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Jainisr . a .. . .. . .......:.x:.. 1.?h..!... .25.... .13.: .3...» . . 2.. 3.. a... 1.. .1 x .1 :2. t. it... isfidth\)7. . v . .ir . x . ..\.. .a... «1.133.... .322... 37.23.! fir . 3.2: 1.3.. . . .3133... 3.... 2...: J {I 7.4. £0.51... . 3 LIBRARY 200i, Michigan State University This is to certify that the dissertation entitled HAITI’S “SECOND INDEPENDENCE" AND, THE PROMISE OF PAN-AMERICAN COOPERATION, 1934-1956 presented by Chantalle Francesca Verna has been accepted towards fulfillment of the requirements for the Doctoral degree in History l K /Major ssor’s Signature .4 - §/— 0 5 L/ Date MSU is an Affirmative Action/Equal Opportunity Institution PLACE IN RETURN BOX to remove this checkout from your record. To AVOID FINES return on or before date due. MAY BE RECALLED with earlier due date if requested. DATE DUE DATE DUE DATE DUE FEé ‘1 '7 2007 2/05 clelTiC/DatoOandd-pts HAITI’S “SECOND INDEPENDENCE” AND THE PROMISE OF PAN-AMERICAN COOPERATION, 1934-1956 by Chantalle Francesca Verna A DISSERTATION Submitted to Michigan State University In partial fulfillment of the requirements For the degree of DOCTOR OF PHILOSOPHY Department of History 2005 ABSTRACT HAITI’S “SECOND INDEPENDENCE” AND THE PROMISE OF PAN-AMERICAN COOPERATION, 1934-1956 by Chantalle Francesca Verna On August 14, 1934, Haitians celebrated the dawn of their nation’s “Second Independence” — the end of the United States’ nineteen-year occupation of the Caribbean nation. However, the departure of US. military officials from Haiti did not end the United States” involvement in Haitian affairs. Indeed, as this dissertation shows, ties between Haiti and the US. were cemented and expanded during the post-occupation period. Individuals from Haiti and the US. became increasingly familiar with one another. They made efforts to re-conceptualize and re-structure their relationships with one another. They traveled with increasing frequency to the other’s country. And, they collaborated to address factors that they considered to be obstacles to Haiti’s national progress and international status. This culture of cooperation was primarily due to the prominence and wide-ranging influence of Pan- American ideals during the mid-twentieth century. This multivalent political ideology was rooted in memories about a shared history between the United States, Canada, the independent nations of the Caribbean and Latin America; and, it stressed the equality and interdependence of the Americas, regardless of race, culture or economic status. Inspired by the promise of these ideals, individuals from Haiti and the United States engaged in programs of cooperation as a strategy for fulfilling the revolutionary and nation-building ideals that Haitians struggled to achieve since their independence from France in 1804. In this dissertation, I examine four types of projects to discuss the culture of cooperation emerging out of the legacies of the US. military occupation and the evolution of Haiti-US. relations between 1934 and 1956. These projects are: 1. The effort to re-conceptualize Haiti’s diplomatic ties to the United States; 2. The attempt to promote intellectual cooperation between Haiti and the US; 3. The effort to modernize Haiti’s religious mores; and, 4. The project of stimulating change through the creation of a community-based development model. I draw on a body of evidence from archives in Haiti and the United States including the correspondence of Haitian Presidents Sténio Vincent and Elie Lescot, the papers of Maurice Dartigue and Jean Price-Mars, and reports from individuals working on missions to Haiti sponsored by the Office of Inter-American Affairs, Rockefeller Foundation, Baha’i Inter-America Teaching Campaign, and UNESCO. These sources are complemented by oral histories and writings printed in contemporary periodicals. The testimonies of public officials, intellectuals, prominent and not-so-prominent citizens from these sources offer some insights on the transnational nature of nation- building and international relations in the Americas. This dissertation, then, serves in part to help us understand the pre-history of the Haitian Diaspora’s dramatic expansion to the United States during the 1960s, and the on-going transnational struggle to establish mutually-beneficial ties between Haiti and the United States during the twenty-first century. Copyright by CHANTALLE FRANCESCA VERNA 2005 DEDICATION In honor and memory of Dr. Ruth Simms Hamilton, we move ONWARDS!!! ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS Preparing this dissertation has been a professional and personal development process. It has affirmed some key universal truths in life, including the importance of patiently honoring the processes required to successfully reach one’s goals. I thank all the individuals and institutions that supported me through this process. Their contributions are far greater than I can possibly reflect upon here. I hope that this dissertation and the work that I commit myself to in the future can demonstrate my heartfelt appreciation. At Michigan State University, I was fortunate to train under the guidance of highly respectable scholars and admirable human beings. In their own ways, they each pushed me to produce quality scholarship that honors the history I respectfully seek to write. The dissertation committee, led by Drs. Laurent Dubois and Darlene Clark Hine, included Drs. Peter Beattie, Leslie Moch, Richard Thomas, and from the Music Department, Dr. Michael Largey. Dr. Dubois was the selfless torch bearer who held the flame that kept me moving fonNard. Dr. Darlene Clark Hine was a powerful model of the rightful place and amazing potential for women in the academy. Other women at MSU who inspired and mentored me in the same spirit include: Drs. Leslie Moch, June Manning Thomas, Daina Ramey Berry, and the late Ruth Simms Hamilton. Fabulous colleagues and friends were central to the successful completion of my dissertation. Millery Polyné, now Assistant Professor of vi History at CUNY—Staten Island, was and continues to be my number one partner in the professional process. Thank you, Dr. Polyné for your constant affirrnation and for never ceasing to help me stay on-track by asking: what is the story? I am grateful for my fellowship circle: Anne Heutsche, Cecilia Samonte, LaTrese Adkins, Monique Chism, and Pamela Martin graciously offered an abundance of wisdom, prayers, and love. Other champion graduate students and sister-friends include: Mary Mwiandi (our honorary matriarch), Nadeve Menard, Charrnagne Andrews, Vera Benedito, Sarah Arvey, and Gina Ulysse. Thanks to several other girlfriends who helped to sustain and nourish me, while providing assistance in whatever ways they could: Amy Hereford, Judy Polyné, Odalys Perez, and Sandra Ossé. One other person gave far more to this project than I believe either of us could have imagined would occur when we became friends in the fall of 2003: Léonce Limousin. Thank you Léonce, for your generous spirit and for being there at each critical hour (literally and figuratively) of this process. My family supported me through my studies with unassuming pride, patience, and prayers. I thank them for offering all that they could to ensure my success. Although I cannot recognize each individual, I would be remiss if I did not thank my grandparents, Clara and Techlerr Baron, and my parents, Monique Baron and Alex Verna. My mother was doubly courageous by allowing me to move back home and set up shop for the dissertation writing. During that time, she provided me with unconditional love, food, shelter, and allowances. My dearest aunt and uncle, Maguy and Jean Emeran, did the vii same by welcoming me to be their daughter-in-residence during my research year in Haiti. They and other family in Haiti, including Genevieve Aubry, Max Cameau, Paula Celestin and Raymonde Pun also helped me acquire the resources and make the critical contacts I needed for gathering the information I traveled to collect. Through my contacts in Haiti, l was able to identify useful primary sources of information (documents and interviewees), become familiar with and secure key texts produced by Haitian scholars, and develop my capacity to participate in the local intellectual culture. Thank you to my “big brothers,” Jean—David Desrouleaux and Fedo Boyer, for helping me to muster the courage to travel in the first place. Among my extended family in Haiti: Maxime Leon, Max Penette, Cepha Celestin, Georges Condé, and Jacques Thebaud allowed me to engage them for hours of conversation, and continuously came to me with new ideas about how I could make progress with my project. I also benefited from the wisdom of several members of the Haitian academy and intellectual community. I thank the late Remy Zamor, Laennec Hurbon, and Suzy Castor for their mentorship. Thank you to the faculty of the College Université Carai‘bes, directed by Jocelyn Levy, for providing me with an academic home. And, among the wealth of open-door invitations extended to me, I say a special thank you to Nirva Jean-Jacques, Marie-Carmel Lafontante, Michlet Divers, Marie-Lourdes Elgirus, Consuela Mevs, the late Gerard Pierre-Charles, and the late Ernest Léveille. viii The process of collecting primary sources in Haiti required a lot of patience and determination, but the returns were abundant. As with other aspects of the country, there are so many gems to be discovered, exploited, and preserved for the benefit of Haiti and the world. Thank you to Claudinette Fouchard-Bonnefil, Henri and Roger Lescot, and Marie-Madeleine Price-Mars, who invited me into their homes to share their stories and an abundance of materials bequeathed by their eminent fathers. In addition to family collections, l was fortunate to gain access to several private and public institutional collections. A special thanks to Guerlita Faubert and her staff, particularly Johnny Saintelus and Patrick Multidor, at the Historical Archives of the Archives National; and, to Patrick Tardieu at the Bibliothéque Haitienne, Petit Seminaire College Saint Martial. In addition to documents, I had the privilege of speaking with individuals who lived through the past that I explore in this dissertation. Thank you to each interviewee, those cited in the text and those who othenNise influenced my understanding of this study-topic, for trusting me with your memories, and for affinning the idea that historical writing can be useful in our present-lives and for our future. In the United States, conversations with Haitian immigrants (individuals who participated in the programs of cooperation that I study here) kindled the fire that got this project underway. The competence and generosity of archivists and librarians helped this historian realize her endeavor. A special thank you to Andre Elizee of the Schomburg who affirmed the history I sought ix to write by introducing me to the Dartigue Papers; Lewis Walker of the Baha’i National Archives; the impressive team of archivists at the Rockefeller Archive Center; and Max Manigat. The production of this dissertation would be impossible without the generous institutional support I received in the United States. This included fellowship support from Michigan State University, the Social Science Research Council, and the Rockefeller Archive Center. A special thanks to the support staff at MSU, particularly Janet Roe-Darden. Also, the Committee on Institutional Cooperation Traveling Scholar Program enabled me to participate in a Latin American Research seminar led by Rebecca Scott, at the University of Michigan. That fall 2000 seminar helped me produce the first draft of writing that would become this dissertation. In Miami, Erica Windler and Elena Sabogal assisted me in securing a visiting scholar appointment at the University of Miami’s Center for Latin American Studies. This 2003-05 appointment gave me access to critical library materials and the intellectual space to discuss my ideas. To all who participated in this process, I say thank you. May our efforts help to usher in greater human respect, peace, and prosperity, in Haiti, the United States, and throughout our world. TABLE OF CONTENTS KEY TO ABBREVIATIONS ................................................................. xii HAITIAN ADMINISTRATIONS, 1934-1956 ............................................. xiii INTRODUCTION ................................................................................. 1 CHAPTER ONE Pan-Americanism: Historical Memories and the Shaping of Post- Occupation Ties between Haiti and the United States ..................... 36 CHAPTER TWO Intellectual Cooperation: A Strategy for Bureaucratic and Civic Reform ........................................................................... 70 CHAPTER THREE Religious Approaches to Material Development: The Baha’i Inter- America Teaching Campaign in Haiti .......................................... 112 CHAPTER FOUR Haiti, the Rockefeller Foundation, and UNESCO: A Pilot Project in International (Under)-Development... . . . . .. . . . . . . ........161 CONCLUSION ................................................................................ 211 WORKS CITED ............................................................................... 228 xi ACLS ANH EBP FC FE IAC JM LC LGP LSA MAE MDP NAR NSA PMC PSCSM R RAC RG SLG UNESCO KEY TO ABBREVIATIONS American Council of Learned Societies Ancien Archives National d’Hai'ti Papers of Ellsworth Blackwell Jean Fouchard Collection Fundamental Education Inter-America Committee John Marshall Elie Lescot Collection Papers of Louis Gregory Local Spiritual Assembly Ministere d’Affairs Etrangeres Papers of Maurice Dartigue Nelson A. Rockefeller National Spiritual Assembly Jean Price-Mars Collection Petit Seminaire College Saint Martial Register Rockefeller Archives Center Record Group Saint-Louis Gonzague United Nations Educational, Scientific, and Cultural Organization xii HAITIAN ADMINISTRATIONS, 1934-1956 Sténio Vincent November 1930 - May 1941 Elie Lescot May 1941 — January 1946* Durmarsais Estimé August 1946 — May 1950* Paul Eugene MagIoire December 1950 - December 1956 *Interim Military Administrations ruled in between the coup d’états that removed and the inaugurations that installed the respective elected officials. xiii INTRODUCTION On August 14, 1934, at the Champs de Mars in Port-au-Prince, Haitians gathered to watch the lowering of the US. flag and the raising of their blue and red banner of sovereignty. The Haitian daily newspapers reported that on this final eve of nineteen-years of US. occupation, an enthusiastic and emotional crowd of nearly 30,000 people filled the circular plaza facing the presidential palace. They filled the steps of the nearby tribunal, and perched themselves on walls, trees, and rooftops.1 According to Le Nouvelliste, the people “thought they were dreaming [because] they had fought [and] resisted seemingly in vain” through the past decades.2 Haiti Journal described an evening filled with suffocating suspense: “The sky was a dirty pearl grey and we felt a storm brewing. Not a breath of air, it was very hot.”3 Reportedly, vibrant cheers and applause erupted as Haiti’s “Second Liberator,” President Sténio Vincent’s motorcade entered the General Quarters. A persistent clamor by the crowd drowned out the final notes of the Star-Spangled Banner, which guided the lowering of the US. stars-and-stripes. The reporters described the growing exaltations from the crowd as the Haitian Garde played the Haitian national anthem, La Dessalinienne and Haiti’s bi-colored flag was raised.4 According to 1 Summary based on news clips reprinted in Jean Desquiron, Haiti 3 la une : Une anthologie de la presse haitienne de 1724 a 1934, tome vi, 1931-1934, (Port-au-Prince : I’Imprimeur II, 1997), 208-212. Clippings from Le Nouvelliste no. 13373, reprinted in Desquiron, Haiti, 208 and Haiti Journal, no. 1338, 210-211. 