Speaking on behalf of the women, Victoria W. Turner, a delegate from St. Louis, presented a list of five recommendations designed to improve the status of women in the organization. First, she asked that a woman be appointed the “head of the Black Cross Nurses and Motor Corps and have absolute control over those women.” Second, Turner asked that women in the UNIA be given “more recognition by being placed on every committee” in order to be better informed about the inner workings of the organization. Third, she recommended having women leaders placed “in the important offices and field work of the association.” Relatedly, the fourth recommendation called for women in the UNIA to be “given initiative positions, so that they may formulate constructive plans to elevate our women.” Finally, Turner made a specific request that Henrietta Vinton Davis, founder of the Black Cross Nurses, “be empowered to formulate plans . . . so that the Negro women all over the world can function without restriction from the men.”93
FIGURE 3. The UNIA’s African Motor Corps marching in Harlem in 1924. George Rinhart/Corbis via Getty Images.
Several other UNIA women in the room chimed in, offering their support for Turner’s recommendations. Clara Morgan, a Black Cross Nurse from Chicago, chided male Garveyites in the room for ignoring women at the convention. Women, she insisted, “were not willing to sit idly by and let the men take all the glory while they gave the advice.” Mrs. M. M. Scott, an activist from Detroit, expressed similar sentiments, pointing out that “whenever women began to function in the organization the men presumed to dictate to them.”94 Curiously, UNIA women made these demands while Garvey was physically absent from the room, perhaps a strategic move on their part.95 When Garvey returned, he dismissed these women’s concerns, suggesting that the resolutions were unnecessary since the UNIA’s constitution already recognized women as leaders. Even though he insisted that he “didn’t see any reasons for the resolutions,” Garvey agreed to accept a modified version of resolutions four and five. To that effect, he suggested that rather than giving women “initiative positions . . . to formulate constructive plans to elevate [UNIA] women,” as Turner had requested, they would instead be “encouraged to formulate [such] plans.” Moreover, while he claimed to accept the premise that women should “function without restriction from the men,” Garvey insisted on amending the fifth resolution to make it clear that there would be no “severance of the women from the men in the work of the organization.”96
In the end, Garveyite women’s actions at the 1922 convention did not precipitate any immediate or monumental changes in the UNIA. However, their actions did demonstrate the rhetoric and tactics they were cultivating as proto-feminists. Their resolutions also exposed the hierarchical structure of the organization, which failed to provide an equal place for women. Although Garvey claimed that the UNIA “was [an] organization that recognized women,” he did not acknowledge that women held unequal positions to their male counterparts. In effect, the women’s resolutions shed light on the core of the issue—opportunities for a handful of women to hold positions of prominence could not remedy the patriarchal leadership structure of the UNIA, in which women lacked full autonomy and equality. Espousing a proto-feminist politics, UNIA women openly expressed their growing sense of dissatisfaction in a male-dominated and masculinist organization and refused to sit quietly as Garvey and other men reinforced traditional gender constructions that limited leadership opportunities for women.
