As you read…….
Amy Jacques Garvey is most
known in for her contributions to her husband’s movement and legacy. As you
read, think about how the prejudice of racism and sexism of the time played a
role in the narrative written about Amy’s contributions to the historical roots
of feminism. Also, even though Amy was a contributor to and editor of texts
related to her husband, Marcus Garvey, and Garveyism, her contributions remain
largely absent from the “essential” feminists texts regarding the roots of
feminism.
Biographical Details
Amy Jacques Garvey was born in 1836
in Jamaica as the oldest child in a middle class family. Sharing in her
father’s “deep interest in political issues” and “racial progress,” she spent
her school age years reading “foreign newspapers and periodicals” and
completing a high school education. (Adler 349)
When her father died during her
young adult years, Amy became a clerk in overseeing “her father’s estate.” (Adler 351) Within four years of
embarking on this endeavor, she learned and mastered “law to the point that she
could” manage “every legal aspect of the estate.” (Alder 351) In 1918, Amy set out
for the United States wanting “to see the “land of opportunity and limitations”
according to her “father’s description.” (Adler 351)
“By defying her family’s wishes and going to a foreign country alone…Amy
demonstrated independence of mind, courage, and thirst for knowledge-all of
which characterized…the rest of her life.” (Adler 351)
In 1919,
Ms. Garvey became “affiliated with the” United Negro Improvement Association
(UNIA) and married Marcus Garvey, the leader of the association, soon
thereafter. (Taylor 107)
The marriage would produce two sons in 1930 and 1933. (Adler 366) Amy would endure
motherhood without extensive support from her husband. In her words, “Marcus
continually sacrificed his family for the movement.” (Adler 366) Amy wrote many
editorials expressing the need for woman to rise up and take the lead if men
were unwilling or unable to do for the sake of race. Marcus Garvey would move
to London in 1935, leaving Amy and the children behind in the states. Amy and
the children would join him two years later. (Adler 367)
The marriage would end in 1937 when Amy returned to Jamaica at the advice of
her son’s doctor without notifying Marcus, who was away in Canada. (Adler 367)
When
Marcus died suddenly of a stroke, Amy, still dedicated to the beliefs and
principles of Black Nationalism and the liberation, continued to edit and
publish the works of her late husband. She contributed through her
intellectual, oratory, literary, activist and leadership abilities. (Adler 346) Garvey’s work and
efforts have often been buried beneath her husband’s accomplishments and work
in the Black Nationalist movement. As
one scholar stated, "the life and works of Amy Jacques Garvey…deserve attention
from students of both
women's liberation and Black
nationalism" few scholars
have heeded this
claim.” (Adler 346)
Contributions to
Feminism
Amy Jacques Garvey was the “unofficial
leader of the Universal Negro Improvement Association (UNIA), the largest
Pan-African movement in the twentieth century.”
(Taylor 104)
In her editorials written in the UNIA’s newspaper editorials and the editing
and publishing of her husband’s work that she herself contributed greatly to,
Amy created what Ula Taylor terms “community feminism.” As Taylor states,
“Community feminism allowed black
women to function within their communities as both helpmates and leaders. An
examination of Jacques-Garvey’s editorials published in the Negro World, the
propaganda newspaper for the UNIA, reveals her brand of community feminism and
how her choices were political—transforming her from a personal secretary,
editor, and wife into an indispensable UNIA leader during the 1920s.” (Taylor
104)
Absent from many narratives about
Amy’s contribution to feminism and the Black Nationalist movement is the fact
that Amy would skim newspapers and magazines “for important articles and then
explain their content and significance to” her husband, the public leader of
the movement. (Adler 353)
This undoubtedly places Amy as “a cocreator” of the philosophy of Black
Nationalism, aka Garveyism. (Adler 354)
Amy was an editor and contributor
to the UNIA publication, the “Negro World.” Her editorial section entitled, “Our
Woman and What They Think” ran from 1924-1927. (Guy-Sheftall 12) It is important to
note for historical context in the roots of feminism, that white feminist were “in
hibernation after winning the right to vote” beginning in 1920 and lasting
until the second wave of feminism in the 1960s. (Adler 346) During the “hibernation”
of white feminist, Amy successfully printed, distributed, and spoke publicly
about “a distinctive theory and program for social change” in Black
Nationalism. (Adler 347)
Amy’s dedication, work, and priceless contributions, “sparked and sustained
“the most powerful Black nationalist movement ever established in the United
States” while supporting sustaining “sustain “the largest Black organization
ever developed in the United States.” (Adler 346,348) ). Black Nationalism would be the basis for the
black power movement throughout the 1960s and beyond. Amy Jacques Garvey’s
contributions to Black Nationalism with a “community” feminist perspective and philosophy
gave indispensable knowledge and “self-help” strategies to the diaspora of
African people in the United States and across the world. Her contributions are
very “essential” in the narrative of the historical roots of feminism and her
story and her contributions need to be included in current feminist academic
study.