2 Clippings from Le Nouve/Iiste, no. 13373, reprinted in Desquiron, Haiti, 208. 3 Clippings from Haiti Journal, no. 1338, reprinted in Desquiron, Haiti, 210-211. ‘ Clippings from Le Nouve/liste, no. 13374, reprinted in Desquiron, Haiti, 209. 1 Le Nouvelliste, “it would take a few days to adjust [Haitian] eyes” to the sight of the raised flag. With a final twenty-one canon salute, the crowd became “increasingly reverent" as it observed the closing of the ceremony honoring Haiti’s second independence.5 Haitian President Vincent’s declaration of a second independence was more than the proud marking of a return to Haitian political sovereignty after nearly two decades of US. occupation. It was a second attempt by Haitians to prove to themselves and to the international community that they had the capacity to exist independently of the ruling hand of a foreign authority. The declaration was an attempt to attain mutually-beneficial co-existence between Haiti and the rest of the world. 6 This was something that leading political powers such as the United States, France, and the Vatican had rendered impossible when they refused to formally recognize Haiti’s declaration of independence from France in 1804. At the dawn of Haiti’s Second Independence, individuals from Haiti and the United States embraced the promising possibilities of the post-occupation period. There were stark contrasts between the diplomatic isolation, economic exploitation, and ethnocentric discrimination that Haitians endured after 1804 and the circumstances under which Haitians would pursue nation-building in the fall of 1934. Instead of the devastating liability of a society that had suffered enormous destruction during the revolutionary wars, Haiti’s post- 5 lbid. ‘ Brenda Gayle Plummer discusses this effort during the nineteenth century in Haiti and the Great Powers, 1902-1915 (Baton Rouge: Louisiana State University Press, 1988), 1- 14; 15-40. occupation period began with the relative advantage of newly-constructed roads, buildings, and administrative structures established by occupation officials whose departure was finalized through diplomatic agreements. Moreover, instead of the earlier political hostility, the political climate of the mid-twentieth century was fueled by the ideals of Pan-Americanism, a political ideology that stressed the equality and interdependence of the United States, Canada, and the independent nations of the Caribbean and Latin America, regardless of race, culture or economic status. This suggested that Haitians would find support for the fulfillment of their political ideals and their desire to secure practical assistance from their hemispheric neighbors. Under these conditions, Haitians who engaged in the inter-American culture of the post- occupation period believed that they could finally secure Haiti’s political sovereignty, gain a degree of economic prosperity, and develop Haiti’s international respectability. This dissertation examines how public officials and citizens from Haiti and the United States sought to use ties between the two countries as a strategy for achieving uplift and progress for Haiti. The aspirations of individuals engaged in programs of cooperation between Haiti and the United States reflect the prominence of and the wide-ranging influence of Pan- American ideals during the mid-twentieth century. As the evidence I present demonstrates, individuals (public officials, intellectuals, and not-so-prominent citizens) and institutions (governmental, philanthropic, corporate, and community-based) from both nations strived to make the concept of inter- American cooperation a lived reality that could fulfill century-old revolutionary and nation-building ideals held across the Americas. Haiti-U. S. Relations before the Second Independence To appreciate the concept of a “second independence” and the Haitian desire to capitalize on Pan-American ideals, it is necessary to briefly consider Haitian history in the aftermath of independence from France in 1804. Haitians garnered a unique place for themselves in the development of American civilization when they abolished slavery and attained their independence by way of a popular revolution.7 Although it followed the founding of the United States, Haitian independence explicitly challenged the discriminatory principles upon which US. leaders developed their national community. While the perpetuation of slavery and the systematic marginalization of non-Whites continued in the US, Haiti’s revolutionaries struggled to establish a nation free of slavery and racial domination. As an example of black self-rule, Haiti was a nation-building model that variously inspired and disturbed individuals across the Americas.8 7 For a comprehensive account of the Haitian Revolution, see: Laurent Dubois, Avengers of the New World: The Story of the Haitian Revolution (Belknap Press, 2004). 8 Dubois, Avengers of the New World; David Patrick Geggus, ed., Impact of the Haitian Revolution in the Atlantic World (Columbia. 80.: University of South Carolina, 2001); David Barry Gaspar and David Patrick Geggus, eds., A Turbulent Time: The French Revolution and the Greater Caribbean, (Bloomington: Indiana University Press, 1997); Alfred Hunt, Haiti’s Influence in Antebellum America (Baton Rouge, LA, 1988); Ada Ferrer, Insurgent 4 The United States’ foreign policy diplomatically isolated and economically exploited Haiti during the nineteenth century. Between 1804 and 1862, the United States refused to formally recognize Haiti, while maintaining unbalanced commercial relations with the island nation. Political leaders believed that acknowledging a nation established through the destruction of slavery would threaten the United States’ slave-based society and economy. Nevertheless, commercial relations persisted to the benefit of US. merchants, who increasingly exported goods to Haiti while importing little. For example, in 1821, the import-export ratio was 45:25 percent, accounting for 79 percent of Haiti’s trade deficit.9 U.S. merchants seeking to maximize their profits continuously petitioned for diplomatic recognition of Haiti; however, formal relations would not be established until the US. Civil War. Furthermore, when diplomatic relations were established, they did not necessarily aid Haiti. The first Haitian-American commercial treaty signed in 1865 led to a quadrupling of US. imports to Haiti. The demand for Haitian products, such as coffee and cotton, was already met by the southern United States’ markets.1o Throughout its early economic history then, Haiti had a negative balance of trade with the United States. Cuba: Race, Nation, and Revolution, 1868-1898 (Chapel Hill: University of North Carolina Press, 1999). 9 Michel Rolph Trouillot, State Against Nation: The Origins and Legacy of Duvalierism (New York: Monthly Review Press, 1990), 53 1° Gusti Gaillard-Pourchet, L’expen‘ence haitienne de la dette extén'eure ou une production caféiere piI/ée, 1875-1915 (2nd edition, Port-au-Prince: lmprimerie Henri Deschamps, 2001), 25. The United States’ economic and, eventually, political influence in Haiti was based upon the dependence of Haitian leaders on foreign capital. Haitian leaders in the nineteenth and twentieth centuries ceded their economic independence to foreigners. The most striking instance occurred in 1825 when Haitian President Jean Boyer agreed to reimburse France for its colonial losses during the Haitian Revolution—an estimated 150 million francs, at the time. In return, Boyer secured diplomatic recognition from France. The 1825 indemnity agreement also reduced French customs at Haiti’s ports by fifty percent. The agreement with France underwent several re-negotiations throughout the late nineteenth century and early twentieth century. 1‘ In general, the plantation system’s demise and the emergence of import-export opportunities negatively affected the Haitian economy. Landowners and statesmen allied with primarily foreign merchants to secure positions of power and generate personal income. Meanwhile, Haiti’s majority peasant population continued to bear the burden of taxes without securing economic or political gains for themselves. During times of political turmoil, the Haitian peasantry frequently protested this order. They participated in regional movements seeking to usurp political power. While often enlisted by force, peasants also enlisted in response to promises of agricultural aid during difficult economic times. But, these ‘revolutions’ were typically financed by foreign merchants who profited from Haiti’s political instability, as the United “ Ibid., 20-22. States did in 1915.12 By relinquishing Haiti’s economic autonomy, Haitian leaders debilitated Haiti’s political independence. Some Haitian leaders did seek to limit the power of foreign capital in Haiti. Haiti’s founder and first president, Jean Jacques Dessalines, included a stipulation in his 1805 constitution that foreigners of the “white race” were prohibited from owning property in Haiti.13 To regulate the prominence of foreigners in Haiti commercial affairs, some leaders limited the assignment of consignment licenses to Haitian or US. firms. Furthermore, trade regulations required foreign merchants to depart Haiti’s ports with “a diversified load of local goods, mainly cotton, sugar, and coffee." ‘4 But, these efforts were compromised by the free trade concessions under Boyer, who granted France a “most favored nation” trading status as part of the 1838 indemnity re- negotiations. Nonetheless, the issue of foreign capital continued to be at the center of political debates. Liberal politicians critiqued the Nationalist party (in power, from 1825 to 1875) for not limiting the entry of foreign capital. When the Liberals gained power in 1876, however, they failed to institute any of the protectionist policies they had traditionally insisted upon. Thus, despite some attempts, the majority of Haiti’s political leaders failed to counter the trend ‘2 Trouillot, State Against Nation; Gaillard-Pourchet, L’expén'ence haitienne; Mimi Sheller, Democracy Alter Slavery: Black Publics and Peasant Radicalism in Haiti and Jamaica (London: Macmillan Education Ltd., 2000). '3 Gaillard-Pourchet, L'expén‘ence haitienne. 1‘ Trouillot, State Against Nation, 65-66. 7 toward dependence on foreign capital. Indeed, many instead took advantage of their position to profit from foreign trade.15 The United States secured its financial prominence and reasserted its dominance in Haitian economic affairs at the beginning of the twentieth century. Between 1903 and 1911, US. imports to Haiti increased two-fold through the work of Levantine merchants backed by US. creditors and State Department officials, who provided dollars and passports to facilitate the promotion of US. commercial interests. Also during the first decade of the twentieth century, US. financial interests began gaining control over the Banque Nationale de la République d’Haiti (BNRH). The National City Bank gained 40% of the BNRH’s titles. In 1911, the National City Bank’s vice- president, Roger L. Farnham, became vice-president of the BNRH. By 1912, the BNRH board was entirely composed of US. citizens.16 There was also a proliferation of US. commercial contracts in Haiti. The most “resounding failure" for Haiti was the Mac Donald agreement (1910) for the development of a railroad (between the Haitian capital, Port-au-Prince, and the northern city of Cap-Haitien) and fig-banana developments (in the Artibonite region), which did little more than add to Haiti’s debts." The transfer of Haiti’s financial debts from France consummated the transition towards Haitian economic dependence on the United States. ‘8 ‘5 Gaillard-Pourchet, L’experience haitienne, 33-4, Trouillot, State Against Nation, 71. ‘° Trouillot, State Against Nation, 46, 44. ‘7 Ibid., 47. ‘° Leslie Manigat, “La Substitution de la preponderance américaine a la preponderance francaise en Haiti au debut du xxe siecle: la conjoncture de 1910-1911,“ Haiti-U. S. Relations during the Occupation The United States’ increasing financial interest in Haiti helps explain the decision and approach to the US. occupation of Haiti (1915-1934). This military intervention was an immediate response to the violent political overthrow of Haitian President Vilbrun Guillaume Sam. However, economic motives lay behind the decision to invade. The 1916 Haitian-American treaty establishing the terms of the occupation installed a US. financial adviser and general receiver of customs in Haiti.19 Efforts to reorganize the occupation in 1922 included the exclusive transfer of rights of the BNRH to the National City Bank, and the National City Bank’s purchase of Haiti’s debt from the 1825 indemnity from France.20 Besides economic motives, U.S. visions of Haiti as a failed society21 guided US. officials in defining the goals of the occupation. The creation of a Haitian-American Treaty in 1915 illustrated the United States government’s priorities and their vision of showing Haitians how to run a pragmatic and efficient government for the public good. The treaty called for civil service reform through US. supervision of Haiti’s Departments of Finance, Public Health, Agriculture, and Public Works.22 US. occupation officials imposed Revue d’histoire modeme et contemporaine 14 (Oct-Dec 1967). 1° Hans Schmidt, The United States Occupation of Haiti, 1915-34 (New Brunswick: NJ, 1971 ), Trouillot, State Against Nation. 2° Schmidt, The United States Occupation; Gaillard-Pourchet, L'expen'ence haitienne. 21 Sybille Fischer, Modernity Disavowed: Haiti and the Cultures of Slavery in the Age of Revolution (Durham: Duke University Press, 2004). 2’ Suzy Castor, I’Occupation américaine d’Haiti (Port-au-Prince: lmprimerie Henri 9 their social criticisms of Haitian society in other ways as well. They rejected the Haitian elite’s asserted sense of distinction from Haiti’s masses by imposing general curfews and segregating social events along lines of nationality, color, class, and gender. Occupation officials also launched physical and rhetorical attacks on Haitian Vodou.23 The support and cooperation of several sectors of Haitian society played a central role in enabling US. occupation officials to carry out their missions. This included two influential foreign groups that were already a part of Haitian society—commercial agents and Catholic clergymen. These Haitian residents aided US. occupation officials’ in their efforts to dominate Haitian society. Foreign commercial agents residing in Haiti supported the occupation and benefited from the commercial contracts it brought. Haiti’s Catholic clergymen. most of whom were French, helped to spread the news about the United States’ projects and missions by communicating with Haitians across the countryside. Haiti’s clergy used their church audiences to denounce critics of the occupation, and called into question the capacity of Haitians for self- Deschamps, 1988); 59-67. Schmidt, The United States Occupation, Chapter 4. 