The Significance of the Women’s Page
When Amy Jacques Garvey introduced “Our Women and What They Think,” the women’s page of the Negro World, in February 1924, she dramatically expanded rank-and-file women’s influence, providing a public outlet from which to articulate proto-feminist views without direct male censorship.97 From its first issue, the women’s page of the Negro World openly challenged many of Garvey’s views on women as well as the core principles of the UNIA. One of the featured articles, “The New Woman,” written by Garveyite Saydee E. Parham, a law student residing in New York, challenged traditional notions of gender roles. A frequent writer for “Our Women,” Parham discussed the process of evolution by which all species experience growth and maturation. Along these lines, she implied that women’s roles and opportunities needed to expand in an ever-changing society: “From the brow-beaten, dominated cave woman, cowering in fear at the mercy of the brutal mate . . . from the safely cloistered woman reared like a clinging vine, destitute of all initiative and independence . . . we find her at last rising to the pinnacle of power and glory.”98 Blanche Hall reinforced these sentiments in her article, “Woman’s Greatest Influence Is Socially,” published in October 1924. “Show me a good, honest, noble man of character,” Hall wrote, “and I will show you a good mother or wife behind him.” Addressing the important responsibilities that women held in society and emphasizing men’s dependence on women, Hall reminded readers that the UNIA could not advance without women’s assistance. “There is much that the woman can do to make this organization a success,” she carefully noted.99
Similarly, Carrie Mero Leadett, another frequent writer for “Our Women,” demanded change within the UNIA along the lines of gender equality. A resident of New York, Leadett worked as a clerk at the UNIA headquarters in Harlem and for the organization’s shipping company during the 1920s.100 In her 1924 article, “The Negro Girl of Today Has Become a Follower—Future Success Rests with Her Parents and Home Environment,” Leadett challenged young black women to build better futures for themselves through innovation rather than imitation. She went on to argue that although black women should aim for the same successes as women of other races, they needed to become leaders and not followers.101 Florence Bruce reinforced this position in her 1924 article, “The Great Work of the Negro Woman Today.” Bruce, an active member of the UNIA, was the wife of John E. Bruce, who served as a contributing editor of the Negro World from 1921 until his death in 1924. Citing women’s impact in society since antiquity, Mrs. Bruce contended that women’s influence would help the advancement of the UNIA and the black community. “No race has succeeded without a good and strong womanhood,” she wrote, “and none ever will.”102
Importantly, the debut of “Our Women” coincided with Garvey’s legal troubles and increasing turbulence in the UNIA. A year prior to the introduction of “Our Women,” Garvey had been convicted on charges of mail fraud, allegedly for using the U.S. mail to promote and sell stock for Black Star Line ships he had yet to purchase.103 In February 1925, after his appeals were denied, he began serving a five-year term at the Atlanta Federal Penitentiary. During this period, Amy Jacques Garvey became increasingly involved in organizational affairs, serving as de facto leader in her husband’s absence. With Garvey unable to wield full control from his Atlanta prison cell, Jacques Garvey used the pages of “Our Women” to articulate her proto-feminist views, openly denouncing what she described as the “antiquated beliefs” of men in the UNIA.104
FIGURE 4. Amy Jacques Garvey in 1940. Afro-American, August 17, 1940, 2.
With each successive issue of “Our Women,” Jacques Garvey became increasingly more outspoken and critical of black men in the organization. Her article, “Black Women’s Resolve for 1926,” published during Garvey’s incarceration, is a striking example. Without mincing any words, Jacques Garvey insisted that women in the UNIA were determined to have equal opportunities and were unwilling to allow male Garveyites to hinder their progress. “If the United States Congress can open their doors to white women,” she wrote, “we serve notice on our men that Negro women will demand equal opportunity to fill any position in the Universal Negro Improvement Association or anywhere else without discrimination because of sex.” “We are very sorry if this hurts your old-fashioned tyrannical feelings,” she continued, “[but] we not only make the demand . . . we intend to enforce it.”105 Mirroring some of the women’s earlier grievances at the 1922 convention, Jacques Garvey’s statements underscore UNIA women’s absolute frustration with male Garveyites who thwarted t
heir efforts to obtain full gender equality within the organization.
Although women in the UNIA openly resisted male supremacy in the organization, this does not mean that all Garveyite women held this conviction or that these women did not at times accommodate these views. Indeed, UNIA women’s views frequently reflected the dominant masculinist discourse of the period even as they fought to break free from traditional Victorian values. These inconsistencies were ever present in the articles of “Our Women.”106 For example, Amelia Sayers, an active member of the UNIA who worked as Jacques Garvey’s personal assistant during the mid-1920s, wrote several articles for “Our Women” in which she accommodated Garvey’s patriarchal stance. In her article, “Man Is the Brain, Woman Is the Heart,” Sayers affirmed traditional gender roles and demonstrated her belief in the essentializing differences between men and women. Reducing women to emotional beings, Sayers asserted, “The man is the brain, but the woman is the heart of humanity; he its judgment, she its feelings; he its strength, she its grace, adornment and comfort.” “Though the man may direct the intellect,” she continued, “the woman cultivates the feelings.” Sayers’s statements diminished women’s intelligence and wisdom, which she classified as exclusively male attributes.
