February 18, 2026 • 33 mins
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A woman signs up 3,000 new members, walks into a meeting she was invited to lead, and is assassinated at the podium. That single moment opens a window into the hidden architecture of a global movement and the women who kept it alive when headlines and historians looked away. We continue our conversation with Dr. Natanya Duncan to explore the life and legacy of Princess Laura Adorkor Kofey and the broader force she represents: efficient womanhood inside the Universal Negro Improvement Association. We unpack how Kofey leveraged overlapping memberships across Black political organizations to grow the UNIA at scale, and why her ability to mobilize made her both indispensable and threatening. Dr. Duncan traces archival breadcrumbs to show how debates about Kofey’s origins obscured the central question: who shot her, and what does that reveal about power, loyalty, and gender in mass movements?
We broaden the lens to spotlight women like Henrietta Vinton Davis who signed stock certificates and underwrote the Black Star Line, illustrating how everyday decisions about money, mutual aid, and accountability built real infrastructure. This isn’t just civil rights history; it’s a blueprint for Black autonomy and human rights that shaped the tactics of later movements and still resonates now. Tune in, rethink the narrative, and help surface the names and questions that deserve daylight.
City University of New York Associate Professor of History, Dr. Natanya Duncan's research and teaching focuses on global freedom movements of the 20th and 21st Century. Duncan’s research interest includes constructions of identity and nation building amongst women of color; migrations; color and class in Diasporic communities; and the engagements of intellectuals throughout the African Diaspora. Her book, An Efficient Womanhood: Women and the Making of the Universal Negro Improvement Association, (University of North Carolina Press 2025) focuses on the distinct activist strategies in-acted by women in the UNIA, which Duncan calls an efficient womanhood. Following the ways women in the UNIA scripted their own understanding of Pan Africanism, Black Nationalism and constructions of Diasporic Blackness, the work traces the blending of nationalist and gendered concerns amongst known and lesser known Garveyite women.
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Episode Transcript
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SPEAKER_00 (00:00):
Welcome to Strictly Facts, a guide to Caribbean
history and culture, hosted byme, Alexandria Miller.
Strictly Facts teaches thehistory, politics, and activism
of the Caribbean and connectsthese themes to contemporary
music and popular culture.
Welcome back.
This is part two of our richconversation with Dr.
(00:22):
Natanya Duncan, where wecontinue exploring the
indispensable contributions ofwomen in the Universal Negro
Improvement Association.
And if you missed part one, besure to go back and listen as
this discussion builds directlyon that foundation.
Having you on here, I have totalk about Laura Kofi as you
alluded to earlier.
(00:43):
Just a story that I'm like,where was this?
Um, I don't even really knowwhere to start, but I I sort of
(01:06):
want to say, you know, Princessof God, that there's a, and you
can sort of maybe full out alittle bit more of her life
story for us a bit.
Um, but how did her story reallychange your understanding of the
organization and particularlythe way women were looked at in
the organization, assumingleadership in the ways that
you've outlined for us?
SPEAKER_01 (01:28):
Princess Laura Atakor Kofi, in all honesty,
changed my life.
There were moments when, as youalluded to in grad school, you
spend five or six years, youwrite the thing, you're
finished, you move on, you startteaching, blah, blah, blah.
And they say, okay, so nowwhere's the book?
The reason that the book isfinished is that I wanted the
(01:50):
world to know about this woman,but I didn't have enough to
write a book about her byherself.
So I had to bring her otherfriends into the mix.
Um, Laura Kofi challenged me tounderstand what it meant, one,
to be a Christian, to practiceChristian love.
Because Laura Kofi goes to ameeting that she's invited to by
(02:14):
people who were not always onher side, but she went anyway.
And she went because she trulybelieved that she had the
opportunity to help theorganization stabilize itself in
South Florida at the time.
(02:35):
There was actually two factionsquarreling with each other.
Mr.
Garvey is um out of the UnitedStates at that point.
And there are concerns aboutwhere the new headquarters is
going to be, who's the leadergonna be.
There are persons who are loyalto Mr.
(02:56):
Garvey and um the movement toreincorporate the organization
in Jamaica.
There are people who are loyalto a faction in Philadelphia,
there are people who are loyalto a faction in Cleveland, Ohio,
and then there's still peopletrying to get everything
reconstituted in New York all atthe same time.
(03:17):
And so she walks into a trap,essentially.
And what the police report said,and I think I cite this in the
book, was simply that she wasstanding at the podium, one shot
rang out from the back of theroom, hit her dead center, and
(03:39):
she fell backward, and that wasit.
And in that moment, all I couldthink about was the
assassination of Malcolm X.
SPEAKER_00 (03:48):
I did too.
SPEAKER_01 (03:49):
You know, being killed or murdered, you know,
amongst your own, right?
And at the place where you'resupposed to be, right?
Because it wasn't like she wasin the wrong place at the wrong
time.
This was her meeting.
They invited her to come to themeeting.
They asked her to do somethingat the meeting.
(04:10):
I sat with that.
So let's take a few steps back,right?
And there's some Africanistscholars who are gonna listen to
this and they're gonna writeyou, I'm telling you now,
because they come for me everytime, who argue that she wasn't
Ghanaian.
Her name is not a derivative ofany of the um noble families of
(04:34):
the period.
The New York Times lied and saidthat King Kennispie was coming,
but then I go to Ghana, and Iretrace the steps of a few
scholars who argue for her as anAfrican-born woman who comes to
(04:56):
the United States throughCanada, who spent time in
Alabama, who spent time in NewOrleans, and then eventually
comes to Jacksonville becauseshe's looking for a port city.
The UNIA had a three-year planand a five-year plan that
included planting crops inArkansas and harvesting those
(05:21):
crops for trade throughout thediaspora.
And so she's looking for portcities for the same purpose.
She wants to import export goodsfrom the continent through the
Caribbean and the United States.
Somewhat of a reverse Atlantickind of experience, so to speak,
(05:42):
for lack of a better way to putit.
And so I'm amazed, one, at heraudacity.
She goes to the Atlantapenitentiary to have a
conversation with Mr.
Garvey, and that conversationdoesn't go well.
Mr.
