AFRICA
Africa for the Africans… those at home and those abroad!
AFRICA DESTINY
Let Africa be our guiding star… Our star of Destiny
AFRICA HAS PRODUCED
Africa has produced countless numbers of men and women, in war and in peace, whose lustre and bravery
outshine that of any other people. Then why not see good and perfection in ourselves.
AFRICA SUCCESS
Our success educationally, industrially, and politically is based upon the protection of a nation founded by
ourselves. And the nation can be nowhere else but in Africa.
AFRICA TODAY
Africa has become the big game of the nation hunters. Today Africa looms as the greatest commercial,
industrial and political prize in the world.
ANGLO-SAXON
I regard the Klan, the Anglo-Saxon clubs and White American Societies, as far as the Negro is concerned,
as better friends of the Race than all other groups of hypocritical whites put together.
ATLANTA
If I die in Atlanta my work shall live, in the physical or spiritual to see the day of Africa’s glory. When I am
dead wrap the mantle of the Red, Black and Green around me, for in the new life I shall rise with God’s
grace and blessing to lead the millions up the heights of triumph with the colors that you all know.
AT NO TIME
At no time within the last five-hundred years can one point to a single instance of the Negro as a race of
haters.
BACKBONE
Said a southern woman after she joined the Garvey movement, “Garvey is giving my people backbones
where they had a wishbone. No man had spoken to them like this before. Wherever he went, he stirred
something in them so that they could never be the same self-satisfying or happy go-lucky human beings
again. The good book says that your just reward shall be in heaven; on that great day, Garvey said: work
for it right here and get it here and take it. The spiritual world reward shall surely come.
BACK TO AFRICA
I have no desire to take all Black people back to Africa; there are Blacks who are no good here and will
likewise be no good there.
BEGGAR RACE
A beggar race can never be respected.
BEGGING
Stop begging for jobs and create your own. Look around you and whenever you see the need for factories
and business, supply it. Stop begging for a chance. Make it yourself. So let us start now to build big
businesses, commerce and industry and eventually a nation of our own to protect us wherever we choose
to live.
BLACK MAN
You can do no less than being first and always a Blackman; then all else will take care of itself.
BLACK SKIN
The Black skin is not a badge of shame, but rather a glorious symbol of national greatness.
BLUFF
The whole world is run on bluff. No race, no nation, no man has any divine right to take advantage of
others. Why allow the other fellow to bluff you?
BREAD AND BUTTER
A man’s bread and butter is only insured when he works for it.
CALCULUS
After we had already unfathomed the mystery of the Stars and reduced the Heavenly Constellations to
minute and regular calculus they were still backwoodsmen, living in ignorance and blatant darkness.
CANNOT DEPEND
You cannot depend upon another race to free you, that is a basic law of human existence.
CANONIZE
The time has come for the Blackman to forget and cast behind him his hero worship and adoration of other
races, and to start out immediately to create and emulate heroes of his own. We must canonize our own
saints, create our own martyrs, and elevate to positions of fame and honor Black men and women who
have made their distinct contributions to our racial history.
CHANCE
Chance has never yet satisfied the hope of a suffering people. Action, self reliance, the vision of self and
the future have been the only means by which the oppressed have seen and realized the light of their own
freedom.
CHARITY
There’s no humanity before that which starts with yourself, “CHARITY BEGINS AT HOME.”
CIVILIZATION
When our civilization had reached the noon-day of progress, they were still running naked and sleeping in
holes and caves with rats, bats, and other insects and animals.
COMMERCE
Without commerce and Industry, a people perish economically. The Negro is perishing because he has no
economic system.
COMMON
Whatsoever things common to man, that man has done, man can do. There is nothing in the world
common to man, that man cannot do.
CONDITIONS
When all else fails to organize the people, conditions will.
CONFIDENCE
If you have no confidence in self, you are twice defeated in the race of life. With confidence you have won
before you have started. With confidence you have won before you have started.
CRABS
Having had the wrong education as a start in his racial career, the Negro has become his own greatest
enemy. Most of the trouble I have had in advancing the cause of the race has come from Negroes. Booker
Washington aptly described the race in one of his lectures by stating that we were like crabs in a barrel,
that none would allow the other to climb over, but on any such attempt all would continue to pull back into
the barrel the one crab that would make the effort to climb out. Yet, those of us with vision cannot desert
the race, leaving it to suffer and die.
CREATING DUKES
I am accused of creating Dukes, Barons and Knights. Who gave the white man a monopoly of creating
social orders?
