Document 21.12 Marcus Garvey, Declaration of Rights of the Negro Peoples of the Free World, 1920

Marcus Garvey | Declaration of Rights of the Negro Peoples of the Free World, 1920

Marcus Garvey began the Universal Negro Improvement Association (UNIA) in Jamaica in 1914. Two years later, he moved to Harlem, where his black nationalist ideas found a receptive audience. Before its collapse on the eve of the Great Depression, the UNIA was one of the largest black organizations in the country. Yet it also engendered animosity among African Americans, particularly when Garvey met with leaders of the Ku Klux Klan in 1922 to discuss their mutual belief in racial separation. Garvey served as chairman of the 1920 UNIA convention in New York, where the organization adopted the far-reaching Declaration of Rights of the Negro Peoples of the Free World.

In order to encourage our race all over the world and to stimulate it to overcome the handicaps and difficulties surrounding it, and to push forward to a higher and grander destiny, we demand and insist on the following Declaration of Rights. . . .

  1. That we believe in the supreme authority of our race in all things racial; that all things are created and given to man as a common possession; that there should be an equitable distribution and apportionment of all such things, and in consideration of the fact that as a race we are now deprived of those things that are morally and legally ours, we believed it right that all such things should be acquired and held by whatsoever means possible. . . .
  2. We declare that Negroes, wheresoever they form a community among themselves should be given the right to elect their own representatives. . . .
  3. We assert that the Negro is entitled to even-handed justice before all courts of law and equity in whatever country he may be found. . . .
  4. We declare it unfair and prejudicial to the rights of Negroes in communities where they exist in considerable numbers to be tried by a judge and jury composed entirely of an alien race, but in all such cases members of our race are entitled to representation on the jury.
  5. We believe that any law or practice that tends to deprive any African of his land or the privileges of free citizenship within his country is unjust and immoral, and no native should respect any such law or practice.
  6. We declare taxation without representation unjust and tyrannous, and there should be no obligation on the part of the Negro to obey the levy of a tax by any law-making body from which he is excluded and denied representation on account of his race and color. . . .
  7. We believe all men [are] entitled to common human respect and that our race should in no way tolerate any insults that may be interpreted to mean disrespect to our race or color.
  8. We deprecate the use of the term “nigger” as applied to Negroes, and demand that the word “Negro” be written with a capital “N.”
  9. We believe that the Negro should adopt every means to protect himself against barbarous practices inflicted upon him because of color.
  10. We believe in the freedom of Africa for the Negro people of the world, and by the principle of Europe for the Europeans and Asia for the Asiatics, we also demand Africa for the Africans at home and abroad.
  11. We believe in the inherent right of the Negro to possess himself of Africa and that his possession of same shall not be regarded as an infringement of any claim or purchase made by any race or nation.
  12. We strongly condemn the cupidity of those nations of the world who, by open aggression or secret schemes, have seized the territories and inexhaustible natural wealth of Africa, and we place on record our most solemn determination to reclaim the treasures and possession of the vast continent of our forefathers. . . .
  13. We protest against the atrocious crime of whipping, flogging and overworking of the native tribes of Africa and Negroes everywhere. . . .
  14. We protest against the atrocious practice of shaving the heads of Africans, especially of African women or individuals of Negro blood, when placed in prison as a punishment for crime by an alien race.
  15. We protest against segregated districts, separate public conveyances, industrial discrimination, lynchings and limitations of political privileges of any Negro citizen in any part of the world. . . .
  16. We protest against the system of education in any country where Negroes are denied the same privileges and advantages as other races.
  17. We declare it inhuman and unfair to boycott Negroes from industries and labor in any part of the world.
  18. We believe in the doctrine of the freedom of the press, and we therefore emphatically protest against the suppression of Negro newspapers and periodicals in various parts of the world. . . .
  19. We hereby protest against the publication of scandalous and inflammatory articles by an alien press tending to create racial strife and the exhibition of picture films showing the Negro as a cannibal.
  20. We believe in the self-determination of all peoples.
  21. We declare for the freedom of religious worship.
  22. With the help of Almighty God we declare ourselves the sworn protectors of the honor and virtue of our women and children, and pledge our lives for their protection and defense everywhere and under all circumstances from wrongs and outrages. . . .
  23. We declare that the teaching in any school by alien teachers to our boys and girls, that the alien race is superior to the Negro race, is an insult to the Negro people of the world. . . .
  24. That the colors, Red, Black and Green, be the colors of the Negro race.
  25. Resolved, That the anthem “Ethiopia, Thou Land of Our Fathers etc.,” shall be the anthem of the Negro race. . . .
  26. We deplore and protest against the practice of confining juvenile prisoners in prisons with adults, and we recommend that such youthful prisoners be taught gainful trades under human[e] supervision.
  27. Be it further resolved, That we as a race of people declare the League of Nations null and void as far as the Negro is concerned, in that it seeks to deprive Negroes of their liberty. . . .
  28. We demand of all men to do unto us as we would do unto them, in the name of justice; and we cheerfully accord to all men all the rights we claim herein for ourselves. . . .
  29. We demand that instructions given Negro children in schools include the subject of “Negro History,” to their benefit. . . .
  30. We proclaim the 31st day of August of each year to be an international holiday to be observed by all Negroes. . . .

Source: Amy Jacques Garvey, ed., The Philosophy and Opinions of Marcus Garvey, vol. 2 (New York: Universal Publishing House, 1925), 135–42.