Exhortation to Action

Abstract

This article provides a perspective on the diverse nature of the black press by examining themes in the writings of Amy Jacques Garvey, a largely unrecognized black woman journalist who was an associate editor and editorial writer for the Negro World, the official organ of Marcus Garvey's Back-to-Africa Movement. Analysis of approximately thirty editorials that she wrote between 1924 and 1927 found she sought to raise black consciousness by stressing the values of productivity, self-reliance, thriftiness, and hard work as means of gaining economic empowerment and independence. This offers insight into how Jacques Garvey, whose voice was not in the mainstream of the African-American press, used one publication to advance the agenda of a movement that had an impact on millions of black people.