23 In Chapter 3 and 4 of Taking Haiti: Military Occupation and the Culture of us. Imperialism: 1915-1940 (Chapel Hill: The University of North Carolina Press, 2001), Mary Renda discusses the role of paternalism and violence in the establishment of an occupied state. Also, see: Castor, I’Occupation amen'caine d’Hai'ti, 79-82 and Schmidt, The United States Occupation, 97-107. For more on religious discrimination, misrepresentation and violence in Haiti-US. relations, see: Laennec Hurbon, “American Fantasy and Haitian Vodou,” in Sacred Arts of Haitian Vodou, Donald J. Consentino, ed. (Los Angeles: UCLA Fowler Museum of Cultural History, 1995), 181-197. 10 rule. The Haitian clergy and occupation officials also collaborated in attacking Haitian Vodou.24 At first, many among the elite accepted and supported the occupation. Indeed, they found that many of their own pre-occupation ideas about how to improve Haitian society were shared by US. officials. Many appreciated and agreed with foreign critiques about the prominence of Vodou in Haiti, and valued the United States’ forms of governance, economy, and intellectual developments, notably in the fields of education and science. The occupation also provided concrete opportunities for professional advancement and financial gain that nurtured the formation of an accepting Haitian public. For example, US. occupation officials worked to eliminate rural forms of authority (known as chefs sections) and suppress anti-occupation militants (known as cacos) by creating a gendarmerie based in Port-au-Prince. This military police organization continued, but centralized, traditional forms of military control, while creating employment opportunities that helped to establish a new middle class. Many Haitians were accepted as executive officials in the client government or bureaucrats overseeing the reform of civil service agencies. The growth of Haiti’s bureaucracies meant the creation of new government positions and further development of a middle-class whose material security and sense of privilege came from positions of authority within the occupation state.25 2‘ Castor, I’Occupation américaine d’Haiti, 74-79. 25 Castor, I’Occupation américaine d’Hai'ti, 74- 79. 11 As time went on, there was further collaboration between privileged members of Haitian society and US. officials. This was particularly so following the occupation’s re-organization after 1922 and US. official’s efforts, starting in 1930, to “Haitianize” the administration by placing Haitians in positions of leading authority, as a way of phasing out US. control of Haitian bureaucracies United States officials sought to reshape Haitian society according to US. development models. They worked to improve Haiti’s physical infrastructure, centralize Haiti’s governing structures, and increase cultural ties between the two countries. The United States” mission to improve Haiti through public works projects resulted in the construction of roads, bridges, telecommunication lines, administrative buildings, technical schools, clinics, and hospitals. Haiti’s governing structure became centralized through the creation of the Haitian gendarmerie and the elimination of rural forms of authority. Formal training and diverse exchanges in professional fields, education, religion, the arts, and public interest projects (e.g., documentaries, publications, exhibits) generated expanding cultural and professional linkages between Haitian and US. society.26 The appreciation that certain Haitians had for these contributions and the viability of Haiti-US. cooperation was tempered by resentment for the 2° Schmidt, The United States Occupation, Chapter 8 and 9. Mary Renda argues that, following the 1922-reorganization of the occupation, there was a calmer climate of duty for Marines in Haiti, many of whom therefore had the opportunity to pursue and profit from the commodification of Haitian culture. Renda, Taking Haiti, 212-223. 12 political, economic, and social dominance that the United States sought to impose on Haiti. The openly racist attitudes of many US. occupation officials negated the favorable opinions that a significant number of Haitians initially had, or could have developed, about the potential contributions of US. citizens to Haitian society. Even before the start of the occupation, some Haitian intellectuals had criticized the racial prejudice and the imperialist tendencies of the United States. Haitian critics considered ethnocentrism, scientific racism, and the Jim Crow practices of the US. South to be limitations on the progress within the United States; as well as on the U.S.’ ability to assist Haiti. They also noted the imperialist intentions the US. demonstrated through past interactions with Latin America. Those who were skeptical about the intentions and goals of the US. quickly found their suspicions confirmed by the construction of the Haitian-American Treaty which disregarded Haitian sovereignty, the reinstitution of the corvee (forced labor) to support us. construction projects, the censorship of Haitian publications, and the degradation of all Haitians, including the elite who sought to support the occupation.” The behavior of US. occupation officials elicited strong reactions from a wide range of Haitians. This included Haitian politicians, such as the first client-president Sudre Dartiguenave, who increasingly rejected participation in the occupation government as United States officials demonstrated a self- ” Suzy Castor, I’Occupation américaine d’Hai'ti, 79-82; Schmidt, The United States Occupation, Chapter 9. 13 interest that threatened Haitian autonomy and pride.28 Rural residents, who were known as cacos, took up arms against occupation officials and the Haitian military that supported them. lntellectuals protested by writing and organizing in the hopes of generating both local and international attention. And, finally, students lead strikes that eventually garnered the participation of laborers, businessmen, and a growing mass determined to reject U.S. dominance over Haitian affairs. 29 These acts of resistance forced a reorganization of the occupation in 1922 and, eventually, its termination in 1934.30 For many Haitians, particularly among the elite, the problem with the occupation was not primarily the fact of intervention, but rather the prejudicial and derogatory approach the US. took in its involvement in Haitian affairs. Pan-Americanism and the Post-Occupation Period As they responded to popular demands for independence and respect during the last years of the occupation, Haitian public officials and intellectuals took advantage of the contemporary dominance of Pan-Americanism in the 2” Suzy Castor, I'Occupation amén'caine d’Haiti, 82-84. For example, in 1918, US. officials re-wrote the Haitian constitution to include an alien landownership clause that eliminated the long-standing prohibition in Haitian history for foreigners to own land in Haiti. Also, in 1917, a twenty-year extension of the original 1915 Haitian-American Treaty was executed. This helped to secure the potential for US. officials and commercial agents to pursue their financial interests in Haiti. See: Schmidt, The United States Occupation, 113-114. 2° Suzy Castor, I’Occupation amén’caine d’Haiti, Chapter 7 and 8; Schmidt, The United States Occupation, Chapter 7 and 10. 3° Schmidt, The United States Occupation, Chapters 6 and 11. 14 diplomatic sphere as they sought to secure the potential benefits of cooperating with the US. In doing so, they were emboldened by the fact that Pan-American ideals had helped to shape the end of the US. occupation of Haiti in 1934. Haitians, alongside other Latin Americans, had used Pan- American conferences as an opportunity to petition for an end to US. intervention in their national affairs.31 Faced with mounting resistance to their occupation at home, in Haiti, and across the region, US. officials sought to carryout a cordial end to their military occupation. Pan-American ideals were used throughout the 19303 to promote a new image for the northern power. United States officials sought to shift from “Gunboat Diplomacy,” which used military intervention in Latin America to the “Good Neighbor Policy,” which encouraged resolution through cooperation and negotiation among the American republics. This effort was a response by US. officials to both heightened economic opportunities in Latin America and to the need to cultivate alliances in facing the threat of fascism. In moving away from policies of forced intervention, the US. was seeking to gain the confidence and trust of Latin Americans. These efforts peaked between 1930 and 1945, a period when “the United States was consolidating its own sphere of influence” through financial agreements and diverse inter-American 31 See sample petitions from the Seventh Pan-American Conference in Montevideo (1931) reprinted in Max Chaumette, Considerations historiques sur I’idéal panamen'cain (Port- au-Prince, 1937), capy located in Bibliotheque Haitienne, Petit Seminaire College Saint- Martial, Port-au-Prince, Haiti (hereafter designated as PSCSM). 15 projects in fields such as cultural arts, public health, education, religion, and agricultural development.32 Pan-American politics did serve to temper critiques about US. domination. In response to the United States' pledge to pursue more cordial diplomacy, many Haitians represented past Haiti-US. relations in cautious and uncritical ways. Although most acknowledged the harsh past of diplomatic isolation and occupation, they presented it as a distant moment that moral political agreements could correct.33 Some Haitians writing a decade after the occupation ended went as far as to justify it as a political and cultural necessity for the country.34 But Haitians who were determined to engage in and benefit from the U.S.-Ied campaign for Pan-Americanism during the mid-twentieth century sought to balance a conciliatory approach to the US. with a lucid 32 Lars Schoultz, Beneath the United States: A History of U. S. Policy Toward Latin America (Cambridge: Harvard University Press, 1998); and, Peter Smith, Talons of the Eagle: Dynamics of U. S.-Latin American Relations (New York: Oxford University Press, 1996), Quote from p. 67; J. Manuel Espinosa, Inter-American Beginnings of U. S. Cultural Diplomacy: 1936- 48 (Washington DC: U.S.G.P.O., 1976), 1-4. Espinosa notes that many Latin American countries “had long since given splendid leadership in promoting cultural relations among the American countries." 33 For example, Jean Price-Mars, “La position de la République d'Hatti dans les relations inter-américaines,” draft manuscript, n.d. (post-1939), Jean Price-Mars Collection, Petion-Vllle, Haiti (hereafter designated as PMC); Max Gustave Chaumette, Le Panamericanisme a travers l’histoire d'Halti (P-au-P, Haiti, 1944), Bibliotheque Haitienne, Saint Louis de Gonzague, Port-au-Prince, Haiti (hereafter designated as SLG). 3‘ Rene J. Rosemond. “L’education au service de l’énergie nationale” (Extrait du recent ouvrage de l’auteur), Le Matin, Mercredi, 6 Janvier‘1943, 1, 4 ; Max Gustave Chaumette, Le Panaméricanisme a travers I’histoire d’Haiti (P-au-P, Haiti, 1944), copy located at SLG. 16 acknowledgement of the dangerous effects of external intervention and economic dependence on the quest for full and meaningful sovereignty. Haiti’s post-occupation period began under the executive administration of Sténio Vincent. Born in Port-au-Prince, February 22, 1874, Vincent was a lawyer and educator who established himself by working in numerous capacities, including that of a bureaucrat, diplomat, professor, journalist, author, and activist. Vincent presented himself as a nationalist and a supporter of Pan-Americanism. He was one of the founding members of I’Union Patriotique, an organization founded in 1915 to oppose the United States' military presence in Haiti. In 1921, he traveled to Washington, DC. as part of a delegation to denounce the wrongdoings of the American occupiers. In 1930, Haiti’s National Assembly elected him to the Haitian presidency. His executive platform emphasized the importance of ending the occupation and promoting the “Haitianization” of Haiti’s bureaucracies. However, Vincent’s disapproval of US. domination did not preclude him from supporting inter-American alliances. In fact, in 1931, he received the title of Grand Protector and Honorary Member of the Pétion-Bolivar Committee; and, during Franklin D. Roosevelt’s visit to Haiti in 1934, the theme of rectifying U.S.-Haiti relations was at the core of his discourse.35 Vincent held his presidential position until May 15, 1941, when Elie Lescot was inaugurated into office. 35 Daniel Supplice, Dictionnaire biographique des personnalités politiques de la République d’Haiti (1804-2001) (Belgium: Lanoo lmprimerie, 2001 ), 686-7; Stenio Wncent, Sur la Route de la Seconde Independence: En Compagnie du Soldat et du Citoyen Haitians (Port-au-Prince: Haiti, 1934), Chapter 24. 17 The unprecedented popularity of post-occupation cooperation between Haiti and the US. gained momentum and staying power during Lescot’s tenure as Haitian president (1941-1946). Lescot was born December 9, 1883 in Saint-Louis du Nord. He was trained as a pharmacist but, like Vincent, established himself as public official who served locally and in Haiti’s Foreign Service. As a diplomat, Lescot became intimately acquainted with US. State Department officials. He was the Haitian Minister to Santo Domingo (June 28, 1934-March 1937) and Minister to Washington, DC (1937-1941). On May 2, 1941, the Haitian National Assembly elected Lescot to serve a five-year term as president of the Republic.36 The relationships Lescot established with US. officials while serving as a Haitian diplomat facilitated his election to the Haitian presidency, and nurtured his commitment to participation in the inter- American campaign. Despite Lescot’s nationalist and inter-American commitments, popular student-led protests and the absence of support from the Haitian military and the US. Embassy forced him to resign and go into exile on January 11, 1946. Locally, this coup, best-known as the Noiriste “revolution” of 1946, was the culmination of popular urban resistance campaigns that grew out of earlier protests against the US. military occupation and the prominence of elite- urban-and-mulatto administrators in Haitian governance. Individuals from every social category in Haiti engaged in post-occupation protests that critiqued inequalities of class, race, culture, and/or gender in Haitian society. 36 Supplice, Dictionnaire biographique, 445. 