Garvey's not willing to hearfrom her the truths about some
(06:02):
of the persons that he hasdecided are his good friends or
his confidants at the time.
What made Laura Kofi stand outfor me and what made me
understand the impact of aHenrietta Vinton Davis and a
Mamie Demena and a Lavinia Smithand an Asada DeFour was when I
(06:25):
read over and over again, andshe signed up 3,000 people.
And she signed up 3,000 people.
And everyone who wrote abouther, whatever little snippet,
and she signed up 3,000 people.
So I said, no.
No, no, no, no, no, no, no.
Maybe there meant 300, 3,000people in South Florida to sign
(06:46):
up.
No.
No, no, no, no, no, no, no, no,no.
I need to see the paperwork.
I need to find the people.
So she had actually alignedherself with the Prince Hall,
Masons, and Eastern Stars.
So she was actually bringingpeople who already belonged to
(07:06):
the Elks, the Eastern Star, andthe Optimist into the UNIA.
So we had this multiplemembership gang going on, right?
Some of these people alsobelonged to the NAACP.
So that number of 3,000 wasactually quite correct.
(07:27):
Um, because I started looking athow the names sort of uh
duplicated, right, um, indifferent records.
And when I realized that she wasable to pull that many people
in, despite having reservationsof her own, despite criticizing
the organization publicly,despite wanting to uh have the
(07:54):
organization have a firmer lineof demarcation between
organizational practices andreligious practices, I
understood what the efficientwomanhood bridge builder meant.
I understood what it meant to bea partner, and I also came to
understand what it meant to be amentor and model for other women
(08:19):
and men because even after shepasses, um the persons who are
around her in what becomes aDorca Ville, which is now on the
Florida Heritage Trail, decidethat they're not gonna let the
legacy die.
So they charged money for peopleto see her body five cents, use
(08:42):
the money to pay off the land,and finish fixing the house that
she had in Jacksonville, andestablish this space.
And in this space, they're umteaching people Arabic and um,
you know, still postulatizingpeople in a sort of uh black
nationalist Christian umframework.
(09:05):
But isn't that the panultimateefficient womanhood?
I mean, even in death, thiswoman is still feeding people,
she's still impacting people,right?
And it it really forced me toreconsider what black
nationalism politically andeconomically is.
(09:28):
Because we're very caught up inwhat I consider to be, you know,
the costume black nationalism,right?
You know, the the what we wearand, you know, the hotep and
the, you know, we're gonna usecertain phrases when we, you
know, every time somebody saysgrand rising to me, I want to
sit in them and wholly sit down,right?
I can't.
But anyway, um, focus here,academia, right?
(09:50):
So um she had created thislong-lasting legacy that the
state of Florida recognizes tothis day, right?
I mean, and we're not writingabout this.
I mean, every Juneteenth, weshould just be at Adorcaville.
Everybody in Jacksonville shouldjust go to Adorcaville on
(10:11):
Juneteenth.
You know what I'm saying?
Like, this should be ourbarbecue spot and, you know,
kind of thing.
I couldn't fathom how thehistoriography missed her, how
the conversation missed her.
And in looking into it, it wasone, the UNIA's Negro World
newspaper discredited her,right?
(10:34):
They referred to her as not asLaura Kofi, but as Laura Campion
or Laura Champion and said thatshe was actually from um
Georgia, from Macon, Georgia,and that she shouldn't be
trusted, blah, blah, blah.
Now, this is after she'sheralded in the newspaper and
lauded in the newspaper as thebest thing since spiced bread,
(10:56):
right?
And she's like only second to,you know, she's like a John the
Baptist, you know, um, kind offigure.
Uh, as a matter of fact,somebody actually called her a
John the Baptist, right?
In one of the Negro World clips.
So she goes from that to personanon-grata.
So this erasure.
But then the historians buy intothe argument, right?
(11:20):
And so we get lost in whether ornot she's African, whether or
not she's from Georgia, blah,blah, blah.
And I'm sitting there saying,the woman was murdered at a UNIA
meeting.
Hello.
Could we could we deal with thereal story here?
Okay.
And, you know, in looking at it,I said, what about this makes
(11:40):
scholars uncomfortable?
Something about this makesscholars uncomfortable.
You know, and people say, well,we don't have enough um um
information to establish, youknow, look, I started off with a
newspaper clip that I guess theycall a quarter-size page that
just said, her daddy is coming.
(12:01):
That's it.
Right?
Everybody traveled on a ship, soI know I got some shipping
records.
I got what's in the Negro world,I have the court records, and I
have the police report.
I got a chapter.
And I think that understandingthat there are limits to what we
can know based on what is in thearchive, yes.
(12:24):
But then we also have to look atthe information the archive
provides and ask a differentquestion.
Right?
Ask a different question.
I asked a different questionabout Laura Kofi.
I was less concerned about wasshe or was she not from Ghana
and more concerned about whoshot her.
(12:46):
And asking that differentquestion then led me to
understand the ratio of women tomen in the organization and why
a woman who could pull 3,000people might make somebody
nervous, right?
So all I did was change thequestion.
I'm working with the samematerial everybody who argues
with me is working with, right?
(13:07):
Um, the fact that she herselfhad appeared in court twice and
never served any jail time.
You know, all of these add up tosomething in my mind.
And I realized that thisefficient womanhood, this
willingness to partner, shepartnered with the UNIA because
(13:27):
she believed in the objectivesof the UNIA.
She didn't necessarily agreewith all of the methods, but she
agreed with the objectives.
And so therefore, she waswilling to partner and be a part
of and move with and grow andbuild with, right?
One day, there are two moviesthat need to be made.
(13:48):
One, some actress needs to takeup Lady Henrietta Vinton Davis'
story.
She was a Shakespearean actress,she was bad to the bone, she had
her own production company, shewas a playwright, a producer,
she was somebody.
Okay.
And then we need to deal with,you know, Laura Kofi.
In um two more years, it wouldbe 100 years.
(14:11):
And I did set the goal formyself to have a hard and fast
answer on who killed Laura Kofi.
I have my own assertions, but asa scholar and a historian, you
know, citations matter.
I have innuendo and rumor, andI've listened to other people's
(14:31):
oral histories and interviewsand so forth.
And I've read the courttranscripts.
