Lecture 9. The New Negroes

American History: From Emancipation to the Present (AFAM 162)

In this lecture, Professor Holloway discusses the New Negro mentality, a new black consciousness forged out of political and economic frustration and the cultural shocks of the Great Migration. The New Negro ideology was articulated on a wide scale after World War I, when the promises of democracy at home went unfulfilled. Marcus Garvey best articulated this new consciousness through his Universal Negro Improvement Association (UNIA), the first organized grassroots mass protest movement in African American history. Garvey advocated black pride and autonomy, worked to build a great steam line so blacks could partake in nation-building, and helped dispirited blacks dream of an eventual return to Africa. Garvey's ability to realize his dreams was limited by his own organizational ineptitude and by the federal government's systematic attempts to infiltrate and then destroy the UNIA. The lecture ends with an examination of Garvey's relationships to other black leaders, including Father Divine and his Peace Mission Movement.

00:00 - Chapter 1. Introduction: The New Negro
05:42 - Chapter 2. J. Edgar Hoover
08:34 - Chapter 3. Marcus Garvey and J. Edgar Hoover
26:32 - Chapter 4. Marcus Garvey, W.E.B. Du Bois and A. Philip Randolph
36:22 - Chapter 5. Marcus Garvey and Father Divine

Complete course materials are available at the Yale Online website: online.yale.edu


This course was recorded in Spring 2010.