Urban whites resented the
influx of rural blacks from the South who were pouring into their
cities, and they tried to confine the newcomers to dilapidated,
older neighborhoods. To do this, they were quite willing to
resort to violence, and, between 1917 and 1921 Chicago was struck
with a rash of house bombings as whites tried to hold the line.
During these years, there was one racially motivated bombing
every twenty days.
In the midst of such conditions, white America did not seem very
beautiful, and black pride, black identity, and black solidarity had
an appeal which was novel. Chapters of the Universal Negro
Improvement Association sprang up all across the country.
Although there has been considerable debate about the number of
members in the U.N.I.A., it was clearly the largest mass organization
in Afro-American history. Its membership has been estimated
between two and four million. In any case, its sympathizers and
well-wishers were ubiquitous. The "respectable" N.A.A.C.P. never
reached such grass-roots support, and even with its white liberal
financing, its capital was much smaller than that which Garvey was
able to tap from the lower-class blacks alone.
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