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231 The Principles of the Universal Negro Improvement Association November 25, 1922 New York, New York Over five years ago the Universal Negro Improvement Association placed itself before the world as the movement through which the new and rising Negro would give expression of his feelings. This Association adopts an attitude not of hostility to other races and peoples of world, but an attitude of selfrespect , of manhood rights on behalf of 400,000,000 Negroes of the world. We represent peace, harmony, love, human sympathy, human rights and human justice, and that is why we fight so much. Wheresoever human rights are denied to any group, wheresoever justice is denied to any group, there the U.N.I.A. finds a cause. And at this time among all the peoples of world, the group that suffers most from injustice, the group that is denied most of those rights that belong to humanity, is the black group of 400,000,000. Because of that injustice, because of that denial our rights, we go forth under the leadership of the One who is always on side of right to fight the common cause of humanity; to fight as we fought in the Revolutionary War, as we fought in Civil War, as we fought in the Spanish-American War, and as we fought in the war between 1914–18 on the battle plains of France and Flanders. As we fought up the heights of Mesopotamiaa ; even so under the leadership of the U.N.I.A., we are marshaling the Negroes of the world to fight for the emancipation of the race and the redemption of the country of our fathers. a. Probably refers to the 1917 Mesopotamia campaign in which the British Egyptian Expeditionary Force defeated the Ottoman Turks in modern-day Iraq. The Egyptian Expeditionary Force was comprised of a combination of British and Egyptian troops. Marcus Mosiah Garvey 232 We represent a new line of thought among Negroes. Whether you call it advanced thought or reactionary thought, I do not care. If it is reactionary for people to seek independence in government, then we are reactionary. If it is advanced thought for people to seek liberty and freedom, then we represent the advanced school of thought among the Negroes of this country. We of the U.N.I.A. believe that what is good for the other fellow is good for us. If government is something that is worth while; if government is something that is appreciable and helpful and protective to others, then we also want to experiment in government. We do not mean a government that will make us citizens without rights or subjects without consideration. We mean the kind of government that will place our race in control, even as other races are in control of their own governments. That does not suggest anything that is unreasonable. It was not unreasonable for George Washington, the great hero and father of the country, to have fought for the freedom of America giving to us this great republic and this great democracy; it was not unreasonable for Liberals of France to have fought against the Monarchy to give to the world French Democracy and French Republicanism; it was no unrighteous cause that led Tolstoib to sound the call of liberty in Russia, which has ended in giving to the world the social democracy of Russia, an experiment that will probably prove to be a boon and a blessing to mankind. If it was not an unrighteous cause that led Washington to fight for the independence of this country, and led the Liberals of France to establish the Republic, it is therefore not an unrighteous cause for the U.N.I.A. to lead 400,000,000 Negroes all over the world to fight for the liberation of our country. Therefore the U.N.I.A. is not advocating the cause of church building because we have a sufficiently large of number churches among us to minister to the spiritual needs of the people, and we are not going to compete with those who are engaged in so splendid a work; we are not engaged in building any new social institutions, and the Y.M.C.A.’s or Y.W.C.A.’s, because there are enough social workers engaged in those praise-worthy efforts. We are not engaged in politics because we have enough local politicians, Democrats, Socialists, Soviets, etc., and the political situation is well taken...

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