And so that is a question that Ithink we as scholars and as
people who support blackinternationalism, who believe in
black nationalism, who callourselves Pan-Africanists, need
(14:52):
to resolve.
That needs to be resolved.
I hold her in the same esteem asI do Ransom Kuti, who was
murdered by her people.
And I see Laura Kofi as murderedby her people.
SPEAKER_00 (15:07):
Thank you so much for that, because I think in so
many ways, right?
As I, as I was saying, just theway that both her impact and
also her murder just capturedthis history in that chapter of
the book in a way that hasliterally never been uttered to
me in any study, any class onGarvey on the UNIA was
(15:29):
tremendously remarkable.
And I think in a lot of ways,even brings me to my next
question because, you know, indoing some of this work and also
my love of pairing our historywith the way that we show up in
music and popular culture, etc.,I can make and have made a whole
playlist of songs that referenceGarvey, that talk about Garvey's
(15:51):
impetus and importance andfollow Garvey and Traderoad and
all these things, right?
And I don't even know if I canactually name five, right?
And five is a lot speaking here.
So what are sort of some of yourfavorite examples of the way
(16:11):
that the women of the UNIA showup in our um popular culture?
It doesn't necessarily have tobe music, but I think that would
be a great way for our listenersto also connect to the story.
SPEAKER_01 (16:22):
Queen Latifas Ladies First, even the video for Ladies
First is quintessentialgobbyism.
It's efficient womanhood at itsbest.
You know, um it defines it.
See, the thing about efficientwomanhood and the beauty of
efficient womanhood, and in thein the front cover of the book,
(16:44):
I have the artwork um that wasdone that sort of captures um
the different stages ofefficient womanhood in terms of
who the women were uh in theorganization.
Um but I think I would have tosay that one of the things we
(17:05):
have to realize about efficientwomanhood is that it's an
elastic clause kind of um idiomthat it's really about the ways
in which women deliberatelychoose to live their lives.
In the Say Her Name, uh TirannaBurke is the grandchild of
(17:27):
Garbyites.
And I look back at womanly waysin the Negro World newspaper,
where Benizia Demina writes anarticle calling out the
so-called deacons of the churchwho whisper and murmur and call,
(17:48):
cat call to me and say, youknow.
And she's in that article, she'ssaying, How dare you?
Like, you out of your rabidmind, you know.
I recognize in Black LivesMatter the decentralization,
which people are critical of,but I also consider it to be a
beautiful and wonderful thing inthat I see it as a lesson from
(18:14):
how the UNIA operated, whereregionally, locally, the
organization may look a littledifferent in New York than it
looked in Belize, than it lookedin California, than it looked in
South Africa.
Why?
Because it was serving aspecific function or addressing
(18:36):
particular issues that wererelevant to people on the
ground.
So although you had this, youknow, hierarchical, centralized
office space with a set of aimsand objectives of goals, you
could, on your block, in yourcommunity, in your village, like
with my grandmother, determinethat number two and number four
(18:59):
were the most important.
And so that's what we're goingto go after for the next six
months.
Um, I see black economicnationalism as a complete
offshoot of the goals of theUNIA.
I think what we witness with theDetroit Housewives League, what
(19:22):
we're witnessing now in thismoment, where people are going
into a certain store and buyingum ice scrapers for 17 cents and
then going back and returningthem in that same said store to
slow down the works in that saidstore, that name that we're not
going to say.
Um I see it in this moment wherethe bullseye store, um, and I
(19:47):
just drove past the bullseyestore in my community just to
see if we were up in there.
We ain't up in there.
The day before Thanksgiving, weain't up in there.
You know, the idea that from Thespace that we're in, we
recognize the power that wehave.
That there doesn't have to be,I'm, you know, I don't have to
(20:07):
go around showing everybody mymembership card.
The level of consciousness andawareness that I have about who
I am in the world and how Ichoose to show up in the world
is how I see the UNIA, even inthis moment.
So whether it's on Canvas orit's in music, it's, you know,
when we had our FUBU era, ourfor us, by us era, you know, in
(20:31):
my head, you used to laugh atthat and say, you know, those
are the things that Mr.
Garvey would have been happyabout.
Those are the things that theofficial woman would have been
happy about.
Um I, you know, the Auntidonasof the world, right?
Uh, what is happening in Jamaicaright now, um, in terms of the
(20:52):
relief efforts for St.
Elizabeth and Westmoreland.
Um, I myself, you know, someonemessed with me the other day and
said, you really live thatphilosophy, don't you?
Right?
You know, because um, I'm on thephone with complete strangers,
like a friend, call a friend,call a friend.
We found this lady and we needto finish the roof.
You have anything can't help us?
(21:12):
I'm like, yeah, of course.
All right, tell me who to sendit to.
Um, kind of thing.
That kind of of connection anduniversal understanding of the
human condition, right?
It's not just a black condition,it's not just a black woman's
condition, right?
Um, it's how I see itpersonified, this moment in the
(21:35):
culture.
I think the real efficientwomanhood in the angels song
about single mothers, right?
And just sort of turning thestigma on its head.
I think spice is also abrilliant example.
I mean, you know, we could havethe whole sidebar conversation
about the stone that the builderrefused.
(21:58):
But more importantly, right, umthis idea of um how we recycle
and recalibrate the money thatwe earn and channel it back into
our own community in ways thatbuild us and reshape us, right?
(22:21):
I also see it, you know, um, inthe way that Rihanna conducts
herself globally.
The Prime Minister, PrimeMinister Um Moxley of Barbados.
Um, my new dream is to just meether.
Just not even meet her, just bein the same room with her.
(22:43):
And and and she has, you know,her high points and her low
points, and there are all kindsof criticisms.
Um I see it, you know, in theways in which black women are
becoming heads of state, right?
Even when we look up back, um,President Surlee Johnson, right?
Um we look at the Prime Ministerof Trinidad.
(23:03):
You know, we see womengalvanizing um against the gangs
in in Haiti uh right now, right,in defense of their children.
I think by and large, in theAmerican context, we like to
focus on Shirley Chisholm andBarbara Jordan.
You know, Shirley Chisholm alsogrew up in a Garveyite home.
