The Veiled Garvey: The Life and Times of Amy Jacques Garvey

325 Pages·2002·1.03 MB·English

by  Ula Yvette Taylor

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