18 This resistance movement led to the formation of a provisional government, the Comité Militaire Executive (11 January 1946-16 August 1946), and ultimately, the Haitian National Assembly’s election of Durmarsais Estimé to a six-year presidency on August 16, 1946. Estimé (b. 21 April 1900, Verrettes) like his predecessors was a career public official who had professional training and experience. His posts included serving as Secretary of State for Public Instruction, Agriculture and Labor (November 29, 1937 - January 5, 1940). He was a lawyer, mathematics professor and journalist. Unlike the other presidential candidates of 1946, Estimé had a greater distance from the socialist and communist ideas fueling the contemporary politics.37 Throughout these political changes, and particularly during the Estimé administration, the inter-American cooperation activities cultivated during Lescot’s administration continued to flourish, albeit with an expansion in Haiti’s ties to African- America.38 The ongoing struggle for access to state power in Haiti did not prevent the culture of Haiti-US. cooperation from maturing throughout the first two decades of the post-occupation era. On May 10, 1950, the military officials who ushered in Estimé’s rise to power four years earlier ousted him from 37 Commentary on contemporary politics from Matthew Smith, Shades of Red in a Black Republic: Radicalism, Black Consciousness, and Social Conflict in Post-occupation Haiti, 1934-57 (Ph.D. dissertation, University of Florida, 2002), Chapter 1, 2, 4. Biographical notes from Supplice, Dictionnaire biographique, 250-1, 472 3" See: Millery Polyné, Modernizing the Race: Political and Cultural Engagements Between African Americans and Haitians, 1930-1964 (Ph.D. dissertation, University of Michigan, 2003). Also, consider correspondence registers from the Ancien Archives National d’HaIti. 19 office. Following the interim military rule, Paul Eugene MagIoire was inaugurated into the executive office on December 6, 1950. MagIoire (born July 19, 1907 in Port-au-Prince) was also a lawyer and professor who held numerous public offices. However, a cadet from the fifth graduating class of Haiti’s Military School (September 1930-August 18, 1931), MagIoire’s distinction was his career as a military officer. In this capacity, MagIoire was instrumental to the military coups that ousted his predecessors and facilitated his rise to presidential power.39 Apart from this, MagIoire continued to pursue the ambitions of each of the preceding administrators by celebrating and encouraging opportunities for Haiti to benefit from its ties to the United States. His most distinct honor in this tradition was the opportunity to speak before a joint-session of the United States Congress in 1955. In that speech, he drew attention to Haiti’s historic ties to Pan-Americanism and praised the possibilities of cooperation between Haiti and the United States.40 Each of these executive administrators, like many other individuals actively seeking to establish stability, prosperity, and notoriety for post-occupation Haiti in the post-occupation period, sought to use cooperation with the United States to fulfill their respective agendas. 3" Supplice, Dictionnaire biographique, 472-3 ‘° Paul Eugene MagIoire, “Address of his Excellency the President of the Republic of Haiti before a joint-session of the Congress of the United States of America, January 27, 1955.” (Port-au-Prince: lmprimerie N.A. Theodore , 1955), printed in French, English and Spanish. 20 La Nouvelle Cooperation: Examining Haiti-U. S. Cooperation after 1934 Thus, the departure of US. military officials from Haiti in August 1934 did not result in the end of US. involvement in Haitian affairs. Indeed, as this dissertation shows, Haiti’s ties to the United States became an increasingly influential factor in Haitian governance and society during the post-occupation period. President Vincent argued in 1939 that Haitians had to recognize that close cooperation with the US. was both inevitable and advantageous. But he sought to define and implement a “nouvelle cooperation” - “new cooperation" that was to be “truly frank and loyal, this time around." ‘1 Conscious of the disadvantages Haitians suffered as a result of their nation’s involuntary diplomatic isolation following independence in 1804, post- occupation Haitian leaders sought to pursue ties with the United States because they were aware of the crucial and unavoidable link between international relations and national affairs. La nouvelle cooperation was meant to improve and transform the nature of the collaboration between Haitian and US. officials in such a way that Haitians would be able to secure all the potential benefits of allowing us. intervention into its national affairs. This meant both building on and breaking with the policies and projects developed during the occupation. Between 1915 and 1934, US. officials regularly spoke of Haitian-American cooperation as " Sténio Vincent to Elie Lescot, 10 September 1939, p. 3, Elie Lescot Collection, Laboule, Haiti (hereafter designated as LC). 21 they pursued the reconstruction of Haiti’s government and society.42 But for US. officials “responsible" for Haiti, “cooperation” simply meant maintaining a Haitian presence in U.S.-sponsored missions. The structures and goals of these missions were defined by US. officials and directed by US. “experts” with the subordinate assistance of Haitians. During the post-occupation period, however, Haiti’s public leaders sought to take more control of the direction of cooperation projects as they petitioned for US. aid and negotiated the terms of US. involvement in Haitian affairs. While they lobbied US. officials to continue cooperation efforts from the occupation period that had been well- received, particularly in the domains of public health and the military, they also sought to transform and improve the impact of cooperation in areas, such as education and finances, where U.S. actions had been heavily criticized within Haiti. Inspired by a growing body of literature on international relations within the Americas, this dissertation focuses on the two decades following the US. military occupation of Haiti to explore the complex interplay between individuals and ideas from Haiti and the United States. I examine the possibilities and challenges faced by Haitian leaders and citizens as they pursued post-occupation ties with the United States. In seeking to understand these encounters, I consider individuals from Haiti and the United States as ‘2 The Haitian-American Treaty, September 16, 1915, is reprinted in Castor, I’Occupation amén‘caine d’Haiti, 248-253. The document begins: “The Republic of Haiti and the United States of America, desiring to reaffirm and strengthen the ties of friendship that exist between the two nations for the most cordial cooperation and for the measures appropriate for assuring mutual advantages...” 22 joint actors who pursued their interests within the limits placed on them by the historical circumstances.43 Obviously, one of the major constraints placed on Haitian actors seeking to bring about change during this period was the unequal balance of power that defined U.S.—Haitian relations. But even as I acknowledge the centrality of this unequal access to power, I seek to move away from traditional narratives of diplomatic and international relations that place the US. at the center of the story. One of the central themes of this dissertation is the agency of Haitian officials and citizens who attempted to reconfigure and redefine the relationship between their nation and the United States. I do not present Haitians as mere victims of economic, political and cultural prejudices coming from the United States, and seek to avoid explaining final outcomes as the result of Haitians being overpowered by their northern neighbor. ‘4 43 My approach is informed by Louis A. Perez/On Becoming Cuban: Identity, Nationality, and Culture (Chapel Hill: The University of North Carolina Press, 1999); Gilbert M. Joseph, Catherine C. Legrand, and Ricardo D. Salvatore, editors, Close Encounters of Empire: Writing the Cultural History of U. S. -Latin American Relations (Durham: Duke University Press, 1998); Eric Paul Roorda, The Dictator Next Door: The Good Neighbor Policy and the Trujillo Regime in the Dominican Republic, 1939-45 (Durham: Duke University Press, 1998); Thomas C. Holt, The Problem of Freedom: Race, Labor, and Politics in Jamaica and Britain, 1832-1938 (Baltimore: The John Hopkins University Press, 1992); Kim D. Butler, Freedoms Given, Freedoms Won: Afro-Brazilians in Post-Abolition sac Paulo and Salvador (New Brunswick: Rutgers University Press, 1998, 2000). “ I have found the following scholarly texts useful for understanding the historiography of U.S.-Latin American and Caribbean relations: Brenda Gayle Plummer, Haiti and the Great Powers, 1902-1915; Haiti and the United States: The Psychological Moment (Athens: University of Georgia Press, 1992); Gilbert M. Joseph, “Close Encounters: Toward a New Cultural History of U.S.-Latin American Relations,“ in Gilbert M. Joseph, Catherine C. Legrand, and Ricardo D. Salvatore, editors, Close Encounters of Empire, 346; Stephen G. 23 In investigating the history of Haiti’s immediate post-occupation period, I began with a number of core questions: What goals and interests drove individuals to become engaged with inter-American programs? What factors created limitations for achieving particular goals? What were some of the intended and unintended consequences of these encounters? And, finally, what were some of the implications of the outcomes they produced? My answers to these questions, and my analysis of Haiti-US. relations during this period, are based on the exploration of a range of primary sources from both Haiti and the United States. Perhaps the most central documents for my research were records left behind by prominent and not-so-prominent Haitians. These records include presidential and ministerial correspondence, contemporary publications, and records on US. missions to Haiti held by prominent Haitian families in private collections, many of them never before accessed by historians. l have also drawn on documents preserved in Haiti’s congregational libraries and National Historic Archives. I found complementary documentation from the United States at institutions including the Schomburg Center for Research on Black Culture, the Rockefeller Archives Center, and the United States Baha’i Archives. The vast majority of Rabe, “Marching Ahead (Slowly): The Historiography of Inter-American Relations,” Diplomatic History 13 (Summer 1989): 297-316; Lars Schoultz, Beneath the United States: A History of U. 8. Policy Toward Latin America. (Cambridge: Harvard University Press, 1998); Mark T. Gilderhaus, “An Emerging Synthesis? U.S.-Latin American Relations Since the Second World War, “ in America in the World: The Historiography of American Foreign Relations Since 1941, ed. Michael J. Hogan. (New York: Cambridge University Press, 1995), 424-61; Richard V. Salisbury, “Good Neighbors? The United States and Latin America in the Twentieth Century,” in American Foreign Relations: A Historiographical Review, ed. Gerald K. Haines and J. Samuel Walker. (Westport, CT: Greenwood Press, 1981). 24 these sources, often in unprocessed collections, are incorporated into scholarly work for the first time in this dissertation. Finally, the dissertation benefits from my interviews with Haitian and American elders who were affiliated with U.S.-Haiti programs of cooperation during the mid-twentieth century. Using these documents, I examine the promising possibilities and difficulties faced by Haitians and US. Americans engaged in the work of developing Haiti. Although on the eve of the US. military’s departure from Haiti, Haiti’s Director of Rural Education Maurice Dartigue pronounced that given the legacies of the US. occupation and the reinstitution of Haiti’s political sovereignty: “if we fail, there will be no excuses to invoke,”45 it is clear that this was not the case. This dissertation explains that rather than “excuses,” those seeking to bear witness to Haiti’s failures or successes needed and need more critical assessments of their past, present, and future. Although Haiti's post-occupation period certainly held much promise for the island nation, in terms of Haiti’s own development and its renewed context of international relations, it would continue to face many of the challenges that hindered the revolutionary ideals of the late eighteenth and early nineteenth centuries from coming to fruition. Haiti continued to be a testing ground for the possibility of Black self-rule and racial equality in international affairs, particularly in the New World. Haitians continued to face the difficult challenge ‘5 Maurice Dartigue, “On the Eve of the Liberation from the American Occupation, 1934 (Talk)," Papers of Maurice Dartigue, Unprocessed collection, Schomburg Center for Research in Black Culture, New York Public Library (hereafter designated MDP). 25 of finding a way to overcome the fact that individual interests historically trumped the greatest of ideals."’6 As Haitian public officials and intellectuals pursued the promises of the post-occupation period, they drew attention to the disjuncture between idyllic U.S. rhetoric and actual policies. At the start of the post-occupation period, President Vincent advised his Minister to Washington, DC. Elie Lescot to caution US. officials about the ways in which that disjuncture threatened to undermine what he saw as positive developments in Haiti. Vincent worried that the Haitian public’s dissatisfaction with economic conditions would lead to resurgence in political anarchy and anti-American sentiment. This would undo what Vincent saw as two of his regime’s important contributions — the creation of political stability and the “near disappearance” of anti-American sentiment — goals, which US. officials had also articulated prior to the end of the occupation.“7 But Vincent refused to view turbulence in Haitian society following desoccupation as the result of the incapacity of Haitians to govern. Instead, he identified the cause of political instability and anti-Americanism as poor US. economic policies, which had helped to create the bad economic ‘° For clear and engaging articulations of this tension between interests and ideals see: Stephen M. Streeter, “The Myth of Pan-Americanism: US. Policy toward Latin America during the Cold War, 1954-1963,” in Beyond the Ideal: Pan-Americanism in Inter-American Affairs, edited by David Sheinin. (Westport, CT: Praeger, 2000); Dubois, Avengers of the New Worid; and Ferrer, Insurgent Cuba. ‘7 Vincent cautioned that resurgence in political unrest and anti-American opinion would be worse than that which existed during the occupation. Vincent to Lescot, 07 June 1937, p.2-3, LC. For comments on the disappearance of political dissenters, see: Lescot to Vincent, 17 November 1936, p.3, LC; Schmidt, The United States Occupation of Haiti. ‘9 Vincent to Lescot, 07 June 1937, LC. 26 conditions in Haiti.49 And he expressed puzzlement about why the United States would not “truly assist Haiti to find resources that would allow for the channeling of national energies towards work where it was once unable to”.