(23:25):
Uh, Sylvia Woods, who I'mworking on as my next research
project, uh, was a labororganizer, co-founder of the AFL
CIO.
And she also ran for politicaloffice.
Charlotte Bass ran for politicaloffice um in the 1950s.
The idea that we look only atthe bigger picture politics, the
(23:52):
famous people, um, it sort of,you know, betrays the relevance
and the significance of theeveryday kinds of activism, the
everyday kinds of choices.
Um, I see the UNIA ironically,you know, in the women in white
in churches, right?
(24:13):
Who, you know, in some ways uhrepresent a sort of vanguard,
right?
We are not going to have anynonsense in here today, right?
Um, and and that nonsense can bethe preacher in the pulpit
because they will take him downwithout a question.
We've seen viral video of womensay, okay, no, no, no, no, no.
(24:35):
We finish with you, right?
And take people off the pulpit,right?
And, you know, it's a thingwhere nobody asked them, nobody
designated them, right?
But from their position aswoman, as a person who has
discernment and understanding,and someone who sees themselves
(24:57):
as responsible for, again, thatpolitics of care.
This is a part of my duty,right?
Um, has nothing to do with myseparate sphere, right, or my
respectability.
You know, it's it's about mypolitics of care and how I
choose to advocate for mycommunity.
And so a lot of that is whatwe're seeing in this moment
(25:18):
globally and locally.
SPEAKER_00 (25:21):
The last thing I want to just sort of talk about
divine timing in a sense.
I remember at the top of thisyear getting your book in the
mail.
It's delivered at my doorstep.
And just a few days later, it'sthe announcement that President
Biden posthumously pardonsGarvey.
Um, and so I just sort of withthat, and I know it it wasn't,
(25:44):
you know, it's just fate, it'sjust the way the world happens.
Um, but I think how do you hopethat, you know, putting all of
these little pieces in tandemtogether or actually very big
pieces between your book,between the pardon, um, between
sort of this regalvanization andawareness.
Um, how do you hope that thisreally helps us further and sort
(26:08):
of deepen our understanding ofGarvey, of the UNIA and its many
complications, but especially ofthe integral role that these
women played in this movement?
SPEAKER_01 (26:19):
Thank you so much for that question.
Uh I'm gonna start to answerthat question by stating a few
facts.
One, Mr.
Garvey was actually arrestedafter a woman went to the New
York district attorney tocomplain that she had not gotten
a refund on her investment inthe Black Star Line, which was
(26:42):
the shipping company establishedby the organization.
And the intention of the BlackStar Line and Trading Company,
Navigation Trading Company, wasessentially to provide
first-class passage to personswho wanted to travel by sea
because they're living duringduring the Jim Crow era, they
were forced to um travel instewardage, even if they paid
(27:06):
first-class ticket price, theystill had to travel in storage
based on their color.
So, Mr.
Garvey actually ends up on trialbecause of black women.
While this woman in particular,um, and I talk about this in the
book a little bit, was on thestand, she's being questioned as
to how much did she invest, whendid she invest, why did she
(27:29):
invest, etc.
And then they ask an interestingquestion Are you still a member
of the Universal NegroImprovement Association?
And she says, yes.
Wait, you're suing Mr.
Garvey, you want your money backfrom the Black Star Line, but
you are still a member?
(27:50):
Yes.
How come?
The Black Star Line is formoney, but the UNIA is for life.
And so Mr.
Garvey's pardon is not anexoneration.
And I argue in the book thatHenrietta Vinton Davis should
have been on trial too.
(28:12):
Elias, Elias Garcia should havebeen on trial too, because they
signed the stock certificates,and Henrietta Vinton Davis
signed more stock certificatesthan Marcus Garvey.
We have to recognize, and andthe way that um President
Biden's forgiveness read, hecounted Mr.
(28:33):
Garve as a civil rights leader.
And I think that that's probablyone of the greatest
understatements of the 21stcentury, because Mr.
Garvey was more than a civilrights leader.
I think my book shows that thisis about more than just civil
rights.
This is about black autonomy andblack independence.
(28:54):
So my hope in telling this storyabout how women negotiated, how
women could invest in the BlackStar Line, be disappointed in
the Black Star Line, how theBlack Star Line could collapse
as a company and then finditself reconstituted.
Six months after Mr.
Garby goes to jail, they bringback the Black Star Line, start
(29:18):
it all over again.
And the same people who boughtstock the first time come back
and buy stock a second time.
And there's a woman who writesinto the Negro world and says,
please, white people, mind yourbusiness.
It is our money, and we will dowith it what we will.
This does not concern you.
That's not about civil rights.
(29:39):
That's about something else.
And so I hope that the workhelps people see why America in
the 21st century could foolitself by saying they didn't
know or didn't believe that ablack woman could be ready on
day one to be president of theUnited States.
(30:00):
When we had a woman primeminister in England for a number
of years, we had a woman head inIndia, we had a woman head on
the continent, we had severalwomen heads on the continent, we
have women heads throughout theCaribbean, but we didn't think
that this person would be readyon day one for any number of,
(30:22):
you know, silly reasons.
When for the past 100 years, theefficient womanhood strategy not
only set up a structure for howblack women could negotiate
spaces to protect and defendthemselves and their families,
(30:43):
but essentially provided theplatform for what we come to
understand to be the nascentcivil rights movement.
Much of what we see the women inthe UNIA practicing and working
out and flushing out, we see inthe civil rights movement.
We see it in the Black PantherParty.
And then when we ask thosepeople about their ancestors and
(31:07):
those connections, we find thatthe grandmother, the
great-grandmother, somebody wasa Garveyite.
And it's not just, you know, inthe American South or in the
American West.
I mean, this is globally, right?
So this is about more than civilrights.
This is about human rights andour assertion to be seen as an
(31:33):
intellectual people, anindependent people, an
autonomous people, aself-sufficient people.
Um, I also hope that the workwidens the conversation, not
only about who is fit to leadand when, but what leadership
(31:54):
needs to look like in momentslike the one we're in, because
2025 and 1925 ain't thatdifferent.
I hope that answered thequestion.
SPEAKER_00 (32:06):
It did.
I appreciate it.