Similarly, another Garveyite, identified only as Vera, reinforced sexist views on the pages of “Our Women.” Vera’s 1924 article, “The Ideal Wife,” offered a succinct description of the perfect wife: “The woman who winds herself into the rugged recesses of her husband’s nature, and supports and comforts him in adversity.” Echoing Sayers’s essentialist comments, Vera also employed the phrases “softer sex,” and “ornament[s] of man” to describe black women.107 Vera’s statements, along with Sayers’s views, reinforced Garvey’s own metaphor of women as “nature’s purest emblem” and certainly undermined UNIA women’s earlier rejection of traditional gender norms.108
Significantly, these shifting views exhibit the contradictory and paradoxical nature of UNIA women’s proto-feminist views and praxis. Women pioneers in the Garvey movement often wavered between feminist and nationalist ideals, articulating a critique of black patriarchy while endorsing traditionally conservative views on gender and sexuality. On one hand, UNIA women embraced the “natural” roles of mother and wife and were often complicit in reinforcing masculinist discourses.109 On the other hand, they attempted to subvert dominant views on gender and vigorously fought to expand women’s leadership opportunities in the UNIA and in the community at large.
Within the confines of the UNIA’s patriarchal structure, “Our Women” provided a unique space in which women, especially members of the rank-and-file, could publicly articulate their views on a range of issues.110 On the women’s page of the newspaper, Garveyite women endorsed anticolonial politics, calling for the “redemption of Africa” and advocating the unity of Africans on the continent and throughout the diaspora. Emphasizing the significance of race solidarity and political collaborations among people of African descent, Garveyite Eva Aldred-Brooks insisted that “race is stronger than politics” and praised the “darker races of the world [who] are determined to do their share in making the world safe for democracy.”111 She was not alone in her internationalist political vision. Writing in a 1924 editorial, Harlem-based Garveyite Saydee Parham assured readers that the liberation of Africa was imminent. Utilizing the rhetoric of Ethiopianism, race redemption ideas derived from biblical verses, Parham wrote, “The day is not far hence when Ethiopia shall stretch forth her hands unto God. The day is not far hence when Africa shall rise in all her glory and splendor and give out to the world a nation highly respected throughout its limits because of her governmental, industrial, commercial and cultural achievements.” “When Africa shall take her seat in the great League of Nations of the world,” Parham continued, “then we shall have everlasting peace, the brotherhood of man and the fatherhood of God.”112 Her comments underscored the anticolonial vision of Garveyite women writers and their belief in political self-determination as a right for peoples of African descent. Expressing similar sentiments, Mrs. Louise J. Edwards, a Garveyite activist residing in Coraopolis, Pennsylvania, called for the “rehabilitation of Africa and the restoration of the ancient glories of Ethiopia,” describing it as the “ideal which the New Negro has fixed as his goal.”113
Reflecting their commitment to racial pride, Garveyite women also wrote articles in “Our Women” featuring key black women historical figures, including famed poet Phillis Wheatley and women’s rights activist Frances Ellen Watkins Harper.114 “There is too much ignorance among us as to what our men and women . . . have accomplished,” Jacques Garvey explained in one editorial.115 “Our children, our young men and women become white hero worshippers; they see white; they imitate white,” she continued.116 To remedy the marginalization, exclusion, and distorted images of black men and women in popular culture and mainstream mass media, Jacques Garvey and other UNIA women used the women’s page of the Negro World to highlight the work and accomplishments of people of African descent. Henrietta Vinton Davis, for example, wrote a series of articles in the newspaper on the historical contributions of black women abolitionists Harriet Tubman and Sojourner Truth. In another article, Garveyite Carrie Mero Leadett affirmed black beauty, encouraging black women to embrace their dark, natural hair. “Today if Mary Jones, a white girl, comes to school with her hair bobbed—tomorrow, many of our Negro girls [will] follow suit whether it is becoming to their features or not,” Leadett explained. “Oh, if more of our girls would only ‘be natural,’ ” Leadett added.117 Ironically, although the women’s page of the Negro World included articles that emphasized race pride and natural black beauty, it also included advertisements for skin lightening and hair-straightening products.
