The “Efficient Womanhood” of the UNIA in the Negro World Newspaper: 1919-1933

During the 1920s the Universal Negro Improvement Association (UNIA) sought to unite people of color on all seven continents and throughout the West & East Indies against social, political, and economic oppression. Its global appeal allowed communities in Kingston, Jamaica to connect and share with African Americans in Kinston, North Carolina; Afro- Canadians in Kingston, Ontario; and Afro- Europeans in Kingston Upon Thames, England. Through conventions, weekly meetings, and correspondences in the UNIA’s newspaper The Negro World from 1919-1933, Diasporic women and men came to shape the world’s largest social justice organization to date. Close examination of the paper reveals a largely untapped source for studying the activisms of Black women in the early 20th Century.

This poster presentation uses three sections of the Negro World newspaper, The Magazine section, The Division News section and Poetry for the People section to depict the collective efforts of UNIA women to define black womanhood. This poster will demonstrate their efforts to permeate physical, visual and spiritual/emotional spaces encompassed a blending of nationalist and gender concerns to form an efficient womanhood. Their fashion choices including uniforms, headdresses, evening ware and “going to meeting” clothes helped shaped their image of themselves and of the organization. Their use of language and choice of topics for public discussion often went beyond the concerns reflected in other periodicals of the day that claimed to have a women centered focus and/or progress of the race ideals at their core.