I think in a lot of ways, for meat least, reading this, as you
pointed out, not only cements alot of the pieces of history
that have been missing, um, butas you you pointed out, so
seamlessly connects with many ofthe things in our own time
period.
Um and so I appreciate you somuch, Dr.
(32:28):
Duncan, for joining us for thisepisode of Strictly Facts.
Our listeners, I cannotrecommend enough one of my
favorite reads of the year, AnEfficient Womanhood Woman, and
the making of the UniversalNegro Improvement Association.
It'll be linked in our shownotes.
Um, it's always on our StrictlyFacts syllabus on our website.
So be sure to grab yourselves acopy and learn some of this
(32:51):
history that is so immediatelyneeded.
So again, thank you so much, Dr.
Duncan, for joining me.
Until next time, our listeners,look more.
SPEAKER_01 (33:00):
Thank you, Sister Milla.
Go on good.
SPEAKER_00 (33:03):
Thanks for tuning in to Strictly Facts.
Visit strictlyfactspodcast.comfor more information from each
episode.
Follow us at Strictly Facts Podon Instagram and Facebook and at
Strictly Facts PD on Twitter.
Welcome to Strictly Facts, a guide to Caribbean
history and culture, hosted byme, Alexandria Miller.
Strictly Facts teaches thehistory, politics, and activism
of the Caribbean and connectsthese themes to contemporary
music and popular culture.
Welcome back.
This is part two of our richconversation with Dr.
(00:22):
Natanya Duncan, where wecontinue exploring the
indispensable contributions ofwomen in the Universal Negro
Improvement Association.
And if you missed part one, besure to go back and listen as
this discussion builds directlyon that foundation.
Having you on here, I have totalk about Laura Kofi as you
alluded to earlier.
(00:43):
Just a story that I'm like,where was this?
Um, I don't even really knowwhere to start, but I I sort of
(01:06):
want to say, you know, Princessof God, that there's a, and you
can sort of maybe full out alittle bit more of her life
story for us a bit.
Um, but how did her story reallychange your understanding of the
organization and particularlythe way women were looked at in
the organization, assumingleadership in the ways that
you've outlined for us?
SPEAKER_01 (01:28):
Princess Laura Atakor Kofi, in all honesty,
changed my life.
There were moments when, as youalluded to in grad school, you
spend five or six years, youwrite the thing, you're
finished, you move on, you startteaching, blah, blah, blah.
And they say, okay, so nowwhere's the book?
The reason that the book isfinished is that I wanted the
(01:50):
world to know about this woman,but I didn't have enough to
write a book about her byherself.
So I had to bring her otherfriends into the mix.
Um, Laura Kofi challenged me tounderstand what it meant, one,
to be a Christian, to practiceChristian love.
Because Laura Kofi goes to ameeting that she's invited to by
(02:14):
people who were not always onher side, but she went anyway.
And she went because she trulybelieved that she had the
opportunity to help theorganization stabilize itself in
South Florida at the time.
(02:35):
There was actually two factionsquarreling with each other.
Mr.
Garvey is um out of the UnitedStates at that point.
And there are concerns aboutwhere the new headquarters is
going to be, who's the leadergonna be.
There are persons who are loyalto Mr.
(02:56):
Garvey and um the movement toreincorporate the organization
in Jamaica.
There are people who are loyalto a faction in Philadelphia,
there are people who are loyalto a faction in Cleveland, Ohio,
and then there's still peopletrying to get everything
reconstituted in New York all atthe same time.
(03:17):
And so she walks into a trap,essentially.
And what the police report said,and I think I cite this in the
book, was simply that she wasstanding at the podium, one shot
rang out from the back of theroom, hit her dead center, and
(03:39):
she fell backward, and that wasit.
And in that moment, all I couldthink about was the
assassination of Malcolm X.
SPEAKER_00 (03:48):
I did too.
SPEAKER_01 (03:49):
You know, being killed or murdered, you know,
amongst your own, right?
And at the place where you'resupposed to be, right?
Because it wasn't like she wasin the wrong place at the wrong
time.
This was her meeting.
They invited her to come to themeeting.
They asked her to do somethingat the meeting.
(04:10):
I sat with that.
So let's take a few steps back,right?
And there's some Africanistscholars who are gonna listen to
this and they're gonna writeyou, I'm telling you now,
because they come for me everytime, who argue that she wasn't
Ghanaian.
Her name is not a derivative ofany of the um noble families of
(04:34):
the period.
The New York Times lied and saidthat King Kennispie was coming,
but then I go to Ghana, and Iretrace the steps of a few
scholars who argue for her as anAfrican-born woman who comes to
(04:56):
the United States throughCanada, who spent time in
Alabama, who spent time in NewOrleans, and then eventually
comes to Jacksonville becauseshe's looking for a port city.
The UNIA had a three-year planand a five-year plan that
included planting crops inArkansas and harvesting those
(05:21):
crops for trade throughout thediaspora.
And so she's looking for portcities for the same purpose.
She wants to import export goodsfrom the continent through the
Caribbean and the United States.
Somewhat of a reverse Atlantickind of experience, so to speak,
(05:42):
for lack of a better way to putit.
And so I'm amazed, one, at heraudacity.
She goes to the Atlantapenitentiary to have a
conversation with Mr.
Garvey, and that conversationdoesn't go well.
Mr.
Garvey's not willing to hearfrom her the truths about some
(06:02):
of the persons that he hasdecided are his good friends or
his confidants at the time.
What made Laura Kofi stand outfor me and what made me
understand the impact of aHenrietta Vinton Davis and a
Mamie Demena and a Lavinia Smithand an Asada DeFour was when I
(06:25):
read over and over again, andshe signed up 3,000 people.
And she signed up 3,000 people.
And everyone who wrote abouther, whatever little snippet,
and she signed up 3,000 people.
So I said, no.
No, no, no, no, no, no, no.
Maybe there meant 300, 3,000people in South Florida to sign
(06:46):
up.
No.
No, no, no, no, no, no, no, no,no.
I need to see the paperwork.
I need to find the people.
So she had actually alignedherself with the Prince Hall,
Masons, and Eastern Stars.
So she was actually bringingpeople who already belonged to
(07:06):
the Elks, the Eastern Star, andthe Optimist into the UNIA.
