Grassroots Garveyism: The Universal Negro Improvement Association in the Rural South, 1920-1927 (John Hope Franklin Series in African American History and Cu) [Paperback]

Mary G. Rolinson (Author)

Book Description

ISBN-10: 0807857955 | ISBN-13: 978-0807857953 | Publication Date: February 26, 2007

The black separatist movement led by Marcus Garvey has long been viewed as a phenomenon of African American organization in the urban North. But as Mary Rolinson demonstrates, the largest number of Universal Negro Improvement Association (UNIA) divisions and Garvey•s most devoted and loyal followers were found in the southern Black Belt. Rolinson remaps the movement to include this vital but overlooked region, and offers a view of what southern Garveyites were like. Even after the UNIA had all but disappeared in the South in the 1930s, she says, the movement's tenets of race organization, unity, and pride continued to flourish in other forms of black protest for generations.

Editorial Reviews

Review

"A brilliant, compelling, and completely convincing revision of the meaning of Garveyism as a whole."
--Church History

"Makes valuable contributions to our understanding of the Garvey movement and black Southern life, bringing gender analysis to bear on these topics in new and productive ways."
—Journal of American Studies

"Technically solid, with clear writing and organization, and would be ideal for classroom use with undergraduates. . . . Nicely balances more general social history with well-timed accounts from inside and outside the UNIA."
— Historian

"Not only shines much needed light on an overlooked segment of Garveyites but also illuminates the interior lives of rural black Southerners. . . . A welcome addition to the scholarship of Garveyism."
— Arkansas Historical Quarterly

This is an extremely important piece of scholarship.

Steven Hahn, University of Pennsylvania, and author of the Pulitzer Prize-winning A Nation Under our Feet: Black Political Struggles in the Rural South from Slavery to the Great Migration

[A] richly detailed and compelling portrait .

Winston James, University of California, Irvine, and author of Holding Aloft the Banner of Ethiopia: Caribbean Radicalism in Early Twentieth-Century America

From the Inside Flap

The black separatist movement led by Marcus Garvey has long been viewed as a phenomenon of African American organization in the urban North. But as Mary Rolinson demonstrates, the largest number of Universal Negro Improvement Association (UNIA) divisions and Garvey•s most devoted and loyal followers were found in the southern Black Belt. Rolinson remaps the movement to include this vital but overlooked region, and offers a view of what southern Garveyites were like. Even after the UNIA had all but disappeared in the South in the 1930s, she says, the movement's tenets of race organization, unity, and pride continued to flourish in other forms of black protest for generations.

See all Editorial Reviews

Product Details

• Paperback: 296 pages
• Publisher: The University of North Carolina Press (February 26, 2007)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0807857955
• ISBN-13: 978-0807857953
• Product Dimensions: 9.3 x 6 x 0.7 inches
• Shipping Weight: 14.4 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 5.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (1 customer review)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #1,563,658 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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5.0 out of 5 stars "Grassroots Garveyism" is one of the best books I've read on the organizing traditions of the Garveyites!, January 9, 2008

By 

Komozi Woodard "Komozi Woodard, Sarah Lawrenc... (Bronxville, New York United States) - See all my reviews

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This review is from: Grassroots Garveyism: The Universal Negro Improvement Association in the Rural South, 1920-1927 (John Hope Franklin Series in African American History and Cu) (Paperback)

"Grassroots Garveyism" is one of the best books I've read on the organizing traditions of the Garveyites!!!! Many young itinerate preachers, like Malcolm X's mother and father, were organizers. It provides a class analysis of the membership, supported by the census--workers, peasants and tenant farmers and farm workers--also many in port cities involved & exploited in maritime industry--as well as many labor organizers. In contrast to Judith Stein's class analysis, this is a powerful revision of the UNIA story--less speculation, more analysis. Above all, Mary Rolinson does a powerful analysis of the symbolic politics of self-emancipation, self-respect and self-defense at the grassroots.


Komozi Woodard
Professor of History, Africana Studies & Public Policy
Sarah Lawrence College
Author of "A Nation Within a Nation."