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The 'Efficient Womanhood'of the Universal Negro

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The 'Efficient Womanhood'of the Universal Negro THE ‘EFFICIENT WOMANHOOD’ OF THE UNIVERSAL NEGRO IMPROVEMENT ASSOCIATION: 1919-1930 By NATANYA DUNCAN A DISSERTATION PRESENTED TO THE GRADUATE SCHOOL OF THE UNIVERSITY OF FLORIDA IN PARTIAL FULFILLMENT OF THE REQUIREMENTS FOR THE DEGREE OF DOCTOR OF PHILOSOPHY UNIVERSITY OF FLORIDA 2009 1 © 2009 Natanya Duncan 2 To Ms. Alexandrina Anderson And in Honor of the life work of Dr. Whittington B. Johnson & Dr. Rosalyn Terborg-Penn 3 ACKNOWLEDGMENTS I would like to acknowledge Brian Ward for all his diligence and care in getting me through this process. With funding from the Florida Education Fund and the support of my committee, this has been a rewarding endeavor. 4 TABLE OF CONTENTS page ACKNOWLEDGMENTS ...............................................................................................................4 ABSTRACT .....................................................................................................................................7 CHAPTER 1 INTRODUCTION ....................................................................................................................8 Black Nationalism in the 1920s ..............................................................................................11 A Brief Assessment of Scholarship on African-American Female Activism ........................17 The Historiography of the UNIA & Marcus Garvey ..............................................................22 Women in the Historiography of the UNIA ...........................................................................26 Outline of the Dissertation ......................................................................................................37 2 MRS. AND MRS. GARVEY: THE TWO AMY GARVEYS ...............................................40 The Roles of Amy Garvey ......................................................................................................40 Author of a Legacy: Amy Jacques Garvey .............................................................................70 3 Henrietta Vinton Davis: A Lady for all occasions ..................................................................77 The Making of a Race Lady ...................................................................................................79 Protector and Defender of the UNIA ....................................................................................100 4 MARCHING FORWARD: THE UNIVERSAL AFRICAN BLACK CROSS NURSES ...125 Ready for Service .................................................................................................................125 Black Women & the History of Nursing in Brief .................................................................129 Credit for What We Do: The Black Cross Nurses ................................................................135 5 “FOR IT WAS NOT DONE IN THE CORNER”: PRINCESS LAURA ADORKOR KOFEY .................................................................................................................................161 Laura Adorkor Kofey: Preparations for Repatriation ...........................................................161 The Mysterious Warrior Mother of Africa ...........................................................................164 Laura Kofey’s Vision of Africa ............................................................................................172 Laura Kofey Persona Non Grata ...........................................................................................183 Laura Kofey’s Life and Lessons ...........................................................................................190 6 CONCLUSION .....................................................................................................................194 APPENDIX A HE SLEEPS IN FRANCE’S BOSOM .................................................................................201 5 B RULES AND REGULATIONS GOVERNING THE UNIVERSAL AFRICA BLACK CROSS NURSES .................................................................................................................203 C DEMANDS OF THE U.N.I.A AND A.C.L. WOMEN AT THE AUGUST, 1922 CONVENTION ....................................................................................................................208 D NAMES BLACK CROSS NURSES ....................................................................................209 E THE BLACK WOMAN .......................................................................................................213 LIST OF REFERENCES .............................................................................................................215 Primary Sources ....................................................................................................................215 Archives .........................................................................................................................215 Manuscript and Microfilm Collections .........................................................................217 Published Primary Sources ............................................................................................218 Newspapers ....................................................................................................................220 Phonograph Records ......................................................................................................221 Oral Histories .................................................................................................................221 Secondary Sources ................................................................................................................221 Books .............................................................................................................................221 Essays ............................................................................................................................224 Electronic Resources .....................................................................................................226 Dissertations ..................................................................................................................226 BIOGRAPHICAL SKETCH .......................................................................................................228 6 Abstract of Dissertation Presented to the Graduate School of the University of Florida in Partial Fulfillment of the Requirements for the Degree of Doctor of Philosophy THE ‘EFFICIENT WOMANHOOD’ OF THE UNIVERSAL NEGRO IMPROVEMENT ASSOCIATION: 1919-1930 By Natanya Duncan May 2009 Co-Chair: David Colburn Co-Chair: Brian Ward Major: 20th Century American History UNIA women defied prescribed notions of domestic duty; blurred the lines drawn for “true” women in the early 20th Century; derived their respectability through a practice of nationalist politics in public places resulting in an efficient womanhood that set the stage for what are now known as womanist consciousness and black feminist politics. While UNIA women helped set the stage for the development of the latter ideals and in varying ways demonstrated the virtues of the “Cult of True Womanhood” and “the politics of respectability,” their activism reached further than expressions of Victorian Motherhood and their endeavor to lift as they climbed meant leaving no person of African descent behind. At times their tactics seem to contradict their aims and the results of their efforts were not always immediately evident. Still, their all encompassing visionary approach to race progress reveals another root of the nascent Civil Rights Movement tree that is in need of both study and nurture. 7 CHAPTER 1 INTRODUCTION Efficient Womanhood examines the role of women in the Universal Negro Improvement Association (UNIA) from 1919 to 1930. It focuses on the concerns and contributions of the female lay membership as exemplified by Amy Ashwood Garvey, Amy Jacques Garvey, Henrietta Vinton Davis, the Black Cross Nurses and Laura Adorkor Kofey. While Amy Ashwood and Amy Jacques Garvey have received a modicum of attention in recent years, there has been little consideration of other key women in the organization, especially the rank and file members. Efficient Womanhood is a prosopography that examines the lives of these women to discuss their stories as female members of an organization whose outward appearance and whose hierarchy appeared to be male dominated. The dilemmas that faced the lay membership included how best to pursue the nationalist aims of the UNIA and increase awareness and membership while surviving the vulgarities of discrimination and Imperialism. This dissertation centers on the interpretation of nationalist and gender concerns expressed by the female cadre of the UNIA as they stretched the definitions of respectable politics, the Cult of True Womanhood, and extended definitions of early modern Black Nationalism.1 While this project maintains that the “politics of respectability” played a role in the choice of strategies among UNIA women, it also suggests that where circumstances warranted, UNIA women redefined what was respectable and political in their campaign for racial progress. This dissertation also posits that Black Nationalism, viewed through the eyes of UNIA members, correlated with Wilson Jeremiah Moses’ definition of the term as being the 1 Evelyn Brooks Higginbotham, Righteous Discontent: The Women’s Movement in the Black Baptist Church, 1880- 1920 (Cambridge Massachusetts: Harvard University Press, 1993), p. 187. Brooks
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