An Afro-Indigenous History of the United States

political philosophy. The UNIA, understanding that Africa’s wealth could
lead to a future for Black folks, attempted in its declaration to make sure
that Africans could hold fast to a tangible idea of making place. Finally, in a
demonstration of solidarity with other oppressed groups, number twentyseven
declared, “We believe in the self-determination of all peoples.” 26
In an article written by Garvey in 1923, titled “An Appeal to the Soul of
White America,” whose wording is close to the title of Du Bois’s essay
“The Souls of White Folk,” Garvey makes his case for the necessity of
Black people to avoid integrating with whites. His audience in this case,
though, is white people, especially white liberals, who he believed had a
part in trying to control Black people from realizing the necessity of leaving
the US.
Garvey begins the appeal, writing, “Surely, the soul of liberal,
philanthropic, liberty-loving, white America is not dead.” 27 He continues,
“There is no real white man in America, who does not desire a solution of
the Negro problem.” After laying out the brutality that Black people had
faced in the United States, the problems with miscegenation, he encourages
“foolish Negro agitators” and “so-called reformers” to “stop preaching and
advocating the doctrine of ‘social equality,’ meaning thereby the social
intermingling of both races, intermarriages, and general social corelationship.”
He concludes the essay by reminding white Americans not to
cater to Black folks and suggest that they could become equals: “Let the
Negroes have a government of their own. Don’t encourage them to believe
that they will become social equals and leaders of the whites in America,
without first on their own account proving to the world that they are capable
of evolving a civilization of their own.” 28 Garvey did not believe in the
mixing of the races, but he perhaps had a point in raising a key question
about white liberals and liberal Blacks at the time: Would Black folks ever
belong in the US, and could they ever have a home elsewhere? Could
Africa be their home? Garvey thought so, even though his idea was
basically an extension of settler-colonial discourse and Christian
chauvinism. During his life, Garvey was not without critics. Several Black
radicals believed that Garvey was an imperialist trying to conquer Africa. 29
Still, the goals of the UNIA and the SAI—the former seeking freedom and
the latter seeking sovereignty—bound them together. They had different
priorities, but each pursued a basic vision for how Black people and
Indigenous people could live.