Marcus M. Garvey and Joseph A. Craigen

Abstract

This chapter explores the clash between global Garveyism and local Garveyism by investigating the practice of Garveyism on the ground. It does so by focusing on the work of Joseph Alexander Craigen, the executive secretary of the Detroit Chapter of the Universal Negro Improvement Association (UNIA) and a leading UNIA official, who maintained a professional relationship with Marcus Garvey from 1919 to 1931, but who was sometimes in disagreement with Garvey’s down- to-earth leadership and management style. It also examines Craigen’s split with Garvey in 1929, and follows Craigen’s career beyond his formal association with the UNIA, both in Detroit and in Idlewild, Michigan. This chapter enables scholars to better understand how the practical operation of the UNIA—despite Garvey’s efforts to establish a clear chain of command—encouraged the creation of local centers of power. By charting Craigen’s post-UNIA career, it also demonstrates the manner in which the mass movement sustained by the UNIA in the United States during the 1920s continued to reverberate in the activities of talented men and women like Craigen who gained a political education in the organization.