The Veiled GARVEY gender & american culture Coeditors Thadious M. Davis Linda K. Kerber Editorial Advisory Board Nancy Cott Annette Kolodny Cathy N. Davidson Wendy Martin Jane Sherron De Hart Nell Irvin Painter Sara Evans Janice Radway Mary Kelley Barbara Sicherman The Veiled GARVEY The Life & Times of AMY JACQUES GARVEY ula yvette taylor The University of North Carolina Press Chapel Hill and London ∫ 2002 The University of North Carolina Press All rights reserved Manufactured in the United States of America Set in Adobe Garamond and Trajan types by Keystone Typesetting Inc. The paper in this book meets the guidelines for permanence and durability of the Committee on Production Guidelines for Book Longevity of the Council on Library Resources. Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data Taylor, Ula Y. The veiled Garvey : the life and times of Amy Jacques Garvey / Ula Yvette Taylor. p. cm. — (Gender and American culture) Includes bibliographical references and index. isbn 0-8078-2718-5 (cloth: alk. paper) isbn 0-8078-5386-0 (pbk.: alk. paper) 1. Garvey, Amy Jacques. 2. African American women political activists—Biography. 3. Political activists—United States—Biography. 4. Feminists—United States— Biography. 5. Women intellectuals—United States— Biography. 6. Garvey, Marcus, 1887–1940. 7. Black nationalism—United States—History—20th century. 8. Pan-Africanism—History—20th century. 9. African American women—Political activity—History—20th century. 10. Feminism—United States—History—20th century. I. Title. II. Gender & American culture e185.97.g28 t39 2002 305.896%073%0092—dc21 2002018713 [b] cloth 06 05 04 03 02 5 4 3 2 1 paper 06 05 04 03 02 5 4 3 2 1 For my first teachers, my parents, William Taylor and Lillian Taylor, and my lifelong friend, Otis Campbell In loving memory of John Climmie Rogers, maternal grandfather Thretha Jackson, paternal grandmother contents Acknowledgments ix Introduction 1 1 The Formative Years, 1895–1917 6 2 Amy Jacques and the unia 18 3 I Only Live to Perpetuate the Ideas of My Husband 41 4 Our Women and What They Think 64 5 Back to Jamaica and Forward to Europe 91 6 New Freedoms, New Constraints 112 7 Single Motherhood 125 8 A Decade of Unity 143 9 The Fifth Pan-African Congress, 1945 165 10 Essays and Literature for a Pan-African World 175 11 Activism Closer to Home 194 12 The Progressive Radical 213 Conclusion 235 Notes 239 Selected Bibliography 281 Index 297 acknowledgments This book emerges out of my sincere appreciation and love for Pan- African freedom fighters. It began as a dissertation, and similar to most long-term research projects, I have matured tremendously with this text. Each successive draft conjured up new intellectual challenges that paral- leled both personal hardships and exciting triumphs. I cannot properly thank everyone in a few pages, so what follows is a modest attempt to express my gratitude to colleagues, friends, and family who o√ered sup- port and encouragement. Given that Amy Jacques Garvey represents the epitome of a diasporic subject, I conducted extensive research in New York City; Nashville, Ten- nessee; Cleveland, Ohio; Washington, D.C.; Kingston, Jamaica; Accra, Ghana; and London. Financial assistance from the Ford Foundation (dis- sertation and postdoctoral fellowships), the Schomburg Center for Re- search in Black Culture Residence Fellowship, and the University of Cali- fornia (uc), Berkeley (travel grants) was essential to completion of the archival research. I also appreciate the help I received from all of the archivists and reference librarians who pointed me in the proper direc- tion. I am extremely grateful to Beth Howse and Ann Shockley at Fisk University, Nashville; Diana Latachenere and Jonathan Mason at the Schomburg Center in New York City; and Eppie D. Edwards at the National Library of Jamaica. They always met my numerous requests with total cooperation and patience. At the University of North Carolina Press, my sponsoring editor, Sian Hunter, prodded me to rewrite when I lacked energy and focus. The anonymous readers o√ered valuable comments on how to improve the overall text. I am especially indebted to the perceptive critique o√ered by my dear friend, Chana Kai Lee. Her insightful suggestions and willing- ness to plow through a taxing rough draft have demonstrated not only her historical talents, intellectual sharpness, and, of course, endurance, but also how a close friend can be an extraordinarily generous and supportive