June 11, 1911: Marcus Garvey founded the Universal Negro Improvement Association and African Communities’ League (UNIA-ACL), a Pan-African organization based on his vision of revolutionary nationalism. He declared its mission: “To establish a Universal Confraternity among the race” and “work for better conditions among Negroes everywhere.” In 1916, he emigrated from Jamaica to the U.S. and went to work building the organization in New York. As historian Tony Martin writes, “By 1921 Garvey was unquestionably the leader of the largest organization of its type in the history of the race. He had succeeded as no one else had in gathering up the worldwide feelings of dismay at the loss of independence and defiance against colonialism and oppression, which characterized the ‘New Negro’ spirit of the age. As of August 1, 1921, the UNIA contained 418 chartered divisions (up from 95 a year earlier) plus 422 not yet chartered. There were in addition 19 chapters (none the previous year), making a total of 859 branches.”
Citations: Tony Martin, Race First: The Ideological and Organizational Struggles of Marcus Garvey and the Universal Negro Improvement Association (Westport, CT: Greenwood Press, 1976), 7, 9, 13, https://archive.org/details/racefirstideolog0000mart; Marcus Garvey, “Aims and Objects of Movement for Solution of Negro Problem, 1924,” National Humanities Center, 2, https://nationalhumanitiescenter.org/pds/maai3/segregation/text1/marcusgarvey.pdf; “Marcus Garvey, 1887-1940,” photograph (location unknown, August 5, 1924), https://www.loc.gov/item/2003653533/.
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