Commentary on Amy
Jacque Garvey’s editorial works in Words
of Fire
In these editorials, Amy speaks to how America had further
advancement on the equality of the sexes than any other country, but she also
points out the added inequality present in being an African American woman
versus a white woman in America. Race carried an extra burden of oppression in
addition to the oppression of race. As Garvey points out, the unique strength
of African American women surviving and overcoming the oppression of race and
sex, "who is more deserving of admiration than the black woman, she who
has borne the rigors of slavery, the deprivations consequent on a pauperized
race? Yet she has suffered all with fortitude, and stand ever ready to help in
the onward march to freedom and power" (Guy-Sheftall 94) . This statement recognizes that America
has made progress on issues of inequality, but there are still more to be
addressed. Living in America was still a greater privilege to those with white
skin, male and female. Garvey pointed out the greater burden of oppression
experienced by African American women when she stated that "white women
have greater opportunities to display their abilities because of the standing
of both races" (Guy-Sheftall 94) . She understood that the systemic and
societal oppression African American women endured had additional chains to be
broken than the chains of oppression on white women
Historical Context “Essential” to Black Feminism of Amy Jacques
Garvey
In
her contributions to feminism and racial upliftment, Garvey supports
Pan-Africanism and Black Nationalism, an ideology and context largely absent
from the historical context of the roots of feminism, yet integral to
understanding African American women’s voice in feminism. As Garvey stated, “it
was essential for black women to develop a political consciousness to ‘uplift’
the race.” (Guy-Sheftall 89) It was necessary to “focus” on the needs of the
race, as Garvey asserts, because of the greater and further systemic oppression
and exploitation of a capitalistic society promoting consumerism and individual
success through mass production that disproportionately affects African
American men and women.
When Garvey states, “Ethiopia’s
queens will reign again,” I feel it beckons the return to the equal existence
of men and women present in civilizations past, before Europeans came into
contact with African cultures and societies. The world individual or any word
expressing the concept of individual did not exist in African societies whose
culture understood the importance of the preserving the collective good of the
whole – both human and nature.
With
this added historical context absent from the “essential” texts referenced in
this blog, Garvey called African American women to remember the strength of the
race before the diaspora of the black race. In ancient African civilizations
women ruled alongside men, they were not intellectually or politically inferior
to men. As Garvey instructs African American women, if men are unwilling to
lead the way to a better existential condition for the black race and for
humanity, then African American women will take the lead to ensure “victory”
and “glory.” (Guy-Sheftall 94) Drawing
further on the history of the black race, Garvey teaches African American women
in her writings to not be satisfied with liberation from the white male ruling
class in America, but to “establish a civilization according to their own
standards, and strive for world leadership. (Guy-Sheftall 93)
Discussion
Question(s)
1. Why was Amy Jacques Garvey’s contribution
to feminism and racial freedom absent from “essential” feminist text?
2. How did Amy’s work extend beyond a
supportive role to her husband? Is this noteworthy to the historical roots of
feminism?
References
Adler, Karen S. ""Always Leading Our Men
in Service and Sacrifice": Amy Jacques Garvey, Feminist Black." Gender
and Society 6.2 (1992): 346-375. November 2014.
<http://www.jstor.org/stable/189992>.
Guy-Sheftall, Beverly. Words of Fire: An
Anthology of African American Feminist Thought. New York: The New Press,
1995.
Taylor, Ula Y. ""Negro women are great
thinkers as well as doers:" Amy Jacques-Garvey and Community Feminism
1924-1927." Journal of Women's History 12.2 (2000): 104-126.
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