The Pre-UNIA Travels of Henritta Vinton Davis

• In Event: Black Folk, Black Art, and Social Movements

Abstract

This paper examines the travels of the United States first famous Black actress, Henrietta Vinton Davis (1860-1941). It explores her rise in theater and how she used the stage to promote positive images of Blackness to counter 19th and early 20th century minstrel images. Davis later became the international organizer and vice president of the Universal Negro Improvement Association (UNIA), where she mentored Marcus Garvey. This presentation argues that Davis's travels across the United States, Caribbean, and Central America, to perform monologues and plays forged a diasporic network integral to the UNIA's development. She was uniquely qualified to be the organization’s first international organizer.

Author

• Evan Wade, San Joaquin Delta College