Despite its various contradictions, “Our Women and What They Think,” which ran from 1924 to 1927, was especially significant. While Jacques Garvey offered no explanation for her decision to discontinue the page, it was likely related to her inability to secure consistent articles. In the months leading up to its demise, she frequently pleaded with UNIA women to send in articles for the page. The internal tensions in the organization, on account of Garvey’s imprisonment, also contributed to the declining interest in the women’s page and the newspaper in general. These organizational challenges, combined with Jacques Garvey’s physical illness during this period, hastened the end of the women’s page only three years after its debut.118 Although it was short-lived, “Our Women” serves as one of the few surviving chronicles of rank-and-file women in the UNIA, unveiling their views, conflicts, and, above all, their efforts to foster change in the Garvey movement. In so doing, the women’s page of the Negro World, perhaps more than the women’s auxiliaries, propelled UNIA women into greater political visibility and influence.
Laura Adorker Kofey’s Influence
Beyond the women’s page of the Negro World, UNIA women found other public ways to challenge male patriarchy and articulate their commitment to black nationalist politics. The experiences of Laura Adorker Kofey, a UNIA organizer who rose to prominence during the mid-1920s, provide a striking example of how some women transgressed the bounds that were established within the patriarchal organization. Described by Amy Jacques Garvey as a “dynamic personality [and] quite the organizer,” Kofey became a visible leader in the Garvey movement not long after Garvey’s 1925 imprisonment, as more space opened for women in his absence.119 During the mid-1920s, Kofey toured the United States and Central America, speaking at several UNIA divisions on Africa and African culture and displaying African art and artifacts. Through Kofey’s charisma and zeal, thousands joined the UNIA during the short time that she served as an organizer, despite the suspicions surrounding Garvey’s legal troubles. From 1926 to 1927, she traveled throughout the U.S. South, establishing new UNIA divisions in Louisiana, Alabama, and Florida. In Tampa alone, more than three hundred men and women joined the UNIA under Kofey’s direction during the summer of 1927.120
Much of
Kofey’s experiences leading up to her involvement in the UNIA remains a mystery.121 According to Kofey, she was an African princess, the daughter of “King Knesiphi,” a paramount chief on the Gold Coast. “I am a representative from the Gold Coast of West Africa,” Kofey explained in the Mission Crusader, “seeking the welcome of Africa’s children everywhere.”122 In the absence of verifiable genealogy records, it remains uncertain whether Kofey was, as she claimed, from the Gold Coast or from the U.S. South, as several of her contemporaries suggested. However, Kofey certainly had strong ties to West Africa, including the Gold Coast and Sierra Leone. Several accounts confirm that she resided in West Africa, where she pastored a church in Asofa and served as a missionary in Kumasi during the early 1920s.123
Similar to UNIA leader Madame Maymie Leona Turpeau De Mena, who hid her southern roots and instead portrayed herself as an Afro-Nicaraguan immigrant, Kofey may have intentionally altered aspects of her early life to bolster her political work. If, in fact, Kofey’s claims of Ghanaian birth lacked credibility, she can be credited for strategically crafting a public image that served to further her political goals. Portraying herself as an African princess certainly would have boosted her credibility in the eyes of many UNIA followers who embraced Garvey’s Pan-Africanist message of global black unity and his emphasis on African heritage.
Kofey’s position of prominence, however, was short-lived. By the end of 1927, her reputation became severely tarnished when a group of Garveyites grew suspicious of her immediate success. Sometime around August 1927, rumors began to circulate that Kofey was using her newfound success in UNIA circles to raise funds for her own purposes—to purchase, among other things, her own set of ships to relocate African Americans to West Africa.124 As questions began to emerge about Kofey’s intentions, several Garveyite leaders began to investigate Kofey’s claims to African royal ancestry. In September 1927, Joseph A. Craigen, the executive secretary of the UNIA’s Detroit division, openly denounced Kofey as a fraud, insisting that she was originally from Georgia. According to Craigen and several others, Kofey was born Laura Champion in Athens, Georgia; lived in Detroit from 1920 to 1924; and had traveled to London and West Africa as a Red Cross nurse. In a telegram sent to Garvey that month, Craigen made the UNIA leader aware of Kofey’s alleged misrepresentations and warned, “If she is not advised to discontinue her activities in the association serious trouble will ensue which will entail serious complications.”125 Shortly thereafter, in February 1928, Garvey denounced Kofey in the Negro World newspaper, insisting, “This woman is a fake and has no authority from me to speak to the Universal Negro Improvement Association.”126
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