“’0 President Vincent, then, sought to highlight the ways in which US. policy hindered and even undid advances in the region. He was one of a series of leaders I focus on in this dissertation who, through their engagement in the inter-American campaigns of the period, sought to find ways of having individual and institutions from the US. involved in Haitian affairs in ways that would no longer undermine Haitian needs. This effort relates to another major theme in this dissertation: the need to convey to the Haitian public a convincing rationale for embracing post- occupation cooperation with the US. as a strategy for national development. While Vincent worked to launch a new era in Haiti-US. relations, he recognized the need to redress residual resistance from the occupation and bolster local support for his approach to ameliorating conditions in Haiti. His strategy for doing this was to dismiss dissenting opinions as ignorance. In particular, he pointed to the opinion of young urbanites from which he found support: [T]here is a fairly enlightened opinion that is affirmed each day. If the masses have remained, more or less, what they were 100 years ago, a large enough culture [i.e. education or knowledge] has developed among the urban youth. And, as we are not a totalitarian country, we must pay some attention to it. And, again 5° Vincent to Lescot, 07 June 1937, p.3, LC. 27 and again, I attempt to translate for you the spirit that animates this small, enlightened opinion that, at the end of the day, and for the foreigner in particular-is representative of the country’s thoughts on the important international matters that are on the agenda. It is certain that this opinion absolutely supports our cooperation with the United States. And, if it is such, it is because there is hope that, from this cooperation, there will be a grand material profit for the country. This hope is expressed everywhere, in speech and in writings. 5‘ Vincent’s pre-occupation with securing and preserving a respectable international reputation for Haiti was shared by Lescot. The latter expressed concern that there was a potential link between dissent and political anarchy. In Lescot’s opinion, critiques from within the Vincent administration and from Haiti’s Catholic clergy to Haitian-US. cooperation represented self-interested ambitions that jeopardized the nation’s political stability.52 Political anarchy, in Lescot’s opinion threatened Haiti’s international reputation. He feared that those who worked to unsettle the Vincent administration made Haiti susceptible to “[t]he politics of intervention to re-establish order in the country.” The result, Lescot said, “as we have seen, is then that [Haiti] shall be an 5‘ Vincent to Lescot, 10 September 1939, p.2-3, LC. 52 Lescot to Vincent, 20 November 1937, Jean Fouchard Collection, Bois Moquette (Potion-Ville), Haiti (hereafter designated as FC). 28 embarrassment in the Americas.” 53 The persistent fear of a return of intervention, then, shaped the political horizons and visions of Vincent and Lescot, as well as other leaders, during the post-occupation period. To counteract this lurking fear, and to secure the Haitian public’s commitment to the task of securing national sovereignty and respectability via cooperation with the United States, Vincent and other leaders evoked Haiti’s first successful struggle for independence, which culminated in 1804. Vincent, for instance, reminded Haitian citizens that Haitian independence was the product of a unified nation and a strong stance in front of a foreign power. These images served to emphasize that as public administrators prepared to labor on behalf of Haiti’s complete sovereignty and accumulation of resources from the United States, they required the support of the entire nation.55 In the following chapters, I examine four approaches taken by individuals from Haiti and the United States to promote what they saw as viable means of holding individuals and institutions from the United States accountable to their post-occupation promises; engendering the support of a broad Haitian public for the inter-American strategy to Haitian national development; and ultimately, addressing issues that were considered obstacles to progress for Haitians. I study the following projects: 1. The effort to re-conceptualize Haiti’s diplomatic ties to the United States; 2. The attempt 5" Lescot to Vincent, 27 November 1937, FC. 55 Sténio Vincent, Sur la Route de la Seconde Independence: En Compagnie du Soldat et du Citoyen Haitiens, (Port-au-Prince: Haiti, 1934). 29 to promote intellectual cooperation between Haiti and the US; 3. The effort to modernize Haiti’s religious mores; and, 4. The project of stimulating change through the creation a community-based development model. Though each chapter offers some insights on the Haitian and US. perspective, the nature of my sources have resulted in a greater emphasis on the Haitian perspective in the first two chapters, and a greater emphasis on the perspective of individuals from the US. in the last two chapters. The chapters all, however, discuss the ways individuals engaged in these projects saw their efforts as a way to address factors that historically hindered Haiti’s international status. The “problems” tackled in each of these projects reflect the “excuses” that individuals eager to see Haiti flourish sought to eliminate. The challenge of succeeding in their missions reflects some of the persistent limitations in the Haitian and US. effort to contribute to social, political and economic change in Haitian society. In Chapter One, “Pan-Americanism: Historical Memories and the Shaping of Post-Occupation Ties between Haiti and the United States,” I examine how Haitian public officials and intellectuals used public speeches and writings to promote Pan-Americanism as something that predated U.S.- based initiatives. These public thinkers stressed that the political ideal could be traced to Haiti’s anti-colonial and anti-slavery revolution, as well as its participation in the revolutionary struggles taking place in North and South America. By evoking the historical memory of Haiti as le berceau du panamen'canisme (the cradle of Pan-Americanism), Haitians strove to bolster Haiti’s international status by affirming their historic contributions to the 30 regional campaign. Moreover, they sought to use this privileged place in international affairs to support their calls for external assistance with nationalist plans to improve Haiti’s diplomatic, economic, and social status. The chapter closes with a discussion of the cultural relations campaign—the use of activities such as official tours, public celebrations, radio broadcasts, and youth-oriented activities—to garner public support for participation in this campaign and related inter-American programs, particularly between Haiti and the United States. In Chapter Two, “Intellectual Cooperation: A Strategy for Bureaucratic and Civic Reform,” I explore how Haitian public officials and intellectuals thought about the potential role intellectual and material resources from the United States could play in helping Haitians acquire the skills and resources they needed to develop their society. Haitian public officials sought to channel foreign aid into a broader project of developing an authentic national identity. The chapter focuses on the work of Maurice Dartigue who led the post- occupation effort to cooperate intellectually with the United States during his tenure as Director of Rural Education (1934-41) and Minister of Public Instruction, Agriculture, and Labor (1941-5). Dartigue hoped that, with a nationally-charged conscience, Haitian bureaucrats and Haitian citizens would become increasingly capable of contributing positively to improving social, political and economic conditions in Haiti. In addition to an analysis of such ideas, I examine several activities that were intended to help Haitians reform their general and professional education system. These activities demonstrate the processes by which Haiti and the US. collaborated to translate ideas 31 about education into projects aimed at generating concrete improvements in Haiti. Through my study of Haitian writings on the subject of cooperation and of the course of cooperative efforts, I show how the important intellectual continuities tied together the occupation and post-occupation period. They also continued to advance traditional ideas about the responsibility of elite members of society for the underprivileged. In Chapter Three, “Religious Approaches to Material Development: The Baha’l Inter-America Teaching Campaign in Haiti,” I study the ways in which U.S.-based religious groups established themselves in Haiti and explore their significance for development efforts in Haiti. I introduce the modest efforts of U.S.-based Baha’ls, whose teaching principles vividly point to the progressive possibilities of the mid-twentieth century for ties between Haiti'and the US, even when organizations were not affiliated with the Haitian or US. government. My discussion of Baha’is “pioneering” in Haiti, as a complement to the more-familiar discussion of Catholic and Protestant conversion campaigns in Haiti, demonstrates the appeal of religious mission work in Haiti. Missionaries and many conservative Haitians shared the belief that in order to achieve social progress, Haiti needed to modernize its religious mores by eliminating the practice of Vodou and, for some, Catholicism. The desirability of religious missions to Haiti was augmented by Haitian interest in the potential material contributions (e.g., money, schools, and hospitals) these foreigners could make. 32 Through a study of official and unofficial reports prepared by leading Baha’l pioneers to Haiti, l demonstrate how even during a period when progressive philosophies gained increasing prominence, religious missionaries failed to overcome major obstacles to Haitian national development. This faith-based group, like its counterparts, was not successful in addressing social stratification in Haiti or the privileging of French culture. And, perhaps most importantly, they did not address the need for an intercultural religious dialogue that treated Vodou and Christianity as equally respectable counterparts in Haiti. Although Baha’i principles, such as the promotion of global unity and cooperation, were in accord with contemporary Pan-American politics, they nevertheless were unable to address critical Haitian needs, a fact which highlights the formidable nature of the challenges in Haiti during this penod. In Chapter Four, “Haiti, the Rockefeller Foundation, and UNESCO: A Pilot Project in International [Under]-Development,” I examine the United Nations Educational, Social, and Cultural Organization’s experimental project aimed at using community development work in Haiti’s Marbial Valley as a model for international development. The Rockefeller Foundation offered valuable institutional support to this project, and it is primarily through an examination of its records that I am able to study the history of this project. With these records, I demonstrate the centrality of inter-American “experts” and funding sources in post-1945 international aid programs based outside the Western Hemisphere. I also point to the ways in which this type of development work helped the United States secure its influence in Haitian 33 development work, and contributed to making international aid an on-going component of US. foreign affairs. Ultimately, however, through this study of international development work in the Marbial Valley, I highlight one of the ways in which Haiti secured its place as a model not for development but for underdevelopment. As the reports and correspondence indicate, Haitians failed to convey their nation’s viability as a global development model and development “experts” failed to fulfill their promise to assist in the construction of such a model. These failures resulted in part from a lack of egalitarian terms of cooperation between Haitian and foreign “experts,” and the unwillingness of external agencies to maintain long-terrn commitments to specific aid work taking place in Haiti. Finally, in the Conclusion, I present petitions from Haitian and US. citizens to the administrators of public and private programs of cooperation between Haiti and the US. that accentuate some of my main research findings. These petitions illustrate the ways in which the programs of cooperation studied here helped to cement and expand the influence of US. public officials, citizens, and cultural institutions in Haiti. The connections made by individuals with these inter-American programs served to create networks that would continue to expand as individuals from the two countries pursued assistance for development projects beyond the scope of original mission goals. These networks also provided Haitians with additional ways to pursue personal goals that included arranging to leave Haiti, as increasing numbers of individuals would seek to do during the reign of Francois Duvalier (1957-1971) and his successors. My study of the post-occupation period, 34 then, serves in part to help us understand the pre-history of the dramatic expansion of the Haitian Diaspora in the US. starting in the 1960s. But it also, I hope, serves to emphasize the on going need for revisiting scholarly interpretations about the intertwined processes of nation-building and international relations. To understand Haiti’s present, and to confront and perhaps begin to change the still unequal and difficult relationship between Haiti and the US, we must begin by understanding the interplay of transnational and national developments in the Americas, and the roles and efforts of both public officials and private citizens who have sought to make a difference. 35 CHAPTER ONE Pan-Americanism: Historical Memories and the Shaping of Post-Occupation Ties Between Haiti and the United States During the post-occupation period, Haitian public officials and intellectuals sought to redefine and restructure their nation’s relationship to the United States by actively participating in Pan-American politics. These individuals, whom I refer to as Haitian Pan-Americanists, considered this a necessary and viable approach to overcoming obstacles that historically hindered Haitian national progress. A crucial part of this project took place in the cultural arena, through the promotion of the historical memory of Haiti as le berceau du panaméricanisme (the cradle of Pan-Americanism) and attempts to involve the Haitian public in activities that celebrated Pan-Americanism. These efforts helped Haitian Pan-Americanists justify the Haitian desire for and expectation about improving diplomatic relations with the United States. They also helped to cultivate an attentive public that was receptive to collaboration between Haiti and the United States. By considering the multivalent nature of Pan-Americanism, this chapter stresses the importance of studying the political campaign as more than a foreign policy employed by the US. to extend its political, economic, and social influence across the region. The Haitian case demonstrates that other nations in the Americas had their own attachments to the political ideals of Pan-Americanism, and sought to employ them in ways that created opportunities for themselves and others to attain national goals. 36 In the wake of the “Second Independence,” Haitian public officials and intellectuals ennobled the political ideals of Pan-Americanism to define and broadcast their projects and hopes for the post-occupation period. Through an examination of the published writings and public accounts of Haitians engaged in inter-American activities during this period, I use this chapter to highlight the symbolic and practical ways that these individuals expressed their faith in the Pan-American ideal and its potential for launching a new era in U.S.