finished masterpiece.” The piece ends with a
rather generous exhortation to all about the value
of heaven and its welcome of “white and black,
rich and poor, of whatever caste or creed many
enter and find comfort and ease and food and
drink.” Coleman uses a nontraditional narrative
style in “Unfinished Masterpieces,” and the story
suffers slightly from its lack of momentum, true cri-
sis, or satisfying resolution.
“Unimportant Man, An” Dorothy West
(1928)
A short story by DOROTHYWESTpublished in the
Boston-based SATURDAYEVENINGQUILL.It is a
heart-wrenching story of one man’s unsuccessful
efforts to create a career and family.
Bibliography
Jones, Sharon. Rereading the Harlem Renaissance: Race,
Class, and Gender in the Fiction of Jessie Fauset, Zora
Neale Hurston, and Dorothy West.Westport, Conn.:
Greenwood Press, 2002.
Universal Negro Improvement Association
(UNIA)
An impressive, global organization dedicated to
the uplift, political independence, and economic
success of peoples of African descent. Founded in
1914 in Kingston, Jamaica, by MARCUSGARVEY,
the UNIA, as it was called, became one of the
best-known race organizations of the Harlem Re-
naissance era.
Garvey established the first American UNIA
branch in HARLEMshortly after he arrived in
- By the 1920s, the organization had chap-
ters throughout the Caribbean, Latin America,
sub-Saharan AFRICA, and the United States. The
UNIA was dedicated to political independence,
articulating race pride, and challenging colonial
rule throughout the world. Garvey garnered
much attention because of the pomp and circum-
stance that he incorporated into UNIA events,
his activism, and his searing critiques of the NA-
TIONALASSOCIATION FOR THEADVANCEMENT
OFCOLOREDPEOPLE. In addition, his bold finan-
cial ventures, which included the establishment
of factories, restaurants, and the ill-fated Black
Starshipping line, explained his success and the
degree to which he was deemed a threat by fed-
eral agencies that ultimately succeeded in jailing
him on mail fraud charges and then deporting
him.
The official publication of the UNIA was
NEGROWORLD,a popular weekly newspaper. Its
editorial leadership and staff included WILFRED
ADOLPHUS DOMINGO, a nationalist and fellow
West Indian, Amy Jacques Garvey, the second wife
of the UNIA leader, and HUBERTHARRISON, the
individual who first invited Garvey to address
African Americans in New York City.Bibliography
Cronon, Edmund. Black Moses: The Story of Marcus
Garvey and the Universal Negro Improvement Associ-
ation. Madison: University of Wisconsin Press,
1987.
Hill, Robert, ed. The Marcus Garvey and Universal Negro
Improvement Association Papers.Berkeley: University
of California Press, 1983–95.
Lewis, Rupert. Marcus Garvey: Anti-Colonial Champion.
Trenton, N.J.: Africa World Press, 1988.
Smith-Irvin, Jeannette. Footsoldiers of the Universal Negro
Improvement Association: Their Own Words.Trenton,
N.J.: Africa World Press, 1989.
Stein, Judith. The World of Marcus Garvey: Race and
Class in Modern Society.Baton Rouge: Louisiana
State University Press, 1986.University of Chicago
The university founded by John D. Rockefeller
after the demise during the 1880s of the first insti-
tution of the same name that was established in- The institution opened in 1892, and its first
president was William Rainey Harper, a gifted
scholar who earned a Ph.D. from YALEUNIVER-
SITYwhen he was 18 years old. The university re-
cruited leading scholars of the day to join its
faculty. It also achieved academic history by found-
ing some of the first major departments in Ameri-
can colleges. The university was home to the
nation’s first sociology department.
Many Harlem Renaissance figures had strong
ties to the university. REGINAANDREWS,BENJAMIN
BRAWLEY,ALLISON DAVIS, Katherine Dunham,
JOHN HOPE,CHARLES BERTRAMJOHNSON, and
536 “Unimportant Man, An”