MARCUS GARVEY ON THE U.N.I.A

Carnegie Hall, 23 February 1923.

"I am here tonight as the President-General of the Universal Negro Improvement Association to explain the aims and objects of this organization and to defend its principles. Over five years ago the Universal Negro Improvement Association placed itself before the world as the movement through which the new and rising Negro would give expression of his feelings. This association adopts an attitude not of hostility to other races and peoples of the world, but an attitude of self-respect of manhood rights on behalf of 400,000,000 Negroes of the world.

In advocating the principles of this association we find we have been very much misunderstood and very much misrepresented by men from within our own race, as well as others from without. Any reform movement that seeks to bring about changes for the benefit of humanity is bound to be misrepresented by those who have always taken it upon themselves to administer to, and to lead the unfortunate--to lead and to direct those who may be placed under temporary disadvantages. It has been so in all other movements whether it is social or political; hence those of us in the Universal Negro Improvement Association who lead do not feel in any way embarrassed about this misrepresentation, about this misunderstanding as far as the Aims and Objects of the Universal Negro Improvement Association go. But those who probably would have taken kindly notice of this great movement have been led to believe that this movement seeks not to develop the good within the race, but to give expression to that which is most destructive and most harmful to society and to government.

I am here tonight to deny that misrepresentation. I am here to remove the misunderstanding that has been created in the minds of the millions of people throughout the world in their relationship to the Universal Negro Improvement Association."

WHAT THE U.N.I.A. STANDS FOR

"The Universal Negro Improvement Association stands for the bigger brotherhood; the Universal Negro Improvement Association stands for human rights, not only for Negroes, but for all races. The Universal Negro Improvement Association believes in the rights of not only the black race, but.. [of all] race[s].

The Universal Negro Improvement Association believes that the white man has as much right to be considered, the yellow man has as much right to be considered, the brown man has as much right to be considered as well as the black man of Africa. In view of the fact that the black man of Africa has contributed as much to the world as the white man of Europe, and the brown and yellow man of Asia, we of the Universal Negro Improvement Association demand that the white, yellow and brown races give to the black man his place in the civilization of the world. We ask for nothing more than the tights of 400,000,000 Negroes. We are not seeking, as I said before, to destroy or disrupt the society or the government of other races, but we are determined that 400,000,000 of us shall unite ourselves to free our motherland from the grasp of the invader. We of the Universal Negro Improvement Association are determined to unite 400,000,000 Negroes for their own industrial, political, social and religious emancipation.

We of the Universal Negro Improvement Association are determined to unite the 400,000,000 Negroes of the world to give expression to their own feeling; we are determined to unite the 400,000,000 Negroes of the world for the purpose of building a civilization of their own. And in that desire, we desire to bring together the 15,000,000 of the United States, the 180,000,000 in the West Indies and Central and South America, and the 200,000,000 in Africa. We are looking toward political freedom on the continent of Africa, the land of our fathers.

The Universal Negro Improvement Association is not seeking to build up another government within the bounds or borders of the United States of America. The Universal Negro Improvement Association is not seeking to disrupt any organized system of government, but the association is determined to bring Negroes together for the building up of a nation of their own. And why? Because we have been forced to it. We have been forced to it throughout the world, not only in America, not only in Europe, not only in the British Empire, but where so ever the black man happens to find himself, he has been forced to do for himself."

Printed in the Negro World on March 3rd, 1923.

GARVEY SPEAKS Vol.1