Universal Negro Improvement Association

In 1918, in Liberty Hall in the Harlem district of New York City, Marcus Garvey created the U.S. headquarters of the Universal Negro Improvement Association (UNIA). Garvey, born in Jamaica and a world traveler before situating himself and his organization in the States, believed that as long as black people remained in a minority they would never gain freedom. He preached the merits of black people coming together to create their own nation. To promote his beliefs, he established the Negro World, a newspaper that attracted the attention and eventual membership of over eight million people at the height of his nationalist movement.

Garvey rejected all concepts of integration and in its place, he promoted self-sufficiency and racial pride among all black people of the world. Toward this end, he raised money and created a shipping line entirely owned and run by black people...