Advance Division of the Universal Negro Improvement Organization, 1939.

The UNIA, founded by Marcus Garvey in 1914, advocated universal black solidarity and exerted considerable influence prior to Garvey’s 1925 deportation. The organization was headquartered on 135th Street in Harlem, and operated hundreds of chapters worldwide.

The buildings on in this photograph were demolished by Robert Moses, under the pretense of slum clearance, for the construction of the Lenox Terrace housing development, which now occupies the superblock between 132nd and 135th Streets, Fifth Avenue, and Malcolm X Boulevard (then Lenox Avenue).