In 1909, the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP) formed demanding equal rights to vote, economic opportunity, and access to education. The original home of the NAACP is on 224 West 135th Street (now Flo’s Beauty Salon). W. E. B. Du Bois, the Harvard sociologist, was a leading figure in the formation of the NAACP. He published a newspaper in association with NAACP operations called The Crisis, which circulated among 100,000 people by 1920. |
In 1917, Universal Negro Improvement Association (UNIA) established offices at 2305 Adam Clayton Powell, Jr. Boulevard, between 135th Street and 136th Street (now Salon Ambience). Marcus Garvey was the founder of UNIA, a group that became one of the largest grassroots organizations among African Americans. Garvey preached an ideology that would become popular as pan-Africanism and began printing the Negro Worldnewspaper by 1918 in French, English, and Spanish. |
“The Universal Negro Improvement Association has a... plan. Our purpose is to have the race solidly organized...linked up with one determination, that of liberating themselves and the great country of Africa that is ours by right... We desire to link up the four hundred million Negroes of the world into one solid body, moving towards the glorious objective of a free and redeemed Africa” (Marcus Garvey, The Negro World, 1921).
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“The object of this publication is to set forth those facts and arguments which show the danger of race and prejudice, particularly as manifested today toward color people. It takes its name from the fact that the editors believe that this is a critical time in the history of the advancement of men” (W. E. B. Du Bois,The Crisis, November 1910).
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Have you ever thought about the relations between the groups we are part of and the memories we have? Think about these two groups - the NAACP and the UNIA - and try to imagine how the members' memories of the political struggles in which they were involved differed from those of the other group.
Which groups are you part of? Do they influence your own memories? We invite you to write a letter to your future self, telling you what groups you are part of today, what your experiences have been with them, and what your memories are of those experiences. In 5 or 10 years you can read this letter, compare it with your memories, and maybe learn a lot about yourself.
ADDIS ABEBA, ETHIOPIA |
Dialogue can take many forms. It can happen at the same time, like the one between the NAACP and the UNIA. But it can develop also across time and space. In 1963, the Emperor of Ethiopia, Haile Selassie, addressed the United Nations with a speech titled ‘War’. Twelve years later, Bob Marley, the famous reggae musician, transformed these words in a song, also titled ‘War’. Both texts dialogue with each other, even though they do in unconventional ways.
We invite you to read Haile Selassie’s speech here and to listen to Bob Marley’s song here. You can read the speech first or listen to the song. You can even read the speech while listen to the song if you want. Reflect on how Selassie and Marley are part of a dialogue, and what the roles of words and of music in this dialogue are. Think about this question: is Marley repeating the words of Selassie or is he using the memory of those words to create something new? To learn more about Haile Selassie and his relation with Jamaica and the Rastafari you can read this Life article here: http://life.time.com/history/haile-selassie-in-jamaica-photos-from-a-rastafari-milestone/#1
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KINGSTON, JAMAICA |