-Haiti relations. I begin by discussing how Haitian Pan-Americanists sought to place Haitian history at the center of the history of Pan-American practices and ideals. I then present examples of how these figures created a cultural relations campaign to generate public support and openness to participation in programs of cooperation with the United States. The Haitian Campaign for Pan-Americanism When and where the Haitian campaign for Pan-Americanism began is difficult to determine; and indeed, the figures I study here argued that Haiti engaged in Pan-Americanism as early as the colonial period. But during the post-occupation years, the ideals of Pan-Americanists and of Haiti’s historical ties to these ideals became particularly popular among educated Haitians. During this period, many Haitians—particularly in urban areas—were exposed to the idea of inter-American cooperation in a variety of contexts. The campaign on behalf of Pan-Americanism was meant to simultaneously 37 stimulate engagement by Haitian citizens and secure the support of Haiti’s neighbors. As described by Haitian statesmen and intellectual Jean Price- Mars, the project of promoting cultural connections between Haitian and US. citizens was one that entailed “shaking off the indifference of one group [elite Haitians] uprooting the prejudicial tendencies of others [U.S. citizens] and curbing the dislike of the majority [potentially, members of both societiesl.”1 Max Gustave Chaumette, a Haitian professor of history and geography in Port-au-Prince, stands out as a leading spokesperson on Haiti and Pan- Americanism.2 He published at least three monographs that speak directly to the topic.3 While other writings from the post-occupation period address Pan- Americanism in Haitian history, none do so at such great length or with such particular focus. Chaumette wrote to support the Haitian government and the current politics of Pan-Americanism. In a letter to Haiti’s Secretary of the Interior, dated May 26, 1943, Chaumette described his latest manuscript, Le panaméricanisme a travers I’histoire d’Hai‘ti, as “a work of propaganda for the country and for the favorable reputation of the current government[s] in the 1 Jean Price-Mars, “Discours pronounce le 28 Novembre 1944 a I’Institut ha'ltiano- américain et enregistré sur disque,” (Text), PMC. Price-Mars was a founding member of the anti-occupation organization I’Union Patriotique. He gained prominence as a proponent of Haiti’s indigenous culture as an author and the leader of Haiti’s ethnological movement. Prior to the occupation, Price-Mars spent time in the United States on a mission representing Haiti at the Saint Louis exposition (1904) and as secretary for the Haitian legation in Washington, DC. (1909-11). 2 In 1937, Chaumette noted his profession in Considerations. In 1943, Chaumette signed a letter with the Port-au-Prince address, 112 Av. MagIoire Ambroise. 3 Chaumette, Considerations; Le Panaméricanisme; “Haiti et les problemes panaméricaines” (PauP: Les Editions de I’Assaut, No. 3, n.d.), PSCSM. 38 three Americas [North, South, and Central, including the Caribbeanl.” Although, it does not appear that Chaumette was commissioned by the Haitian government to prepare his monograph, he did express hope that the Secretary of the Interior would extend its complete approval of the volume. He also sought to secure the Haitian government’s authorization to solicit public subscriptions to finance the publication of his book. Finally, Chaumette requested that the Secretary of Interior examine Le panaméricanisme and offer support for the promotion of the manuscript. Chaumette is an obscure figure relative to the prominent Haitian public officials engaged in the Pan-American campaign. He does not appear in Haitian historical biographies, nor has he appeared in the recollections of my interviewees. From his Considerations historiques sur la panaméricanisme, we learn that Chaumette was a professor at College Vertiers, where he spoke to an audience of students, administrators, faculty and distinguished guests on Tuesday, April 13, 1937 in honor of Pan-American Day. Chaumette wrote that the audience responded to his comments with enthusiastic applause.4 Chaumette also promoted his ideas by being a member of an activist group. In an undated essay on Haiti et les problémes panaméricaines, Chaumette signed “Comité de l’Assaut” (Committee of the Assault) alongside his name. He described the manuscript as the third work published by this Comité’s publishing house. Unfortunately, however, the text does not provide further information on the members of this committee, the nature of their organization, ‘ Chaumette, Considerations. 39 or their publishing activities.5 The obscurity of Chaumette, his “Comité de l’Assaut” and other unidentifiable individuals who wrote or spoke publicly about Pan-Americanism shows that interest in the possibilities of this political ideology was not limited to powerful members of the elite, and spread beyond to other worlds, including that of educators like Chaumette. The themes in Chaumette’s writings are consistent with the publicized ideas of public officials and less-recognizable private citizens who addressed the topic of Pan-Americanism from this period. The most prominent of these themes was the argument that, as an otherwise unidentifiable writer named Pierre-Paul declared, “Haiti practiced Pan-Americanism well-before the term was even created.”6 Haitian Pan-Americanists promoted this idea by recalling historical moments when Haitians participated in other struggles taking place in the Western Hemisphere. The two most commonly evoked struggles were the Battle of Savannah (1779-1782) and the South American liberation campaigns led by Francisco de Miranda and Simon Bolivar (1806-1819). Chaumette proudly wrote that heroes of the Haitian revolution, such as Henri Christophe and Andre Rigaud, began their revolutionary careers by participating in the liberation struggles of North American colonists, who 5Chaumette’s Comite de l'Assaut, however, may be the same as that referenced in a biographical entry on Jean Remy in Daniel Supplice’s, Dictionnaire Biographique, 589. In that entry, Supplice describes Remy (b?-d. 1948) as a journalist and member of the editorial committee of the political and social activist journal, L'assaut, “the voice of the generation of the occupation.” ° Pierre-Paul, 1931 speech reprinted in Chaumette, Considerations. 40 succeeded in establishing the Hemisphere’s first independent nation.7 Haitian Pan-Americanists emphasized the importance of recognizing the participation of future Haitian revolutionaries in the founding of the United States. Chaumette wrote that the military service of Saint Domingue’s free people of color in the North American battle demonstrated the fraternal sentiments shared between the people of the neighboring lands. He offered the volunteer’s contributions as proof that “the Pan-American ideal circulated in our (Haitian) veins and that we engraved it onto American soils with our blood well before the ideal was conceived of and revealed.”8 US. official recognition reinforced these claims. Chaumette cited a declaration made in 1933 by US. Minister to Haiti Norman Amour who proclaimed that it was a “grand satisfaction for the people of the United States to remember the material assistance given by the Haitian people to the American cause of liberty.”9 By 7 Chaumette, Le Panaméricanisme. Rigaud and Christophe are often said to have been in a unit of 545 free blacks and men of color that were part of the expeditionary force led by Admiral Charles d’Estaing, commander of a Saint-Domingue fleet which fought with the North American insurgents against the British at Savannah, Georgia. Eighteenth century colonial administrators, John Garrigus writes, recognized “free men of color...as the most competent and least expensive defense force available to the colony” at a time when “white colonists found militia duty an intolerable burden.” Because no muster roll of the unit has survived, however, is it difficult to prove for certain whether Christophe and Rigaud were in fact part of the unit. John D. Garrigus, “Catalyst or Catastrophe? Saint Domingue’s Free Men of Color and the Battle of Savannah, 1779-1782,” Revista/Review Interamericana (22:1-2, 1992), quote p. 110. See also correspondence accounts presented in Gerard Laurent’s Haiti et l’indépendance américaine (lmprimerie Seminaire Adventiste, 1976). '3 Chaumette, Considerations, 19-23. Quote from p. 23. ° Chaumette, Considerations, Quotes from p. 22 and 21, respectively. In 1944, the US. State Department and Savannah city officials accepted a commemorative plaque from a 41 drawing on the memory that Haitians and US. Americans had about Saint- Domingue’s contribution to the American Revolution, Haitian Pan-Americanists reinforced the idea that people from the two lands shared the ideal of liberty and that Haiti’s ancestors set a precedent during the eighteenth-century for Haiti-US. cooperation. A less prominent but illustrative example of this precedent was described by then president Elie Lescot who gave a speech during the early 1940s entitled “Toussaint, Précurseur de l’Amitié Américano—Ha'l'tienne.“ Lescot portrayed Louverture as an early practitioner of Pan-American ideals by emphasizing his efforts to arrange diplomatic relations between revolutionary Saint-Domingue and the United States, as well as Great Britain. Lescot presented parallels between the political, economic, and diplomatic climate of the late eighteenth-century and that of the World War II era. At both times, Lescot noted, Haiti’s leaders were advocating the benefits of multilateral cooperation. This approach to international relations, he argued, was intended to gain prosperity through commerce, defend territories and the political ideals of liberty, national sovereignty, free trade, and international aid.10 Haitian Pan-Americanists made their clearest arguments in favor of considering Haiti as the birthplace of Pan-Americanism when they discussed ceremony in Haiti. That plaque is currently housed in the city’s library. See: “Savannah Chronology of Events,” http://ww.haitianhistoryorg. A new effort between Haitians residing in the United States and the Savannah’s Coastal Heritage Society is currently underway to construct a monument in Savannah honoring the volunteers from Saint-Domingue. '° Elie Lescot, ct Toussaint, precurseur de l'amitie americano-haitienne at (Port-au- Prince : lmprimerie de I'Etat, n.d.). 42 early foreign policies that lent aid to Latin American struggles for independence. As Chaumette wrote, Jean Jacques Dessalines, upon declaring Haiti’s Independence on January 1, 1804, stated his desire to ensure Haiti’s autonomy and “peace to our neighbors.”11 To carryout his pledge, in 1806 Dessalines provided material aid and moral support to Francisco de Miranda who had approached Haiti’s leader for assistance with the Venezuelan struggle for independence from Spain. Miranda’s vision of an independent Venezuela was supported by and eventually realized under the leadership of Simon Bolivar. In 1815 and again in 1816, Bolivar secured several months of refuge in Les Cayes, one of Haiti’s southwestern port cities. During his 1815 visit, Bolivar met with Haitian President Alexandre Pétion, who in addition to refuge, eventually provided the South American revolutionaries with money, provisions, arms, ammunition, a printing press and two Haitian captains. The assistance that Bolivar secured from Haiti helped to sustain the South American struggle for independence from Spain, and contributed to abolition of slavery in the new Latin American republics.12 Chaumette also described symbolic gestures that were intended to reinforce patriotic ties between Haiti and Latin America. He proudly pointed out that the South American revolutionaries created a flag by adding a yellow bar to the blue and red bars of the Haitian flag. He mentioned that this flag was 1‘ Chaumette, Le panaméricanisme, 5. ‘2 David Bushnell, SimOn Bolivar: Liberation and Disappointment (New York: Pearson Education, Inc., 2004); Robert Harvey, Liberators: Latin America 's struggle for independence, 1810-1830 (Woodstock, N.Y.: Overlook Press, 2000). 43 created on Haitian soil in the southeastern port city of Jacmel in 1806. Chaumette also narrated an exchange between Pétion and Bolivar during which the latter promised to abolish slavery in the lands that he liberated. Chaumette cited a letter dated January 8, 1816 in which Bolivar asked Pétion whether he should name Pétion as “the author of our (South America’s) liberty.” It is in response to this letter that Pétion is said to have simply asked Bolivar to liberate the enslaved.13 Chaumette also drew on many other examples of aid given to anti- colonial and anti-slavery struggles across the Americas as evidence of Haiti’s symbolic and practical contribution to the formation of an independent New World. He described alliances made in support of struggles taking place in Mexico, Cuba, and the Dominican Republic.“ Such narratives served to reinforce the Haitian Pan-Americanists’ vision of Haiti’s central role in South American struggles for independence and in the abolition of slavery in other countries. These examples were important as Haitian Pan-Americanists sought to promote awareness about the connections between Haitian history and the broader American experience. Haitian statesman and ethnologist Jean Price- Mars challenged those who might look at Haiti in isolation. He described how Haiti’s revolutionary break from France was similar to revolutions elsewhere in the hemisphere. He noted that violence was central to each major American '3 Chaumette, Le panaméricanisme, 29-36; 44-5. 1‘ Chaumette, Le panaméricanisme. community’s revolutionary struggle. Moreover, he commented that in each of these struggles, the fight against colonialism was an effort to escape class oppression and the privilege of a few. Finally, Price-Mars drew attention to the fact that out of these revolutions emerged republics (e.g., Republic of the United States, Mexico, Brazil, and Colombia), which were all shaped by “doctrines that ennobled the eighteenth-century.”15 By identifying the shared dimensions between Haitian and other American independence struggles, Price-Mars countered the idea that Haitian history was of marginal importance or of interest only because of its racial dimensions. Interestingly enough, Haitian Pan-Americanists did not draw attention to aid given by Haiti to African-descended people in North America and the Anglophone Caribbean.16 For example, they did not speak about the fact that Haitian Presidents Boyer and Geffrard invited African Americans to emigrate to Haiti in the 18205 and 18603. Nor, did Haitian Pan-Americanists speak about individuals from the British Caribbean who sought exile as they ‘5 Jean Price-Mars, “La position de la République d’Haiti dans les relations inter- américaines,” draft manuscript, n.d. (post-1939), 9-10, PMC. "3 Brenda Gayle Plummer (“[Anténor] Firmin and [Jose] Marti at the Intersection of Pan-Americanism and Pan-Africanism,” in Jose Martl’s ‘Our America': From National to Hemispheric Cultural Studies,“ edited by Jeffrey Grant Belnap and Raul A Fernandez [Durhamz Duke University Press, 1998], 218-227) describes the tension between “Pan Africanism...a way of stepping out of a discourse that did not privilege blackness, [and] Pan Americanism...a way of subordinating that and other particularisms in a manner that left the nation state intact.” She also notes how Firmin and other Haitians affirmed “blackness“ but did not embrace “Africanity.” Therefore, given that Pan-Americanism had historically been “constructed as white throughout the Americas,” Plummer argues, Haiti represented a curious “anti-thesis” to the two ideologies. Quotes from p. 223. 