So we had this multiplemembership gang going on, right?
Some of these people alsobelonged to the NAACP.
So that number of 3,000 wasactually quite correct.
(07:27):
Um, because I started looking athow the names sort of uh
duplicated, right, um, indifferent records.
And when I realized that she wasable to pull that many people
in, despite having reservationsof her own, despite criticizing
the organization publicly,despite wanting to uh have the
(07:54):
organization have a firmer lineof demarcation between
organizational practices andreligious practices, I
understood what the efficientwomanhood bridge builder meant.
I understood what it meant to bea partner, and I also came to
understand what it meant to be amentor and model for other women
(08:19):
and men because even after shepasses, um the persons who are
around her in what becomes aDorca Ville, which is now on the
Florida Heritage Trail, decidethat they're not gonna let the
legacy die.
So they charged money for peopleto see her body five cents, use
(08:42):
the money to pay off the land,and finish fixing the house that
she had in Jacksonville, andestablish this space.
And in this space, they're umteaching people Arabic and um,
you know, still postulatizingpeople in a sort of uh black
nationalist Christian umframework.
(09:05):
But isn't that the panultimateefficient womanhood?
I mean, even in death, thiswoman is still feeding people,
she's still impacting people,right?
And it it really forced me toreconsider what black
nationalism politically andeconomically is.
(09:28):
Because we're very caught up inwhat I consider to be, you know,
the costume black nationalism,right?
You know, the the what we wearand, you know, the hotep and
the, you know, we're gonna usecertain phrases when we, you
know, every time somebody saysgrand rising to me, I want to
sit in them and wholly sit down,right?
I can't.
But anyway, um, focus here,academia, right?
(09:50):
So um she had created thislong-lasting legacy that the
state of Florida recognizes tothis day, right?
I mean, and we're not writingabout this.
I mean, every Juneteenth, weshould just be at Adorcaville.
Everybody in Jacksonville shouldjust go to Adorcaville on
(10:11):
Juneteenth.
You know what I'm saying?
Like, this should be ourbarbecue spot and, you know,
kind of thing.
I couldn't fathom how thehistoriography missed her, how
the conversation missed her.
And in looking into it, it wasone, the UNIA's Negro World
newspaper discredited her,right?
(10:34):
They referred to her as not asLaura Kofi, but as Laura Campion
or Laura Champion and said thatshe was actually from um
Georgia, from Macon, Georgia,and that she shouldn't be
trusted, blah, blah, blah.
Now, this is after she'sheralded in the newspaper and
lauded in the newspaper as thebest thing since spiced bread,
(10:56):
right?
And she's like only second to,you know, she's like a John the
Baptist, you know, um, kind offigure.
Uh, as a matter of fact,somebody actually called her a
John the Baptist, right?
In one of the Negro World clips.
So she goes from that to personanon-grata.
So this erasure.
But then the historians buy intothe argument, right?
(11:20):
And so we get lost in whether ornot she's African, whether or
not she's from Georgia, blah,blah, blah.
And I'm sitting there saying,the woman was murdered at a UNIA
meeting.
Hello.
Could we could we deal with thereal story here?
Okay.
And, you know, in looking at it,I said, what about this makes
(11:40):
scholars uncomfortable?
Something about this makesscholars uncomfortable.
You know, and people say, well,we don't have enough um um
information to establish, youknow, look, I started off with a
newspaper clip that I guess theycall a quarter-size page that
just said, her daddy is coming.
(12:01):
That's it.
Right?
Everybody traveled on a ship, soI know I got some shipping
records.
I got what's in the Negro world,I have the court records, and I
have the police report.
I got a chapter.
And I think that understandingthat there are limits to what we
can know based on what is in thearchive, yes.
(12:24):
But then we also have to look atthe information the archive
provides and ask a differentquestion.
Right?
Ask a different question.
I asked a different questionabout Laura Kofi.
I was less concerned about wasshe or was she not from Ghana
and more concerned about whoshot her.
(12:46):
And asking that differentquestion then led me to
understand the ratio of women tomen in the organization and why
a woman who could pull 3,000people might make somebody
nervous, right?
So all I did was change thequestion.
I'm working with the samematerial everybody who argues
with me is working with, right?
(13:07):
Um, the fact that she herselfhad appeared in court twice and
never served any jail time.
You know, all of these add up tosomething in my mind.
And I realized that thisefficient womanhood, this
willingness to partner, shepartnered with the UNIA because
(13:27):
she believed in the objectivesof the UNIA.
She didn't necessarily agreewith all of the methods, but she
agreed with the objectives.
And so therefore, she waswilling to partner and be a part
of and move with and grow andbuild with, right?
One day, there are two moviesthat need to be made.
(13:48):
One, some actress needs to takeup Lady Henrietta Vinton Davis'
story.
She was a Shakespearean actress,she was bad to the bone, she had
her own production company, shewas a playwright, a producer,
she was somebody.
Okay.
And then we need to deal with,you know, Laura Kofi.
In um two more years, it wouldbe 100 years.
(14:11):
And I did set the goal formyself to have a hard and fast
answer on who killed Laura Kofi.
I have my own assertions, but asa scholar and a historian, you
know, citations matter.
I have innuendo and rumor, andI've listened to other people's
(14:31):
oral histories and interviewsand so forth.
And I've read the courttranscripts.
And so that is a question that Ithink we as scholars and as
people who support blackinternationalism, who believe in
black nationalism, who callourselves Pan-Africanists, need
(14:52):
to resolve.
That needs to be resolved.
I hold her in the same esteem asI do Ransom Kuti, who was
murdered by her people.
And I see Laura Kofi as murderedby her people.
SPEAKER_00 (15:07):
Thank you so much for that, because I think in so
many ways, right?
As I, as I was saying, just theway that both her impact and
also her murder just capturedthis history in that chapter of
the book in a way that hasliterally never been uttered to
me in any study, any class onGarvey on the UNIA was
(15:29):
tremendously remarkable.
And I think in a lot of ways,even brings me to my next
question because, you know, indoing some of this work and also
my love of pairing our historywith the way that we show up in
music and popular culture, etc.,I can make and have made a whole
playlist of songs that referenceGarvey, that talk about Garvey's
(15:51):
impetus and importance andfollow Garvey and Traderoad and
all these things, right?
