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Historical Highway MarkersThe Garvey Movement in Newport NewsW-117
Marcus Garvey founded the Universal Negro Improvement Association (UNIA) in 1914 and launched its sixth division, or branch, in Newport News in 1918. The UNIA, which expanded to hundreds of divisions internationally, promoted Pan-Africanism, Black economic independence, and racial pride and separatism. The branch in Newport News, where Garvey’s message resonated with maritime and industrial laborers, was among the largest. Garvey spoke near here at the Dixie Theatre and at First Baptist Church in Newport News in 1919 to raise funds for the UNIA’s Black Star Line, a steamship company. Audience members were among the earliest and most enthusiastic investors. The UNIA was in decline by the 1930s.
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References/Bibliographic Citation: H. Vinton Plummer, “The Universal Negro Improvement Association As I See It—Then—Now,” The Spokesman (May 1927). “Marcus Garvey (August 17, 1887 - June 10, 1940),” National Archives https://www.archives.gov/research/african-americans/individuals/marcus-garvey David Van Leeuwen, “Marcus Garvey and the Universal Negro Improvement Association,” National Humanities Center https://nationalhumanitiescenter.org/tserve/twenty/tkeyinfo/garvey.htm “Marcus Garvey: An Overview,” UCLA African Studies Center https://www.international.ucla.edu/asc/mgpp/introduction Mary G. Rolinson, Grassroots Garveyism: The Universal Negro Improvement Association in the Rural South, 1920-1927 (Chapel Hill: University of North Carolina Press, 2007). Claudrena N. Harold, “The Rise and Fall of the Garvey Movement in the Urban South, 1918-1942,” Ph.D. diss., University of Notre Dame, 2004. |