45 struggled for liberty and rights during the nineteenth-century.17 They also portrayed the history of the Haitian Revolution in ways that sought to de- racialize its significance. In his 1943 homage to Toussaint Louverture, Klebert Jacob, a member of an organization called Société des Amis du Mexique, wrote that the Haitian revolutionary leader “does not pertain solely to the Blacks of Saint-Domingue. He belongs to Africa, America, all of humanity.” Jacob continued that the Haitian struggle was a human struggle that transcended the boundaries of towns, nations and races.18 The focus during the mid-twentieth century, then, was on contributions to the independence of the US. and Latin America. The aim was to promote Haitian history as a globally-applicable model for human and political rights. Advocates of Pan-Americanism from Haiti and the United States proposed that the history of the Americas and mid-twentieth century policies guiding inter-American relations could become a model for resolving conflicts in Europe and setting the stage for a new international order. For example, Lallier C. Phareaux, the otherwise unidentifiable author of a February 3, 1943 '7 See: Chris Dixon, African Americans and Haiti: Emigration and Black Nationalism in the Nineteenth Century (Westport, CT: Greenwood Press, 2000); Mimi Sheller, Democracy After Slavery: Black Publics and Peasant Radicalism in Haiti and Jamaica (London: Macmillan Education Ltd., 2000). 1" Klebert G. Jacob (Spanish translation [from original] prepared by Ernest Danache),“Breve bosquejo de la historia de la independencia de Haiti y su ideals humano en cuanto al panamericanismo,” Voz de Haiti en Las Americas, (n.d., early 19405), 10, copy located at PSCSM. For a discussion of the silencing of certain aspects of Haitian history see Michel Rolph Trouillot, Silencing the Past: Power and the Production of History (Boston: Beacon Press, 1990). 46 editorial in Le Matin entitled “Interaméricanisme Haitien” argued that institution-building taking place in the Americas could be used as a model throughout the world. He pointed to I’institut haitiano-amén'cain, a cultural center based in Port-au-Prince and sponsored by the Haitian and US. governments, as an important precedent. The Institute’s main services included a library, reading and meeting room, introductory and advanced English language courses, an art center and exhibits, and concerts featuring classical and folkloric music.19 According to the late Haitian poet Rene Bélance, members of all social groups, but particularly students who attended local chées, visited the institute and participated in its activities. Bélance, who was in his early thirties when the institute opened, saw the intellectual center not necessarily as a Haitian institution, but a place where Haitians, Americans, and French persons could all congregate and establish a good rapport. The physical presence and activeness of the institute encouraged the incorporation of US. culture into the social spaces of Haitian artists, intellectuals, and youth. Bélanoe found this to be a useful way of challenging the tradition of Haitian nationalism that had a very negative attitude toward us. Americans.20 By 1943, Mexico and Cuba had also formed collaborative institutes with Haiti; and, Phareaux anticipated ‘9 “Discours pronounce le 28 novembre 1944 a I'institut haitiano-américain et enregistré sur disque,” PMC. Price Mars mentions plans to also offer French language classes. 2° Rene Bélance, interview with the author, Freres (Pétion-Ville), Haiti, April 2002. Bélance recalled that those with favorable view of US. Americans tended to be affiliated with the army. 47 that other such institutes would be formed with nations outside the hemisphere.21 During this same period, Joseph Montlorr, a member of the US. Office of the Coordinator for Inter-American Affairs, wrote that respecting the existence and proSperity of all people could solve the world’s contemporary problems. Montlorr emphasized the Western Hemisphere’s efforts to celebrate diversity within the region and to unify despite differences of race, color, language, and religion. He expressed his sense that these efforts could be considered, in the hemisphere and abroad, as “signs of national virility rather than as symptoms of weakness and of the inability to assimilate.” These strides, Montlorr argued could be the means to “overcome one of the obstacles that face not only the Americas but the world as a whole.” 22 The conceptualization of Haiti as le berceau du panaméricanisme allowed Haitian Pan-Americanists to identify their nation as more than the beneficiary of US. altruism. A Haitian lawyer named Louis Garoute wrote: “No other country in the Americas merits more than ours to collect and benefit from the fruits of the Good Neighbor Policy instituted by the honorable Franklin Delano Roosevelt; because, for more than a century we have practiced this noble foreign policy.”23 Lescot described Roosevelt’s efforts as a form of 2' A.M. “lnteraméricanisme Haitien.” Le Matin, 3 fevrier 1943, 1-2. 22 Lallier C. Phareaux. “Panaméricanisme Constructif,“ Le Matin, samedi 11 avril 1942, 1, 6 ; Joseph Montlorr, “The Test of Panamericanism," Voz de Haiti en las Americas, (text of a radio broadcast on HH 3, W 13 April, 1943), 7-8, PSCSM. 23 Louis Garoute, ct L’importance de l’enseignement de I'anglais,” Le Matin, jeudi 1 avril 1943, 4. 48 atonement for the fact that the United States had failed to uphold Louverture’s vision of an inter-American alliance, instead opting to uphold slavery. By being a good friend of Haiti, Lescot argued, Roosevelt joined several of his predecessors (John Quincy Adams, Thomas Jefferson and Abraham Lincoln) by invoking the ideals of Christian humanity in speaking in support of Haiti.24 Jean Price-Mars also saw the future of inter-American relations as an opportunity for Haiti’s neighbors to redress the past and fulfill the new era’s promises. The United States and Latin America’s historic marginalization of Haiti, he wrote, had “heavily handicapped Haiti’s economic, social and political development.” But, Price-Mars hoped that the hemisphere’s leaders would fulfill the new era’s promises by offering Haiti the “Christian charity and human fraternity” that Haitians had historically extended to their neighbors. Price-Mars argued emphatically that Haiti was a test case for the validity and possibilities of Pan-Americanism.25 Mid-twentieth century Pan-Americanism, then, represented an opportunity to garner overdue respect for Haiti and a rhetorical tool for soliciting well-needed resources for Haitian society. 2‘ Lescot, « Toussaint, précurseur de l’amitie américano-ha‘i'tienne x», 5-6. Lescot was off base with regards to Jefferson. See: Douglas Egerton, Rebels, Refom'lers, and Revolutionaries: Collected Essays and Second Thoughts (New York: Routledge, 2002) and Tim Matthewson, A ProSIavery Foreign Policy. Haitian-American Relations during the Eariy Republic (Westport, CT: Praeger, 2003). 25 Jean Price-Mars, Draft manuscript of «La position de la République d’Haiti dans les relations inter-américaines.» (n.d., post-1939), PMC. Quotes from pages 15 and 16, respectively. In 1942, Price-Mars published La contribution haitienne a la Iutte des Ameriques pour les Iibertés humaines (Port-au-Prince, lmprimerie de I'Etat). 49 Public Events and Activities Haitian Pan-Americanists sought to promote their reinterpretations of Haitian history and their optimism about a future shared with the United States in many ways. They sought to encourage citizens to identify with Pan- American ideals by hosting and participating in official tours, organizing public performances in honor of Pan-American Day, designating public schools with the names of countries in the hemisphere, naming streets after prominent figures from the Americas, and discussing Pan-American themes in radio programs and daily newspapers. These activities showcased the principles of Pan-American politics and the various forms of cooperation that, according to Max Chaumette, helped Pan-Americanism to be “perfected” on a daily basis.26 By cultivating the discussion and celebration of Pan-American ideals, Haitian Pan-Americanists sought to nurture a process of rapprochment culture! (the increasing of cultural ties) between Haiti and the United States. They hoped that cultural proximity between the two nations would weaken prejudices that undermined the positive potential of US. participation in Haitian affairs. As described by Jean Price-Mars, inter-American activities contributed to achieving “the goal of cultural cooperation between Haitians and US. Americans in order to dissipate the misunderstandings and errors of the past.” In his opinion, inter-American activities were about cultivating peace, justice, and human fraternity. The activities were a means of challenging the 2° Chaumette, Considerations, 20. 50 weak, envious, and animalistic tendencies of the human mind. 27 The mission of rapprochment cultural was a strategy for eliminating the factors that historically tainted Haiti’s relations with the United States, and consequently impeded Haiti’s national development. One strategy used to facilitate this increasing of cultural ties was the organization of formal tours involving US. and Haitian officials. Haiti’s post- occupation period formally began when US. President Franklin D. Roosevelt stopped in Haiti’s northern port city of Cap-Haitian, during a “goodwill tour” in July 1934. Many Haitians expressed deep appreciation for this diplomatic gesture. Some noted that Roosevelt’s visit was the first by a leader of a foreign state to visit Haiti and, a sign of improving relations with the United States. During the visit, Roosevelt announced that the last Marines would depart two years earlier than originally declared. Inspired Haitian politicians, intellectuals and citizens began to refer to Roosevelt as the “illustrious and grand Protector” of Pan-American principles.28 They attributed the advancement of a Good Neighbor Policy to Roosevelt’s personal politics and leadership skills. Haitian President Sténio Vincent declared that Roosevelt was “the Great Friend of our independence and our prosperity”.29 The fact that Roosevelt’s visit took place in northern Haiti, where Haitian independence was secured in November 1803 at the famous battle of 27 Jean Price-Mars, 4t Discours ». 2' Elie Lescot to Franklin D. Roosevelt, 27 October 1943, LC ; Stenio Vincent, Typescript of an Address to the Pan American Union, (n.d.), LC; Ludvic Rosemond. Haiti et les Etats-Unis, hp, 1945, copy located at SLG. 51 Vertieres, was also noted by President Vincent as being of symbolic importance. When addressing Roosevelt in Cap-Haitien, Vincent noted that history was repeating itself as “this second Vertieres, very peaceful this time, this decorous Vertieres, is unfolding in the same setting as the first, in the midst of the same countryside that saw the last great feat of arms of our forefathers, in November 1803.”30 A decade later, Haitians similarly celebrated a three-day visit by Nelson A. Rockefeller. As Coordinator of Inter-American Affairs, Rockefeller came to Haiti as a part of a Latin American tour that, in addition to Haiti, included stops in Venezuela, Cuba, and the Dominican Republic. To demonstrate the Haitian appreciation for Rockefeller’s visit and the Haitian commitment to making the most of the inter-American climate, members of I’institut haitiano-américain hosted a gathering for Rockefeller. At this event, the Institute’s members advised Rockefeller of local activities taking place under the rubric of inter- American affairs and petitioned him for continued assistance. Jean Price-Mars discussed the lnstitute’s scholarship program and expressed his expectation that the US. and Haitian governments could be counted upon for “moral and material support.”31 The goal of this support was to secure a building solely for the Institute, generate additional sponsors to allow the Institute to become “self-supporting,” and improve the Institute’s participation in the distribution of 2° Vincent, Surla route, 73-4. Quote from p. 74. 3° Sténio Vincent, Sur la route, 74. 3' Price-Mars, « Discours ». 52 study abroad scholarships.32 Haitian officials also traveled to the United States and had opportunities to reinforce or further develop their U.S.-based support. In 1943, President Elie Lescot embarked on an inter-American tour to visit the United States, Canada, and Cuba. Lescot’s visit to the United States attracted the attention of Metz T.P. Lochard, editor-in-chief of the Chicago Defender and chairman of the Chicago Citizen Committee for United Nations Unity. Lochard made an unsuccessful attempt to have Lescot visit Chicago. In his invitation, Lochard opined that Lescot’s visit “would have lasting significance” to the Committee’s “purpose of promoting good will and better inter-American relations, especially in the Central American and Caribbean areas.” By hosting a “public program built around [Lescot’s] appearance,” Lochard hoped to “stimulate interest in the glorious cause” that Lescot represented.33 Based on the attention that African-Americans gave to events in Haiti, it is likely that one element of the “glorious cause” Lochard referred to was the effort to attain respect and prominence for an African-descended republic in the international political arena.""4 Lochard saw Lescot’s visit to the United States as an opportunity to build on Haiti’s already-established base of support in African-American communities. Haitian officials traveled to the United States hoping to gain access to people and resources that could help Haiti. For example, in 1941, the US. 32 Ibid. 3" Metz T. P. Lochard to Lescot, 30 September 1943, LC. 3‘ See: Polyné, Modernizing the Race. 53 State Department sponsored a nation-wide tour of educational institutions for the Minister of Public Instruction, Agriculture and Labor, Maurice Dartigue. Upon returning from his visit, Dartigue wrote the United States’ Acting Chief of Cultural Relations, Edward Trueblood, requesting. educational materials and funds to develop an auditorium in Port-au-Prince. The auditorium would allow Haitians to host American lecturers and performance artists. Moreover, Dartigue suggested that the auditorium could be used to show the Haitian public “[dlocumentary moving pictures...borrowed from the US. Department of Agriculture, the Department of Interior and other American organizations and institutions.” In addition, Dartigue proposed that the auditorium could be used for Pan American Day celebrations, other civic and educational manifestations. 