history hw

"Women As Leaders"

by Amy Euphemia Jacques Garvey (1925)

Amy Euphemia Jacques Garvey (1896-1973) was one of the key political leaders,

archivists, and interpreters of the Garvey movement. As Marcus Garvey's second wife,

she frequently represented her husband at public meetings and events. She was a

regular columnist in the Universal Negro Improvement Association's (UNIA)

newspaper, The Negro World. Amy Jacques Garvey was a forceful advocate of

women's rights and participated in the famous Fifth Pan-African Congress held in

Manchester, England, in 1945. Her 1963 book Garvey and Garveyism was partially

responsible for reviving interest in the UNIA and the Garvey movement.

The exigencies of this present age require that women take their places beside their

men. White women are rallying all their forces and uniting regardless of national

boundaries to save their race from destruction, and preserve its ideals for posterity. . . .

White men have begun to realize that as women are the backbone of the home, so can

they, by their economic experience and their aptitude for details, participate

effectively in guiding the destiny of nation and race.

No line of endeavor remains closed for long to the modern woman. She agitates for

equal opportunities and gets them; she makes good on the job and gains the respect of

men who heretofore opposed her. She prefers to be a bread- winner than a half-starved

wife at home. She is not afraid of hard work, and by being independent she gets more

out of the present-day husband than her grand-mother did in the good old days.

The women of the East, both yellow and black, are slowly but surely imitating the

women of the Western world, and as the white women are bolstering up a decaying

white civilization, even so women of the darker races are sallying forth to help their

men establish a civilization according to their own standards, and to strive for world

leadership.

Women of all climes and races have as great a part to play in the development of their

particular group as the men. Some readers may not agree with us on this issue, but do

they not mould the minds of their children the future men and women? Even before

birth a mother can so direct her thoughts and conduct as to bring into the world either

a genius or an idiot. Imagine the early years of contact between mother and child,

when she directs his form of speech, and is responsible for his conduct and

deportment. Many a man has risen from the depths of poverty and obscurity and made

his mark in life because of the advices and councils of a good mother whose influence

guided his footsteps throughout his life.

Women therefore are extending this holy influence outside the realms of the home,

softening the ills of the world by their gracious and kindly contact.

Some men may argue that the home will be broken up and women will become coarse

and lose their gentle appeal. We do not think so, because everything can be done with

moderation. . . . The doll-baby type of woman is a thing of the past, and the wide-

awake woman is forging ahead prepared for all emergencies and ready to answer any

call, even if it be to face the cannons on the battlefield.

New York has a woman Secretary of State. Two States have already had women

Governors, and we would not be surprised if within the next ten years a woman graces

the White House in Washington, D.C. Women are also filling diplomatic positions,

and from time immemorial women have been used as spies to get information for their

country.

White women have greater opportunities to display their ability because of the

standing of both races, and due to the fact that black men are less appreciative of their

women than white men. The former will more readily sing the praises of white

women than their own; yet who is more deserving of admiration than the black

woman, she who has borne the rigors of slavery, the deprivations consequent on a

pauperized race, and the indignities heaped upon a weak and defenseless people? Yet

she has suffered all with fortitude, and stands ever ready to help in the onward march

to freedom and power.

Be not discouraged black women of the world, but push forward, regardless of the

lack of appreciation shown you. A race must be saved, a country must be redeemed,

and unless you strengthen the leadership of vacillating Negro men, we will remain

marking time until the Yellow race gains leadership of the world, and we be forced to

subservience under them, or extermination.

We are tired of hearing Negro men say, "There is a better day coming," while they do

nothing to usher in the day. We are becoming so impatient that we are getting in the

front ranks, and serve notice on the world that we will brush aside the halting,

cowardly Negro men, and with prayer on our lips and arms prepared for any fray, we

will press on and on until victory is over.

Africa must be for Africans, and Negroes everywhere must be independent, God

being our guide. Mr. Black man, watch your step! Ethiopia's queens will reign again,

and her Amazons protect her shores and people. Strengthen your shaking knees, and

move forward, or we will displace you and lead on to victory and to glory.

Source: "Women as Leaders," from The Negro World (October 25, 1925)