Marcus Garvey Founds UNIA, Building Largest Black Mass Organization in History

Marcus Garvey founded the Universal Negro Improvement Association (UNIA) in Jamaica in 1914 and established its New York headquarters in Harlem in 1916. By 1920 the UNIA claimed over 2 million members in hundreds of chapters worldwide, making it the largest Black mass organization in history. Garvey's Black nationalism, Pan-Africanism, and economic self-help philosophy — embodied in the Black Star Line shipping company — offered an alternative to accommodation and assimilation. His 1920 International Convention in Harlem drew 25,000 delegates. The movement empowered Black identity under conditions of extreme oppression.