And I don't even know if I canactually name five, right?
And five is a lot speaking here.
So what are sort of some of yourfavorite examples of the way
(16:11):
that the women of the UNIA showup in our um popular culture?
It doesn't necessarily have tobe music, but I think that would
be a great way for our listenersto also connect to the story.
SPEAKER_01 (16:22):
Queen Latifas Ladies First, even the video for Ladies
First is quintessentialgobbyism.
It's efficient womanhood at itsbest.
You know, um it defines it.
See, the thing about efficientwomanhood and the beauty of
efficient womanhood, and in thein the front cover of the book,
(16:44):
I have the artwork um that wasdone that sort of captures um
the different stages ofefficient womanhood in terms of
who the women were uh in theorganization.
Um but I think I would have tosay that one of the things we
(17:05):
have to realize about efficientwomanhood is that it's an
elastic clause kind of um idiomthat it's really about the ways
in which women deliberatelychoose to live their lives.
In the Say Her Name, uh TirannaBurke is the grandchild of
(17:27):
Garbyites.
And I look back at womanly waysin the Negro World newspaper,
where Benizia Demina writes anarticle calling out the
so-called deacons of the churchwho whisper and murmur and call,
(17:48):
cat call to me and say, youknow.
And she's in that article, she'ssaying, How dare you?
Like, you out of your rabidmind, you know.
I recognize in Black LivesMatter the decentralization,
which people are critical of,but I also consider it to be a
beautiful and wonderful thing inthat I see it as a lesson from
(18:14):
how the UNIA operated, whereregionally, locally, the
organization may look a littledifferent in New York than it
looked in Belize, than it lookedin California, than it looked in
South Africa.
Why?
Because it was serving aspecific function or addressing
(18:36):
particular issues that wererelevant to people on the
ground.
So although you had this, youknow, hierarchical, centralized
office space with a set of aimsand objectives of goals, you
could, on your block, in yourcommunity, in your village, like
with my grandmother, determinethat number two and number four
(18:59):
were the most important.
And so that's what we're goingto go after for the next six
months.
Um, I see black economicnationalism as a complete
offshoot of the goals of theUNIA.
I think what we witness with theDetroit Housewives League, what
(19:22):
we're witnessing now in thismoment, where people are going
into a certain store and buyingum ice scrapers for 17 cents and
then going back and returningthem in that same said store to
slow down the works in that saidstore, that name that we're not
going to say.
Um I see it in this moment wherethe bullseye store, um, and I
(19:47):
just drove past the bullseyestore in my community just to
see if we were up in there.
We ain't up in there.
The day before Thanksgiving, weain't up in there.
You know, the idea that from Thespace that we're in, we
recognize the power that wehave.
That there doesn't have to be,I'm, you know, I don't have to
(20:07):
go around showing everybody mymembership card.
The level of consciousness andawareness that I have about who
I am in the world and how Ichoose to show up in the world
is how I see the UNIA, even inthis moment.
So whether it's on Canvas orit's in music, it's, you know,
when we had our FUBU era, ourfor us, by us era, you know, in
(20:31):
my head, you used to laugh atthat and say, you know, those
are the things that Mr.
Garvey would have been happyabout.
Those are the things that theofficial woman would have been
happy about.
Um I, you know, the Auntidonasof the world, right?
Uh, what is happening in Jamaicaright now, um, in terms of the
(20:52):
relief efforts for St.
Elizabeth and Westmoreland.
Um, I myself, you know, someonemessed with me the other day and
said, you really live thatphilosophy, don't you?
Right?
You know, because um, I'm on thephone with complete strangers,
like a friend, call a friend,call a friend.
We found this lady and we needto finish the roof.
You have anything can't help us?
(21:12):
I'm like, yeah, of course.
All right, tell me who to sendit to.
Um, kind of thing.
That kind of of connection anduniversal understanding of the
human condition, right?
It's not just a black condition,it's not just a black woman's
condition, right?
Um, it's how I see itpersonified, this moment in the
(21:35):
culture.
I think the real efficientwomanhood in the angels song
about single mothers, right?
And just sort of turning thestigma on its head.
I think spice is also abrilliant example.
I mean, you know, we could havethe whole sidebar conversation
about the stone that the builderrefused.
(21:58):
But more importantly, right, umthis idea of um how we recycle
and recalibrate the money thatwe earn and channel it back into
our own community in ways thatbuild us and reshape us, right?
(22:21):
I also see it, you know, um, inthe way that Rihanna conducts
herself globally.
The Prime Minister, PrimeMinister Um Moxley of Barbados.
Um, my new dream is to just meether.
Just not even meet her, just bein the same room with her.
(22:43):
And and and she has, you know,her high points and her low
points, and there are all kindsof criticisms.
Um I see it, you know, in theways in which black women are
becoming heads of state, right?
Even when we look up back, um,President Surlee Johnson, right?
Um we look at the Prime Ministerof Trinidad.
(23:03):
You know, we see womengalvanizing um against the gangs
in in Haiti uh right now, right,in defense of their children.
I think by and large, in theAmerican context, we like to
focus on Shirley Chisholm andBarbara Jordan.
You know, Shirley Chisholm alsogrew up in a Garveyite home.
(23:25):
Uh, Sylvia Woods, who I'mworking on as my next research
project, uh, was a labororganizer, co-founder of the AFL
CIO.
And she also ran for politicaloffice.
Charlotte Bass ran for politicaloffice um in the 1950s.
The idea that we look only atthe bigger picture politics, the
(23:52):
famous people, um, it sort of,you know, betrays the relevance
and the significance of theeveryday kinds of activism, the
everyday kinds of choices.
Um, I see the UNIA ironically,you know, in the women in white
in churches, right?
(24:13):
Who, you know, in some ways uhrepresent a sort of vanguard,
right?
We are not going to have anynonsense in here today, right?
Um, and and that nonsense can bethe preacher in the pulpit
because they will take him downwithout a question.
We've seen viral video of womensay, okay, no, no, no, no, no.
(24:35):
We finish with you, right?
And take people off the pulpit,right?
And, you know, it's a thingwhere nobody asked them, nobody
designated them, right?