DEATH
Death is the end of all life in the individual or the thing; if physical, the crumbling of the body into dust from
whence it came. He who lives not uprightly, dies completely in the crumbling of the physical body, but he
who lives well, transforms himself from that which is mortal, to immortal.
DEFEATED
To be once defeated is to find cause for an everlasting struggle to reach the top.
DISGRACE
The Universal Negro Improvement Association teaches to our race self-help and self-reliance, not only in
one essential, but in all those things that contribute to human happiness and well being. The disposition of
the many depend upon the other races for a kindly and sympathetic consideration of their needs, without
making the effort to do for themselves, has been the race’s standings disgrace by which we have been
created the strongest prejudice against ourselves..
DISORGANIZATION
The greatest weapon used against the Negro is disorganization.
DOES NOT SPEAK
The Universal Negro Improvement Association does not speak in the language of theology and religion; not
in the language of social reform, but the Universal Negro Improvement Association speaks in the language
of building a government; of building political power and all that goes with it.
EARNEST
Men who are in earnest are not afraid of consequences.
EDUCATION
It is by education that we become prepared for our duties and responsibilities in life. If one is badly educate,
he must naturally fail in the proper assumption and practice of his duties and responsibilities.
ENDS
The ends you serve that are selfish will take you no further than yourself but the ends you serve that are for
all, in common, will take you to eternity.
ENEMIES
The enemies are not so much from without as from within the race.
ENEMY
To see your enemy and know him is a part of the complete education of man.
ETHIOPIA
Ethiopia shall once more arise from the ashes of material ruin to the heights of temporal glory.
FALSE LEADERSHIP
Any leadership that teaches you to depend on another race is a leadership that will enslave you. Let me
say that again. Any leadership that teaches you to depend on another race is a leadership that will enslave
you.
FATALIST
Some of us seem to accept the fatalist position, the fatalist attitude, that God accorded to us a certain
position and condition, and therefore there is no need trying to be otherwise. The moment you accept such
an attitude, the moment you accept such an opinion, the moment you harbor such an idea, you hurl an
insult at the great God who created you, because you question Him for His love, you question Him for His
mercy.
FEAR
Fear is a state of nervousness fit for children and not men.
FLAG
Show me the race or the nation without a flag and I will show you a race of people without any pride. Aye!
In song and mimicry they have said, “Every race has a flag but the coon.” How true! Aye! But that was said
of us four years ago. They can’t say it now…
GET ORGANIZED
The thing to do is get organized; keep separated and you will get exploited, you will be robbed, you will be
killed. Get organized and you will compel the world to respect you.
GOD AND NATURE
We are arbiters of our own destiny. God and Nature first made us what we are, and then out of our own
created genius we make ourselves what we want to be. Follow always that great law. Let the sky and God
be our limit and Eternity our measurement.
GOD HELPS
And remember that god helps those who help themselves.
GLORIOUS
Glorious shall be the battle when the time comes to fight for our people and our race.
GREATEST MEN
The greatest men and women in the world burn the midnight lamp.
GREAT WHITE MAN
The great white man has succeeded in subduing the world by forcing the world to think his way… The white
man’s propaganda has made him the master of the world, and all of those who have come in contact with it
and accepted it have become his slaves.
HEAR
Hear all but attend only to that which concerns you, your allegiance shall be to your Race, then to your
family and your Country.
HISTORY
History teaches us no race, no people, no nation has ever been freed through cowardice, through cringing,
through bowing and scraping, but all that has been achieved to the glory of mankind, to the glory and honor
of races and nations was through the manly determination and effort of those who lead and those who led.
INDEBTED
The world today is indebted to us for the benefits of civilization. They stole our Arts and Sciences from
Africa. Then why should we be ashamed of ourselves? Their modern improvements are but duplicates of a
grander civilization that we reflected thousands of years ago; without the advantage of what is buried and
still hidden, to be resurrected and reintroduced by the intelligence of our generation and our posterity.
INDUSTRIAL
Every student of political science, every student of political economy, every student of economics knows
that the race can only be saved through a solid industrial foundation; that the race can only be saved
through political independence. Take away industry from a race, take away political freedom from a race
and you have a slave race. After a people have established successfully a firm industrial foundation, they
naturally turn to politics and society, but not first to society and politics, because the two latter cannot exist
without the former.
INOCULATE
Let no one inoculate you with evil doctrines to suit their conveniences.
