Negro World

Negro World was a weekly newspaper, established in 1918 in New York City, that served as the voice of the Universal Negro Improvement Association and African Communities League (UNIA), an organization founded by Marcus Garvey and Amy Ashwood in 1914.

History

Garvey founded the UNIA in July 1918 and within a few months had started publishing Negro World.[1]

The paper had a distribution of upwards of five hundred thousand copies weekly at its peak, which included both subscribers and newspaper purchasers. Monthly, Negro World distributed more copies than The Messenger, The Crisis and Opportunity (other important African-American publications). Colonial rulers banned its sales and even possession in their territories, including both British and French possessions.[1][2] Distribution in foreign countries was conducted through black seamen who would smuggle the paper into such areas.

Negro World ceased publication in 1933.

Content

For a nickel, readers received a front-page editorial by Garvey, along with poetry and articles of international interest to people of African ancestry. Under the editorship of Amy Jacques Garvey the paper featured a full page called, "Our Women and What They Think".

Negro World also played an important part in the Harlem Renaissance (or Jazz Age) of the 1920s. It was a focal point for publication on the arts and African-American culture, including poetry,[3] commentary on theatre and music, and regular book reviews. Romeo Lionel Dougherty, a prominent figure of the jazz age, began writing for Negro World in 1922.[4]

Contributors

Notable editors and contributors to Negro World included:

References

  1. ↑ 1.0 1.1 Tony Martin (1976). Race first: the ideological and organizational struggles of Marcus Garvey and the Universal Negro Improvement Association. The Majority Press. pp. 10–14. ISBN 978-0-912469-23-2. Retrieved 30 April 2013.
  2. ↑ Marcus Garvey (1995). Marcus Garvey and Universal Negro Improvement Association Papers: June 1921-December 1922. Africa for the Africans. University of California Press. p. xlviii. ISBN 978-0-520-20211-5. Retrieved 30 April 2013.
  3. ↑ Encyclopedia of the Harlem Renaissance. Vol. 1: A - J. Taylor & Francis. 1 January 2004. p. 33. ISBN 978-1-57958-457-3. Retrieved 30 April 2013.
  4. ↑ Tony Martin, Literary Garveyism: Garvey, Black Arts and the Harlem Renaissance, 1983.
  5. ↑ Winston James (1998). Holding Aloft the Banner of Ethiopia: Caribbean Radicalism in Early Twentieth-century America. Verso. p. 67. ISBN 978-1-85984-140-2. Retrieved 30 April 2013.