But from their position aswoman, as a person who has
discernment and understanding,and someone who sees themselves
(24:57):
as responsible for, again, thatpolitics of care.
This is a part of my duty,right?
Um, has nothing to do with myseparate sphere, right, or my
respectability.
You know, it's it's about mypolitics of care and how I
choose to advocate for mycommunity.
And so a lot of that is whatwe're seeing in this moment
(25:18):
globally and locally.
SPEAKER_00 (25:21):
The last thing I want to just sort of talk about
divine timing in a sense.
I remember at the top of thisyear getting your book in the
mail.
It's delivered at my doorstep.
And just a few days later, it'sthe announcement that President
Biden posthumously pardonsGarvey.
Um, and so I just sort of withthat, and I know it it wasn't,
(25:44):
you know, it's just fate, it'sjust the way the world happens.
Um, but I think how do you hopethat, you know, putting all of
these little pieces in tandemtogether or actually very big
pieces between your book,between the pardon, um, between
sort of this regalvanization andawareness.
Um, how do you hope that thisreally helps us further and sort
(26:08):
of deepen our understanding ofGarvey, of the UNIA and its many
complications, but especially ofthe integral role that these
women played in this movement?
SPEAKER_01 (26:19):
Thank you so much for that question.
Uh I'm gonna start to answerthat question by stating a few
facts.
One, Mr.
Garvey was actually arrestedafter a woman went to the New
York district attorney tocomplain that she had not gotten
a refund on her investment inthe Black Star Line, which was
(26:42):
the shipping company establishedby the organization.
And the intention of the BlackStar Line and Trading Company,
Navigation Trading Company, wasessentially to provide
first-class passage to personswho wanted to travel by sea
because they're living duringduring the Jim Crow era, they
were forced to um travel instewardage, even if they paid
(27:06):
first-class ticket price, theystill had to travel in storage
based on their color.
So, Mr.
Garvey actually ends up on trialbecause of black women.
While this woman in particular,um, and I talk about this in the
book a little bit, was on thestand, she's being questioned as
to how much did she invest, whendid she invest, why did she
(27:29):
invest, etc.
And then they ask an interestingquestion Are you still a member
of the Universal NegroImprovement Association?
And she says, yes.
Wait, you're suing Mr.
Garvey, you want your money backfrom the Black Star Line, but
you are still a member?
(27:50):
Yes.
How come?
The Black Star Line is formoney, but the UNIA is for life.
And so Mr.
Garvey's pardon is not anexoneration.
And I argue in the book thatHenrietta Vinton Davis should
have been on trial too.
(28:12):
Elias, Elias Garcia should havebeen on trial too, because they
signed the stock certificates,and Henrietta Vinton Davis
signed more stock certificatesthan Marcus Garvey.
We have to recognize, and andthe way that um President
Biden's forgiveness read, hecounted Mr.
(28:33):
Garve as a civil rights leader.
And I think that that's probablyone of the greatest
understatements of the 21stcentury, because Mr.
Garvey was more than a civilrights leader.
I think my book shows that thisis about more than just civil
rights.
This is about black autonomy andblack independence.
(28:54):
So my hope in telling this storyabout how women negotiated, how
women could invest in the BlackStar Line, be disappointed in
the Black Star Line, how theBlack Star Line could collapse
as a company and then finditself reconstituted.
Six months after Mr.
Garby goes to jail, they bringback the Black Star Line, start
(29:18):
it all over again.
And the same people who boughtstock the first time come back
and buy stock a second time.
And there's a woman who writesinto the Negro world and says,
please, white people, mind yourbusiness.
It is our money, and we will dowith it what we will.
This does not concern you.
That's not about civil rights.
(29:39):
That's about something else.
And so I hope that the workhelps people see why America in
the 21st century could foolitself by saying they didn't
know or didn't believe that ablack woman could be ready on
day one to be president of theUnited States.
(30:00):
When we had a woman primeminister in England for a number
of years, we had a woman head inIndia, we had a woman head on
the continent, we had severalwomen heads on the continent, we
have women heads throughout theCaribbean, but we didn't think
that this person would be readyon day one for any number of,
(30:22):
you know, silly reasons.
When for the past 100 years, theefficient womanhood strategy not
only set up a structure for howblack women could negotiate
spaces to protect and defendthemselves and their families,
(30:43):
but essentially provided theplatform for what we come to
understand to be the nascentcivil rights movement.
Much of what we see the women inthe UNIA practicing and working
out and flushing out, we see inthe civil rights movement.
We see it in the Black PantherParty.
And then when we ask thosepeople about their ancestors and
(31:07):
those connections, we find thatthe grandmother, the
great-grandmother, somebody wasa Garveyite.
And it's not just, you know, inthe American South or in the
American West.
I mean, this is globally, right?
So this is about more than civilrights.
This is about human rights andour assertion to be seen as an
(31:33):
intellectual people, anindependent people, an
autonomous people, aself-sufficient people.
Um, I also hope that the workwidens the conversation, not
only about who is fit to leadand when, but what leadership
(31:54):
needs to look like in momentslike the one we're in, because
2025 and 1925 ain't thatdifferent.
I hope that answered thequestion.
SPEAKER_00 (32:06):
It did.
I appreciate it.
I think in a lot of ways, for meat least, reading this, as you
pointed out, not only cements alot of the pieces of history
that have been missing, um, butas you you pointed out, so
seamlessly connects with many ofthe things in our own time
period.
Um and so I appreciate you somuch, Dr.
(32:28):
Duncan, for joining us for thisepisode of Strictly Facts.
Our listeners, I cannotrecommend enough one of my
favorite reads of the year, AnEfficient Womanhood Woman, and
the making of the UniversalNegro Improvement Association.
It'll be linked in our shownotes.
Um, it's always on our StrictlyFacts syllabus on our website.
So be sure to grab yourselves acopy and learn some of this
(32:51):
history that is so immediatelyneeded.
So again, thank you so much, Dr.
Duncan, for joining me.
Until next time, our listeners,look more.
SPEAKER_01 (33:00):
Thank you, Sister Milla.
Go on good.
SPEAKER_00 (33:03):
Thanks for tuning in to Strictly Facts.
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