INSPIRE
We must inspire a literature and promulgate a doctrine of our own without any apologies to the powers that
be. The right is the Blackman’s and Africa’s.
INTELLIGENCE
Never forget that intelligence rules the world and ignorance carries the burden. Therefore, remove yourself
as far as possible from ignorance and seek as far as possible to be intelligent.
INTELLIGENCE ACTIVE
There’s no height to which we cannot climb by using the active intelligence of our own mind.
JOBS
God does not give people positions or jobs or good conditions such as they desire; they must do that for
themselves. God does not build cities nor towns nor nations, nor homes, nor factories; men and people do
that and all those who want must work for themselves and pray to God to give them strength to do it.
KINKS
We have outgrown slavery but our minds are still enslaved to the thinking of the master race. Now take
these kinks out of your mind instead out of your hair. You are capable of all that is common to men and
women of other races.
KLANSMAN
You may call me a klansman if you will but, potentially every white man is a klansman as far as the Negro
in competition with whites socially, economically and politically is concerned, and there is no use lying.
LIVE FOR
Men, there is much to live for, and there is much to die for. The man, the race of nation that is not prepared
to risk life itself for the possession of an ideal, shall lose that ideal. If you, I repeat, must be free, you
yourselves must strike the blow.
LOOK FOR ME
Look for me in the whirlwind or the storm, look for me all around you, for, with God’s grace, I shall come
and bring with me countless millions of Black slaves who have died in America and the West Indies and the
millions in Africa to aid you in the fight for Liberty, Freedom and Life.
LOOK TO AFRICA
Look to Africa, when a Black king shall be crowned for the day of deliverance is at hand.
MINDS
We are going to emancipate ourselves from mental slavery, for though others may free the body, none but
ourselves can free the mind. Mind is our only ruler; sovereign. The man who is not able to develop and use
his mind is bound to be the slave of the other man who uses his mind.
NATION BUILDING
We are not engaged in domestic politics, in church building or in social uplift work, but we are engaged in
nation building.
NATIONHOOD
Nationhood is the only means by which modern civilization can completely protect itself. Independence of
nationality, independence of government, is the means of protecting not only the individual, but the group.
Nationhood is the highest ideal of all peoples.
NATION OWN
No Race is free until it has a strong nation of its own – its own system of government and its own order of
society. Never give up this idea, let no one persuade you against it. It is the only protection of your
generation and your race. Hold on to the idea, of an independent government and nation so long as other
men have them. Never be satisfied to always live under the government of other people because you shall
ever be at their mercy.
NEGRO PRODUCERS
Negro producers, Negro distributors, Negro consumers! The works of Negroes can be self contained. We
desire earnestly to deal with the rest of the world, but if the rest of the world desire not, we seek not.
NO BOUNDARIES
I know no national boundary where the Negro is concerned. The whole world is my province until Africa is
free.
NO STRENGTH
There is no strength but that which is destructive, because man has lost his virtues, and only respects
force, which he himself cannot counteract.
NO TIME
I am not opposed to the white race as charged by my enemies. I have no time to hate any one. All my time
is devoted to the up-building and development of the Negro Race.
ONE GOD
Black men the world over must practice one faith, that of confidence in themselves, with: One God, One
Aim, One Destiny. Let no religious scruples, no political machination divide us.
OPPORTUNITY
Take advantage of every opportunity; where there is none, make it for yourself.
OUR UNION
Our UNION MUST KNOW NO CLIME, BOUNDARY, or NATIONALITY…
OWN DESTINY
I trust that you will so live today as to realize that you are masters of your own destiny, masters of your fate;
if here is anything you want in this world, it is for you to strike out with confidence and faith in self and
reach for it.
PEN
The pen is mightier than the sword, but the tongue is mightier than them both put together.
PERFECT CREATION
Men and women, God made us as his perfect creation. He made no mistakes when he made us Black with
kinky hair. It is divine purpose for us to live in natural habitat – the tropical zones of the earth. Forget the
white man’s banter that he made us in the night and forgot to paint us white. That we were brought here
against our will is just the natural process of the strong enslaving the weak.
PLAGIARISTS
The Race needs workers at this time, not plagiarists, copyists, and mere imitators; but men and women
who are capable to create, originate, and improve, and thus make an independent racial contribution to the
world and civilization.
PLANTED BANNER
Go on! Climb ye the heights of liberty and cease not in well doing until you have planted the banner of the
red, Black and the Green on the hilltops of Africa.
