Marcus Garvey
Document B: Letter to U.S. Attorney-General (Modified)
Harry M. Daugherty, U.S. Attorney-General Jan 15, 1923
Department of Justice, Washington, D. C.
Dear Sir:
(1) There are in our midst certain Negro criminals and potential murderers, both
foreign and American born, who are moved by intense hatred against the white
race. These undesirables continually to proclaim that all white people are
enemies to the Negro. They have become so fanatical that they have threatened
and attempted the death of their opponents, actually assassinating in one
instance.
(5) The U.N.I.A. is composed chiefly of the most primitive ignorant element of
West Indian and American Negroes. The so-called respectable element of the
movement are largely ministers without churches, physicians without patients,
lawyers without clients and publishers without readers, who are usually in search
of "easy money." In short, this organization is composed in the main of Negro
sharks and ignorant Negro fanatics.
(27) The Garvey organization, known as the U.N.I.A., is just as objectionable and
even more dangerous as the KKK, inasmuch as it naturally attracts an even
lower type of crooks, and racial bigots.
(29) The signers of this appeal have no personal ends or political interests to
serve. Nor are they moved by any personal bias against Marcus Garvey. They
sound this alarm only because they foresee the gathering storm of race prejudice
and sense the danger of this movement, which cancer-like, is eating away at the
core of peace and safety -- of civic harmony and interracial coexistence.
The signers of this letter are:
Robert S. Abbott, Chicago, editor and publisher of the "Chicago Defender."
Dr. Julia P. Coleman, New York City, president of the Hair-Vim Chemical Co.
William Pickens, New York City, field secretary of the National Association for the
Advancement of Colored People.
Chandler Owen, New York City, co-editor of "The Messenger" and co-executive
secretary of the Friends of Negro Freedom.
Robert W. Bagnall, New York City, director of branches of the National
Association for the Advancement of Colored People.