Universal Negro Improvement Association and African Communities League

Universal Negro Improvement Association And African Communities League

The Universal Negro Improvement Association and African Communities (Imperial) League (UNIA-ACL) is a black nationalist fraternal organization founded by Marcus Garvey. The organization enjoyed its greatest strength in the 1920s, prior to Garvey's deportation from the United States of America, after which its prestige and influence declined. Since a schism in 1949, there have been two organizations claiming the name.

According to the preamble of the 1929 constitution as amended, the UNIA is a "social, friendly, humanitarian, charitable, educational, institutional, constructive and expansive society, and is founded by persons desiring to do the utmost to work for the general uplift of the people of African ancestry of the world. And the members pledge themselves to do all in their power to conserve the rights of their noble race and to respect the rights of all mankind, believing always in the Brotherhood of Man and the Fatherhood of God. The motto of the organization is 'One God! One Aim! One Destiny!' Therefore, let justice be done to all mankind, realizing that if the strong oppresses the weak, confusion and discontent will ever mark the path of man but with love, faith and charity towards all the reign of peace and plenty will be heralded into the world and the generations of men shall be called Blessed."

The broad mission of the UNIA-ACL led to the establishment of numerous auxiliary components, among them the Universal African Legion, a paramilitary group; the African Black Cross Nurses; African Black Cross Society; the Universal African Motor Corps; the Black Eagle Flying Corps; the Black Star Steamship Line; the Black Cross Trading and Navigation Corporation; as well as the Negro Factories Corporation.

Read more about Universal Negro Improvement Association And African Communities League:  Name, Early History, First International Convention, Liberian Program, Post-Garvey Era, Notable Members of The UNIA

Famous quotes containing the words universal, negro, improvement, association, african, communities and/or league:

    Let us build altars to the Blessed Unity which holds nature and souls in perfect solution, and compels every atom to serve an universal end.
    Ralph Waldo Emerson (1803–1882)

    I do not think white America is committed to granting equality to the American Negro ... this is a passionately racist country; it will continue to be so in the foreseeable future.
    Susan Sontag (b. 1933)

    We are accustomed to say, that the mass of men are unprepared; but improvement is slow, because the few are not materially wiser or better than the many.
    Henry David Thoreau (1817–1862)

    A good marriage ... is a sweet association in life: full of constancy, trust, and an infinite number of useful and solid services and mutual obligations.
    Michel de Montaigne (1533–1592)

    ... the Black woman in America can justly be described as a “slave of a slave.”
    Frances Beale, African American feminist and civil rights activist. The Black Woman, ch. 14 (1970)

    His Majesty’s Government view with favour the establishment in Palestine of a national home for the Jewish people, and will use their best endeavours to facilitate the achievement of this object, it being clearly understood that nothing shall be done which may prejudice the civil and religious rights of existing non-Jewish communities in Palestine, or the rights and political status enjoyed by Jews in any other country.
    —A.J. (Arthur James)

    Stereotypes fall in the face of humanity. You toodle along, thinking that all gay men wear leather after dark and should never, ever be permitted around a Little League field. And then one day your best friend from college, the one your kids adore, comes out to you.
    Anna Quindlen (b. 1952)