Marcus Garvey and Henrietta Vinton Davis
to Emperor Haile Selassie I¹

Kingston, [ca. 8 November 1930]

His Majesty Ras Tafari,
        Greetings from Ethiopians of Western World.   May your reign be peaceful, prosperous, progressive.  Long live your Majesty.
                    MARCUS GARVEY President-General
                    HENRIETTA DAVIS Secretary-General
                    Universal Negro Improvement Association

Printed in NW, 8 November 1930.

        1.   The coronation of Haile Selassie stirred proud identification and enthusiasm among African-Americans, including many Garveyites, who wrote in to the Negro World to express their support.  The UNIA paper carried extensive coverage of the events surrounding the coronation (NW, 27 September, 25 October, 1 November, 8 November, and 15 November 1930, 7 February 1931).  Egerton B. Thomas of the New York Garvey Club associated Ras Tafarai's rise in Ethiopia with "a Negro prince" being "born in Jamaica," a reference to the birth of Marcus Garvey, Jr., who was born to Amy Jacques Garvey and Marcus Garvey on 17 September 1930, two weeks before the coronation of Haile Selassie (G & G, p. 207).

The Marcus Garvey and Universal Negro Improvement Association Papers, edited by Robert A. Hill (University of California Press 1983), vol. 7, p. 442.