There were several parts that I found particularly interesting in these six chapters. James Weldon Johnson, the same man who dealt with the conductor in the first three chapters, “counted 160 churches in 1930” Churches played a significant role in Harlem between 1900 and 1930. Previous chapters spoke of the “On to Harlem” movement and how ministers influenced blacks to move to Harlem by referring to the migration as a sort of crusade.
Churches acted as a connection to the culture that Caribbean immigrants left behind. Through churches they could preserve their customs and traditions despite living in New York and were thus referred to as “homeland societies”. This also contributed to some of the resentment between Caribbean immigrants and native blacks who believed that Caribbean blacks were not assimilating, but were holding on to their previous cultures. They felt that Caribbean immigrants’ loyalty lied with their homeland and not with America, which troubled and offended native blacks especially during the time of the First World War.
On the other hand, some Caribbean immigrants who attended black American churches were discomforted by the very emotionally expressive practices done in these churches. One American-born Caribbean, E Ethelred Brown, stated that their emotional practice “dangerously borders on fanaticism.” Ironically, churches were in some cases a unifying factor amongst blacks. Some American black denominations tended to have Caribbean ministers, while some Caribbean denominations had black American ministers. The African Methodist Episcopal church was one such church that many Caribbean immigrant ministers and a predominantly native born congregation.
The section on Marcus Garvey was also particularly interesting. Marcus Garvey was the founder of the Universal Negro Improvement Association. Garvey’s idea of improvement was black unity and black purity. This sparked the unsuccessful Back to Africa movement, which operated with the idea that blacks could not fully prosper in America. They needed to fully separate themselves in order to thrive. Despite Garvey’s radical ideas, he was empowering black people. Being a part of the black race was the reason that many people were treated unjustly and couldn’t move upwards in society. While this might have felt like a weakness, Garvey presented it as the source of their strength and power. Garvey believed that they needed to preserve the purity of their race in order to maintain this strength.
Despite this, Garvey caused much harm to blacks trying to integrate into American society, and what else could you expect when Garvey claims things like deep down all whites were members of the KKK? Garvey even went as far as to meet with the Ku Klux Klan. Other black leaders like W.E.B. Du Bois tried to undo Garvey’s damage by discrediting him. He wrote that Garvey’s ideas did not reflect those of intelligent blacks. He even referred to Garvey as a fat, little, and ugly man. Unfortunately, some damage was already done, as Garvey was sometimes mistakenly associated with the NAACP instead of the UNIA. Eventually, Garvey was deported technically due to mail fraud and the Back to Africa movement did not succeed.
