-
“The year 1920 witnessed the First International Convention of the Negro Peoples of the World, organized by Garvey. At the opening session at Madison Square Garden, New York, an overflow crowd of twenty-five thousand filled the arena and spilled out into the streets. The other sessions took place in Liberty Hall in Harlem. Delegates, who came from all over the black world, adopted the Declaration of Rights of the Negro Peoples of the World. This declaration listed the main grievances of the race and demanded their resolution. Notice was served on European colonialists that the black man had an ‘inherent right…to possess himself of Africa’ regardless of the claims of any other race or nation. Demands were made for the capitalization of the ‘N’ in Negro, for the teaching of black history in schools, and for an end to lynching and sundry other discriminations. The red, black and green were adopted as the colors of the race; August 31, the last day of the month-long convention, was proclaimed an international holiday for black people; and the Universal Ethiopian Anthem was adopted. During the course of the convention Garvey was elected president of the UNIA and provisional president of Africa. The mayor of Monrovia, Liberia, Gabriel Johnson, was elected supreme potentate, or ceremonial leader. Several others were elected leaders of various parts of the black world.
Also in 1920 was the birth of the UNIA’s Negro Factories Corporation, which over the next two or three years managed a number of UNIA businesses, including laundries, restaurants, a doll factory, tailoring and millinery establishments and a printing press. Some of these ventures had been in operation since 1918, for Ida Wells-Barnett reported having been shown a UNIA restaurant and some unspecified smaller undertakings by Garvey in that year.”
-Tony Martin, Race First: The Ideological and Organizational Struggles of Marcus Garvey and the Universal Negro Improvement Association
