By Louise Dente, Guest Editor
The Universal Negro Improvement Association [UNIA] and African Communities League [ACL] announces their 66th Annual International Convention of the Black People of the World starting Thursday, August 15th, 2024 and running through Tuesday, August 20th, 2024.
The business meetings are starting at 10 AM on August 15th, 16th, 19th, and 20th and are held at the CEMOTAP [Committee to Eliminate Media Offensive To African People] at 135-05 Rockaway Boulevard in South Ozone Park, NY 11420. For more information, please call General Secretary Antonitte Moseley at (646) 249-2628.
The highlight of the 66th International Convention will be the 137th Anniversary of the birth of The Prophet, The Honorable Marcus Mosiah Garvey, on Saturday, August 17th, 2024, with the world-famous Marcus Garvey Memorial Parade in Harlem, NY, which was started by the Hon. Carlos A. Cooks in 1941 on August 17th. Last year’s 2023 Parade highlights were broadcast by Cultural Caravan TV Productions (CCPTV) with Louise Dente as Executive Producer/ Director.
The 2024 edition of the Garvey parade will feature three floats: UNIA Parent Body, FACA ROC [Federation of African Caribbean American Restaurant Owners Corp – the 15,000 Sq Ft warehouse Supermarket that the UNIA operates in Southeast Queens, NY], and Jamaica Family Practice medical office.
In addition, there will be a world-famous marching band – Brooklyn United, Black Cowboys, Black Motorcyclists, and multitudes of Africans at home and abroad. We encourage everyone to make your way to Harlem for this historic event.
The whole day is dedicated to the Hon. Marcus Garvey with the Marcus Garvey Festival starting at 10 AM and running through 5 PM at the Harlem State Office Plaza [125th Street and Adam Clayton Powell Boulevard]. The festival will feature African vendors, African drumming, African modeling, performers, entertainers, UNIA Officers, and local conscious leaders.
Afterward, we will make our way to the Marcus Garvey Park at 124th Street and Fifth Avenue to begin the 83rd Annual Marcus Garvey Parade at 6 PM. All in all, it will be a grand celebration to honor the world’s greatest organizer, as Mr. Garvey was able to organize over 12 million Africans from all over the world with branches in 38 states of the United States of America and 41 countries on the planet.
On Sunday, August 18th ,in the morning, the UNIA will conduct its quadrennial election of its officers. Afterward, starting at 5 PM, the UNIA will hold its Convention’s Red, Black, and Green Gala at the Occasions Banquet Hall at 127-08 Merrick Boulevard, Jamaica, NY 11434, where the UNIA will swear in the new officers and honor the elders.
However, prior to the Convention, the UNIA will hold its annual Flag Day on Saturday, August 3rd, 2024, in Prospect Park in Brooklyn, NY, starting at 5 PM. This is the annual celebration of the UNIA Flag – the Red, Black, and Green – which is used all over the world to signify the Black People of the world. The Red is for the blood we shed for our salvation and liberation; the Black is for the Race; and the Green is for the Land – Africa.
Many people believe it to be the African American flag, the Pan-African flag, or even the Black Liberation flag. Actually, it is the UNIA Flag given to us on August 13, 1920, at the First International Convention of the Black People of the World held from August 1 to August 31, 1920, in New York City under the leadership of the Hon. Marcus Mosiah Garvey. As August 13 is so close to August 14 [1791 Bwa Kayiman in northern Haiti that starts the final stages of the Haitian Revolution], we celebrate UNIA Flag Day on the first Saturday of August in Brooklyn.
As a prelude to the August 17th Parade, the UNIA held is first ever UNIA Founding Day Parade in southeast Queens, NY on Saturday, July 20, 2024. Mr. Garvey established and founded the UNIA on July 20, 1914, in Kingston, Jamaica, at 121 Orange Street.
As such, July 20th is a Holy Day of Obligation [as is August 17th, June 10th, June 23rd, July 25th, May 20th, and January 1st]. The July 20th Parade was wildly successful as Black people came out to see the signature Red, Black, and Green UNIA Flags.
Under the leadership of Mr. Garvey in the 1920s, the UNIA had over 12 million members, an abundance of funds and monies: the Black Cross Nurses, the Universal African Legion, the Universal African Motor Corps, the Black Cowboys, Black Vintage Cars, the Marching band, and the UNIA faithful waving their Juvenile Division, and the Black Eagle Flying Corps to name a few. Mr. Garvey reasoned that the advancement of our people could never rest on the coattails of our oppressors.
Thus, we have to be self-reliant mixed in with the racial uplift of our people. This was achieved by embarking upon numerous economic ventures that would not only give the race a sense of pride but also the discipline necessary to compete within the treacherous currents of a rapidly changing world. This is why he encouraged entrepreneurship.
Thus, the Garvey Movement, through investing by its worldwide membership, acquired hotels, restaurants, factories, universities of higher learning, printing plants, publishing companies, newspapers, and transoceanic steamship lines, to name a few.
In addition, it established civil services, health care services, regiments, etc., all as foundational springboards necessary to the development of the independent African continental nation that we must build for all Black People to be free and united.
The current President General is the Hon. Michael R. Duncan, who hails from Jamaica but insists that he is an African born in Jamaica.