"Negro Women Are Great Thinkers as Well as Doers": Amy Jacques-Garvey and Community Feminism, 1924-1927

Amy Jacques-Garvey (1896-1973) was the second wife of Marcus Mosiah Garvey and unofficial leader of the Universal Negro Improvement Association (UNIA), the largest Pan-African movement in the twentieth century. Jacques-Garvey mastered what Taylor calls community feminism. Community feminism allowed black women to function within their communities as both helpmates and leaders. An examination of Jacques-Garvey's editorials published in the Negro World, the propaganda newspaper for the UNIA, reveals her brand of community feminism and how her choices were political--transforming her from a personal secretary, editor, and wife into an indispensable UNIA leader during the 1920s.