An efficient womanhood : women and the making of the Universal Negro Improvement Association / Natanya Duncan.

Format:

Book

Author/Creator:

Duncan, Natanya, author.

Language:

English

Subjects (All):

Garvey, Amy Ashwood, approximately 1895-1969.

Garvey, Amy Ashwood.

Davis, Henrietta Vinton, 1860-1941.

Davis, Henrietta Vinton.

Mena, Maymie de, 1879-1953.

Mena, Maymie de.

Kofey, Laura Adorkor, approximately 1895-1928.

Kofey, Laura Adorkor.

Dunlap, Ethel Trew.

Universal Negro Improvement Association--History.

Universal Negro Improvement Association.

Women, Black--Political activity--20th century.

Women, Black.

Women political activists--Biography.

Women political activists.

Feminism and racism.

Women, Black--Political activity.

Biography.

Twentieth century.

Physical Description:

1 online resource

Other Title:

Path to Open

Place of Publication:

Chapel Hill : The University of North Carolina Press, [2025]

Summary:

"From its Kingston, Jamaica, inception in 1914, women helped define and shape the Black Nationalist and Pan-Africanist aims of the Universal Negro Improvement Association (UNIA). Their efforts, made possible in part by UNIA cofounder Amy Ashwood Garvey, helped sustain the largest social justice organization of the twentieth century. In this deeply researched collective biography, Natanya Duncan documents the complexities of UNIA women as active participants in Black nation-building. Women from both sides of the Atlantic joined the UNIA in pursuit of gender and racial equality, developing a three-tiered activist strategy that Duncan calls “efficient womanhood": seek equitable partnerships with like-minded persons and organizations, work as peer and intergenerational mentors, and serve as bridge builders between the organization and resources and people in service to their immediate communities and the race at large. Through an impressive and original archive of their self-determination, Duncan presents the stories of Henrietta Vinton Davis, Maymie de Mena, and Laura Kofey, as well as groups of UNIA women like the Black Cross Nurses, the Universal African Motor Corp, and the Lucy 9 Club, who circumvented the ideals of their era and created a brand of independent female leadership. The book demonstrates how UNIA women orchestrated and activated the organization from the bottom up while influencing and informing men and each other. By focusing on how women of the UNIA created an activist framework, Duncan reveals a model of organizing that has endured into the present day." -- From JSTOR.

Contents:

Partnership and praxis: Amy Ashwood Garvey and the founding of the UNIA

A conscious call to duty: women writers of the Negro World

Leadership legacies: Henrietta Vinton Davis and transnational efficient womanhood strategies

Diasporic backchat: the poetry and prose of Ethel Trew Dunlap and UNIA Women

Bridge-building and the wonderful opportunity to expand their intellect

Hold up, build up, lift up: efficient women and extending the UNIA

The price of efficient womanhood: the assassination of Laura Adorkor Kofey.

Notes:

Includes bibliographical references and index

Online resource ; title from title frame (viewed September 2, 2025).

Other Format:

Print version:

ISBN:

9781469683324

1469683326

OCLC:

1482050332

Access Restriction:

Restricted for use by site license