WAVING THE RED, BLACK, AND GREEN: THE LOCAL AND GLOBAL VISION OF THE UNIVERSAL NEGRO IMPROVEMENT ASSOCIATION IN AKRON AND BARBERTON, OHIO

Author

Stephanie Theresa Sulik

Graduation Semester and Year

2020

Language

English

Document Type

Dissertation

Degree Name

Doctor of Philosophy in History

Department

History

First Advisor

Kenyon Zimmer

Abstract

This micro study of the Akron and Barberton, Ohio, Divisions of the Universal Negro Improvement Association (UNIA) adds to the understanding the geographic diversity of the Garvey Movement’s expansive reach. It begins to uncover the importance of Garveyism in the Midwest and in Ohio, specifically, where the UNIA’s presence was larger than in any other Midwestern state. Black people in Akron and Barberton who, like millions of others around the world, joined Marcus Garvey’s global, Pan-African organization and embraced Garveyism’s holistic pursuit of Black liberation. Living in Midwestern rustbelt cities at the intersection of the Great Migration and the global rubber industry, they were uniquely linked to the Garvey Movement’s global initiatives and the transatlantic conflict between the UNIA and the Firestone Tire and Rubber Company in Liberia. Garveyites in these cities recognized their local organizing as part of a larger struggle against systemic antiblackness, white supremacy, and colonialism in Africa and asserted themselves as local, regional, and global actors. Through genealogy and family history research, this study looks beyond the UNIA’s international leaders to reconstruct the history of Garveyites, their families, and in turn their grassroots social movement. It also examines local intergenerational legacies of Garveyism and challenges the dominant narrative that the Garvey Movement died with its leader in 1940. This study demonstrates how Garveyism persisted through the lives of its members and their descendants.

Keywords

Universal negro improvement association, Garveyism, Midwest, Micro studies, Pan-Africanism, Black internationalism, Black Nationalism

Disciplines

Arts and Humanities | History

License

This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-Share Alike 4.0 International License.

Comments

Degree granted by The University of Texas at Arlington

Recommended Citation

Sulik, Stephanie Theresa, "WAVING THE RED, BLACK, AND GREEN: THE LOCAL AND GLOBAL VISION OF THE UNIVERSAL NEGRO IMPROVEMENT ASSOCIATION IN AKRON AND BARBERTON, OHIO" (2020). History Dissertations. 23.
https://mavmatrix.uta.edu/history_dissertations/23