“The Efficient Womanhood of The Universal Negro Improvement Association”

Dr. Natanya Duncan, assistant professor of history, Morgan State University, Baltimore, discusses the women of the Universal Negro Improvement Association during its heyday from 1919 to 1930.  These women defied prescribed notions of domestic duty, blurred the lines drawn for “true” women in the early 20th century and derived respectability through a practice of nationalist practices in public places. The Alice Paul Institute is a nonprofit organization dedicated to educating the public about the life and work of New Jersey’s most famous suffragist, Alice Stokes Paul (1885-1977), author of the Equal Rights Amendment, founder of the National Woman’s Party, and a lifelong activist for women’s equality.