 In the small world of Harlem, Garvey rented offices for his Universal Negro Improvement Association (UNIA) in the same building as those of "The Messenger".Randolph and Owen continued to criticize Garvey.In the September 1922 issue, they described Garvey as a tool of the recently revived Ku Klux Klan (KKK), saying he was "the chief hat-in-hand, me-too-boss 'good nigger' puppet of the Ku Klux Klan Kleagle, Edward Young Clarke of Georgia.”

During the 1920s, the "Messenger" also published a series of essays known as "These 'Colored' United States", from January 1923 through September 1926.