ECU Libraries Catalog

An efficient womanhood : women and the making of the Universal Negro Improvement Association / Natanya Duncan.

Author/creator Duncan, Natanya author.
Format Book and Print
Publication Info Chapel Hill : The University of North Carolina Press, [2025]
Description346 pages : illustrations ; 24 cm
Subject(s)
Contents Partnership and praxis: Amy Ashwood Garvey and the founding of the UNIA -- A conscious call to duty: women writers of the Negro World -- Leadership legacies: Henrietta Vinton Davis and transnational efficient womanhood strategies -- Diasporic backchat: the poetry and prose of Ethel Trew Dunlap and UNIA Women -- Bridge-building and the wonderful opportunity to expand their intellect -- Hold up, build up, lift up: efficient women and extending the UNIA -- The price of efficient womanhood: the assassination of Laura Adorkor Kofey.
Abstract "From its Kingston, Jamaica, inception in 1914, women helped define and shape the Black Nationalist and Pan Africanist aims of the Universal Negro Improvement Association (UNIA). Their efforts, made possible in part by UNIA co-founder Amy Ashwood Garvey, helped sustain the largest social justice organization of the twentieth century. In this deeply researched collective biography, Natanya Duncan documents the complexities of UNIA women as active participants in Black nation-building. Women from both sides of the Atlantic joined the UNIA in pursuit of both gender and racial equality, developing a three-tiered activist strategy that Duncan calls 'efficient womanhood': seek equitable partnerships with like-minded persons and organizations, work as peer and intergenerational mentors, and serve as bridge builders between the organization and resources and people in service to their immediate communities and the race at large. Through an impressive and original archive of their self-determination, Duncan presents the stories of Henrietta Vinton Davis, Maymie de Mena, and Laura Kofey as well as groups of UNIA women like the Black Cross Nurses, the Universal African Motor Corp, and the Lucky 9 Club, who circumvented the ideals of their era and created a brand of independent female leadership. The book demonstrates how UNIA women orchestrated and activated the organization from the bottom up, while influencing and informing men and each other. By focusing on how women of the UNIA created an activist framework, Duncan reveals a model of organizing that has endured into the present day"-- Provided by publisher.
Bibliography noteIncludes bibliographical references (pages 323-332) and index.
Genre/formBiographies.
LCCN 2024033092
ISBN9781469683270 hardcover
ISBN146968327X hardcover
ISBN9781469683287 paperback
ISBN1469683288 paperback
ISBNelectronic publication
ISBNelectronic book

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