listings - $20 Food Listing. Complete Following: |
10th President General of the UNIA-ACL the Honorable Senghor Baye |