POWER
The only protection against injustice in man is Power: Physical, Financial, and Scientific.
PRAY
I pray God that we shall never use our physical prowess to oppress the human race, but we will use our
strength, physically, morally and otherwise to preserve humanity and civilization.
PROGRESS
Progress is the attraction that moves humanity.
PROHIBITION
Prohibition is to abstain from intoxicating liquor, as it makes us morbid and sometimes drunk. But we get
drunk every day, nevertheless, not so much by the strength of what we sip from the cup, but that which we
eat, the water we drink, and the air we inhale, which at fermentation conspire at eventide to make us so
drunk and tired that we lose control of ourselves and fall asleep.
RACE FIRST
In a world of wolves one should go armed, and one of the most powerful defensive weapons within the
reach of Negroes is the practice of Race First in all parts of the world.
RACE INDEPENDENCE
Oppositions to Race Independence is the weapon of the enemy to defeat the hopes of an unfortunate
people.
RACE SOLUTION
There shall be no solution to this Race problem until you, yourselves, strike the blow for liberty.
READING MAN
A reading man and woman is a ready man and woman, but a writing man and woman is exact.
REALIZED
If we as a people realized the greatness from which we came we would be less inclined to disrespect
ourselves.
REAL MAN
Real men laugh at opposition; real men smile when enemies appear. A strong man is strong everywhere.
SCIENCE AND NATIONALISM
Being at present the scientifically weaker Race, you shall treat others only as they treat you, but In your
homes and everywhere possible you must teach the higher development of science to your children; and
be sure to develop a RACE of SCIENTISTS par excellence, for in Science and NATIONALISM lie our only
hope to withstand the evil designs of modern materialism. Never forget your Cause. REMEMBER! We live,
work and plan for the establishment of a great and binding RACIAL HIERARCHY; the founding of a
RACIAL EMPIRE whose only natural, spiritual and political limits shall be: LIBERTY FOR AFRICANS, AT
HOME AND ABROAD.
SILLY IDEA
We must give up the silly idea of folding our hands and waiting on God to do everything for us. If God had
intended for that, then he would not have given us a mind. Whatever you want in life, you must make up
your mind to do it for yourself.
SKIN BLEACHING
He appealed to all Negro newspaper publishers and owners. Stop carrying skin bleaching and hair
straightening advertisements as they tended to make people feel to be somebody they must try to look like
white people to succeed. These business men became angry with him. They were well paid for the pictorial
advertisements. Subscriptions cannot pay for newspapers. They had no intention on running a newspaper
on sentiment. As the thought and quote stated, “Negro be yourself” gained more adherence, the tone of
advertisements had changed. Any part of Black life that subjugated true life, he attacked it.
SUCCESS
There is no force like success, and that is why the individual makes all effort to surround himself throughout
life with the evidence of it; as of the individual, so should it be of the nation.
SUN
Let us hold together under all climates and in every country; making among ourselves a RACIAL EMPIRE
upon which, “The Sun shall never set.”
TAKE DOWN PICTURES
Take down the pictures of white women from your walls and elevate your own women into that place of
honor. They are for the most part the burden bearers of the race. And mothers, give your children dolls that
look like them to play with. And they will learn and care for their own children and not neglect them. Men
and women,
THYSELF
First to thyself be true and thou canst not then be false to any man.
TIGER
You may have caged the Tiger but my cubs are running free.
TRAITOR
The traitor of other races is generally confined to the mediocre or irresponsible individual, but,
unfortunately, the traitors among the Negro Race are generally to be found among the men with the highest
place in education and society, the fellows we call themselves leaders.
TREE WITHOUT ROOTS
A people without the knowledge of their past history, origin and culture is like a tree without its roots.
UNWORTHY
So many of us find excuses to get out of the Negro Race, because we are led to believe that the race is
unworthy that it has not accomplished anything. Cowards that we are! It is we who are unworthy, because
we are not contributing to the uplift and upbuiding of this noble race.
UP
Up you mighty Race, accomplish what you will.
WEAK NATION
Point me to a weak nation and I will show you a people oppressed, abused, taken advantage of by others.
Show me a weak race and I will show you a people reduced to serfdom, peonage, and slavery. Show me a
well organized nation, and I will show you a people and a nation respected by the world.
WELCOME
We welcome the opposition of the world, because we are determined to see the battle through. Africa’s
battle-cry is not yet heard.
WILL HAVE TO
The Negro will have to build his own industry, art, sciences, literature, and culture before the world will stop
to consider him.