35 These types of visits continued through the post-occupation period and included a visit by Haitian President Paul E. MagIoire to the United States in 1955. During his visit, MagIoire spoke before a joint-session of Congress about Haitian Pan-Americanism and his appreciation for contemporary programs of cooperation that he felt fulfilled the historic ideal of inter-American relations. MagIoire evoked the memory of Anterior Firmin, a Haitian statesmen and intellectual who pursued Pan-American ideals during the late nineteenth- century and early twentieth-century. While Firmin’s contemporaries did not fully embrace his ideas, MagIoire affirmed Firmin’s idea that it was “his duty to make the Americans known to the Haitians and the Haitians to the citizens of 35 Maurice Dartigue to Edward Trueblood, April 18, 1941, MDP. 54 [the United States]."36 Haitian Pan-Americanists also worked to bring the Pan-American discourse to the attention of the Haitian majority through public celebrations. Beginning in 1931, the Haitian government officially recognized the regionally- celebrated Pan American Day (April 14‘“). This led to officially organized events in honor of the date.37 By 1941, the official bulletin Le Moniteur announced that public services, including schools would close on the national holiday, and communicated an official request that commercial businesses honor the date?8 Privileged Haitian women played a central role in engaging the Haitian public in a culture of Pan-Americanism. The most visible contribution of these women was their coordination of cultural programs celebrating Pan-American Day. The celebration in 1940 was particularly large because it marked the Pan-American Union’s fiftieth anniversary.39 La Ligue Feminine d’Action Sociale planned an extravaganza at the Rex Theatre in downtown Port-au- Prince.“o Founded in 1934, the Ligue was Haiti’s “first women’s organization.” 3° MagIoire, “Address of his Excellency," Quote from p. 9. Plummer, Haiti and the Great Powers, 26-30. 37 Chaumette, Considerations. 3° Bulletin de la Moniteur, located at Ministere d'Affairs Etrangeres, Port-au-Prince, Haiti. 39 “La celebration du cinquantenaire de I’Union Panaméricaine,” Le Nouvelliste, 16 avril 1940, 1. 4° “Le Festival Panaméricain de la Ligue Fiminine d'Action Sociale au Rex,” Le Matin, 15 avril 1940, 1 ; Georges Corvington, Port-au-Pn'nce au cours des ans : la ville contemporaine, 1934-1950 (Port-au-Prince : lmprimerie Henri Deschamps, 1991), 289. According to Corvington, the inauguration of Rex Theatre on Thursday, October 3, 1935 55 These privileged women organized on behalf of a mission to “promote and defend the social status of Haitian women” and to “improve the status of women from disadvantaged classes.”41 By taking on the responsibility of coordinating Pan-American Day activities, the Ligue demonstrated the valuable place of Haitian women in public affairs. The Ligue's event showcased the cultural richness of the Americas to a distinguished audience in an artistic manner. The Haitian President, his wife, ministers, military officials, and foreign diplomats attended. The celebration opened at ten o’clock in the morning with the Haitian national anthem, la Dessalinienne, which was performed by the palace band. Leon Laleau, Secretary of State for Foreign Relations, spoke at length about the significance of Pan-American Day and the importance of Pan-Americanism. The program also featured representations of the Americas’ diverse popular cultures. This meant not only including cultural elements Haitians described as being part of “white North America” but also “black North America,” such as a performances honoring Booker T. Washington and Negro spirituals, which were sung a cappella. Haitian youth displayed paintings and costumes representing the “Indian and Spanish North American” cultures of Mexico. Theatrical skits, some accompanied by music, presented the past and present history of North, South, and Central America.42 School children under the launched a new era in Haiti’s film and theatre culture. ‘1 Brochure for La Ligue Fiminine d'Action Sociale, n.d. (post-1962), copy in author’s files. ‘2 Sénateur Nemours. « Haiti Fete Grandiosement Ie Panamericanisme. » Le 56 direction of Madame Jacqueline Wiener Silvera, for instance, presented a scene featuring the princess Anacaona, to honor Haiti’s indigenous ancestors. Primary schoolchildren presented Haitian peasant songs and dances under the direction of Madame Lina Mathon-Fussman. Popular songs from Venezuela and dances from Panama were also a part of the festive program. Although the 1940 event was particularly spectacular, similar events were organized for Pan-American Day celebration during subsequent years.“ The public celebration was also an occasion for honoring exemplary individuals. Haitian youth gained recognition by winning competitive awards for outstanding essay-writing. President Vincent honored presidents and secretaries of states from the Americas by bestowing them with various titles of the “Order of Pt-‘ttion-Bolivar.”44 The five classes of honors were officially created on October 21, 1939 ‘for the purpose of recognizing, in a very special manner, the eminent services rendered to the cause of Pan-Americanism by foreign chiefs of state, career diplomats, and other individuals from Haiti and abroad.’ In order of ranking, these grades and the number of honorary titles available were: Grand Croix (20); Grand Officiers (40); Commandeurs (60); Officiers (80); and Chevaliers (100).45 In 1940, all of the presidents in the Nouvelliste. 17 avril 1940, 1, 5. ‘3 “La celebration du cinquantenaire de l'Union Panaméricaine,” Le Nouvelliste, 16 avril 1940, 1; at La celebration du Jour Panaméricain. it Le Matin, 14 and 15 avril 1942, 3 ; at la 14 avril Gala Panamericain. » La Matin, 10 avril 1943, 1. “ «Hommage au Panaméricanisme it, La Nouvelliste, 16 avril 1940, 1. ‘5 it Le Nouvel Ordre d'Honneur Haitian da ‘Pétion-et-Bollvar’ it La Matin. 19 avril 1940, 1. 57 Americas were honored with the Grand Croix; and, the secretaries of state for foreign relations were honored with a Grand Officiar plaque.46 In addition to these officials, the Dominican Republic’s former President General Rafael L. Trujillo Molina and then-Cuban-presidential-candidate Colonel Fulgencio Batista, received Ia Grand Croix da I’ordre haitien de Pétion et Bolivar.47 Pan-American Day organizers also combined the secular ideas of Pan- Americanism with Haitian Christian beliefs and practices. In 1940, students from the boarding school Saint Rose de Lima participated in the festival at Rex by presenting a skit to honor their school’s saint, who was recognized as the Patron Saint of the Americas. In 1941, a Te Deum solonnel was sung at the Haitian Cathedral in Port-au-Prince. This religious service attended by President Vincent, national and foreign officials preceded the military salute leading to the cultural performances at Rex Theatre.48 Pan-American features in local newspapers exposed Haitians to the local campaign for Pan-Americanism. In 1940, La Nouvelliste and La Matin featured articles on the history of the Pan-American Union.49 In 1942, Le Matin ‘6 ( Un grand témoignage d’amitie pour honorer et reserrer le sentiment at l'esprit panaméricain entre Haiti at les 20 Républiques du Continent. it La Matin, 16 avril 1940, 1. ‘7 It is not evident whether or not these officials actually attended the event. at La Promotion dans I'Ordra haitian de Pétion at Bolivar, a I’occasion du 14 avril, Jour Panamericain. » La Matin, 18 avril 1940, 1. ‘8 it La celebration du cinquantenaire de I'Union Panaméricaine,” Le Nouvelliste, 16 avril 1940, 1; it La Commemoration du Jour Panaméricain. to Le Matin, 15 avril 1941, 6. ‘9 Jean Coradin. it I’Historique de I'Union Panaméricain, at Le Nouvelliste, 18 avril 1940, 1, 3 ; Felix MagIoire. it La Cinquantenaire de I'Union Panaméricaine. it La Matin, 14 an 15 avril 1940, 1-2. 58 published quotes from “famous Americans” such as President Franklin D. Roosevelt, Simon Bolivar, Gertulio Vargas (the President of Brazil), Sumner Welles (Under Secretary of State of the US), and Ezequeil Padilla (Secretary of State for Foreign Relations of Mexico).50 In 1943, La Matin featured monthly “inter-American calendars,” prepared by the Press Division of the Office of the Coordinator of Inter-American Affairs. The calendar featured events celebrated annually or other honorable dates in the history of the Americas.51 Radio broadcasting was another important media tool for those advancing Pan-Americanism. The evening programming was typically targeted at Haitian and international audiences; and at times offered both praise and critical perspectives on the ideal. For example, in 1940, President Vincent delivered a speech on the radio in which he honored the Pan-American Union and commented on his vision of Pan-American relations. Vincent commented that the “brilliant and fruitful” concept of Pan-Americanism would become a reality only when “that which was accomplished morally and politically would be extended economically and financially.” He stressed that the “economic and financial independence” of the hemisphere’s small states had to be added 5° at L’esprit Pan-Américain. Belles pensaes de fameux Americains. » La Nouvelliste, 18 avril 1942, 1. 5‘ it Calendrier lnter-Américain: (Prepare par la Division de Presse du Bureau du Coordinateur des Affaires lnter-américaines) Ephémérides at Faits sensationnels de I’Amarique it La Matin, 19 janvier 1943, 2 ; mercredi, 17 mars 1943, 2 ; dimanche 4 at Iundi 5 avril 1943, 2. Other dates recognized by the Haitian government included the day of American Culture (October 13), Pan-American Health Day (date not listed), and the data Saint-Domingue’s free people of color departed to participate in the Battle of Savannah (May 4). References in 1941, 1942, 1943, 1945, Bulletin de la Moniteur. 59 to their political independence. He emphasized the ways in which Pan- Americanism should help American republics, particularly the smallest states, to preserve their sovereignty and develop their nations. He declared that international aid extended must respect the recipient’s principles, and must not contradict the evolution of their particular institutions, nor their mores, conception of life, or their nationalism. Vincent also argued that ultimately, statesmen, diplomats, professors, technicians, and businessmen were responsible for the advancement of these Pan-American principles. 52 Radio programming also provided a venue for private organizations to celebrate and lecture on Pan-Americanism. In 1941, Max Mossanto, president of la Sociaté Bolivan'enne—founded on February 8, 1939 for the exact purpose of advancing Haiti's ties with American republics53—spoke on radio station HHBM. He discussed the historical evolution of Pan-Americanism and its contemporary significance for guarding and developing western civilization. His speech was subsequently reprinted in La Matin. Mossanto addressed the fact that prejudice and hatred slowed down the “evolution” of Pan- Americanism, and pointed to the increasing efforts to enhance cultural understanding among the American republics. He identified the upcoming 5’ Stenio Vincent, “A L’Union Panamericaine,“ n.d., LC. Quote from pgs. 1-2. Also, see: Senateur Nemours. 4: Haiti Fete Grandiosement la Panamericanisme. it La Nouvelliste. 17 avril 1940, 1, 5. The radio-broadcast speech was also printed in La Matin and La Nouvelliste on the following day. 53 Georges Corvington, Port-au-Prince au cours das ans : la ville contemporaine, 1934-1950, (Port-au-Prince: lmprimerie Henri Deschamps, 1991), 191. Jean Price-Mars and Francois Dalencour ware vice-presidents of the organization. 60 conference of the Inter-American Caribbean Union in Port-au-Prince as a sign of positive changes.“ In 1942, the Ligue Feminine organized a program that HHBM broadcast in honor of Pan-American Day. The evening program featured music, poetry, messages from local schoolchildren and an address from Haitian women to women across the Americas.55 Such radio programs were intended to publicly salute the Americas, honor prominent figures in Pan- American history, and promote recognition of Haiti’s role in the political ideology.56 Haitians who lived abroad joined in the national commemoration of Pan-American ideals seeking to spread awareness about Haiti’s place in the contemporary world. For example, La Nouvelliste reported that Fritz Louis Dorsainville, a Haitian man who was studying abroad at West Virginia State College Institute, presented a speech entitled, “De L’esprit panaméricain en Haiti.” The reported audience totaled more than 2,000 people including professors, students, and visitors who were said to have responded with lively 5‘ at Pan American Day : Paroles prononcées a la Station H.H.BM par M. Max Mossanto. it La Matin, 15 avril 1941, 6. , 55 at La station de radiodiffusion HHBM. a consacre un festival radiophonique a l’occasion du jour panaméricain. >) La Matin, 17 avril 1942, 1. 56 For other examples of similar radio programs see it Festival Radiphonique. » La Matin, 12 and 13 avril 1942, 3 ; “L'esprit Pan-Americain. Belles pensées de fameux Américains,” La Matin, samedi 18 avril 1942, 1, 5; “Programme ‘ideal de Bolivar' du 14 avril 1943 a la Station HH3W.” La Matin, 13 avril 1943, 2. Interestingly enough, Pierre Moravian Morpeau's presentation on HH3W in 1942(« Festival Radiphonique. » La Matin, 12 and 13 avril 1942, 3) also included a salute to the Philippines, recognizing the Pacific Islands’ official “place” in the American empire. 61 applause.57 The Haitian government also brought the concept of Pan-Americanism into the public eye by renaming streets. A 1942 report in Le Moniteur announced that a major roadway between the suburb of Pétion-Ville and the limits of the downtown capital, Port-au-Prince, had been designated avenue Panamtléricaina.58 Other streets acquired the names of Pan-American “heroes.” 59 In June 1938, the already popular Franklin Delano Roosevelt gained further recognition in Haiti with the inauguration of a boulevard in his name linking Port-au-Prince with the village of Carrefour. 6° The Haitian government graced two major streets with Simon Bolivar’s name. The first was the road to the mountains of Kenscoff; and, the second in 1944 was the downtown road known as rue da la Reunion.61 Another street in Port-au- Prince was designated avenue Jose Marti; and, the boulevard alongside the downtown port became boulevard Harry S. Truman.62 Haitian President Estimé announced this honor to President Truman in a letter dated November 29, 1949: 57 “De l’esprit panaméricain en Haiti,“ La Nouvelliste, 15 avril 1940, 1. 58 April 1942, 33-7 and May 1942, 38—4, Bulletin dale Moniteur. 59 Chaumette, La panaméricanisma ; Ludovic Rosamond provides a survey of prominent Haitians and US. Americans who he identifed as Pan-American “heroes“ in Haiti at les Etats-Unis, (Port-au-Prince, 1945). 6° Georges Corvington, Port-au-Princa au cours des ans : la ville contemporaine, 1934-1950, (Port-au-Prince: lmprimerie Henri Deschamps, 1991), 139. 8' Georges Corvington, Port-au-Prince au cours das ans : la ville contemporaine, 1934-1950, (Port-au-Prince : lmprimerie Henri Deschamps, 1991), 144. ‘2 As of October 2002, these remained the official names of these streets. 62 The Fair Deal will mark our era, to attest, despite the anxieties weighing upon the world, the fidelity of a few large hearts to the greater principle of Christian brotherhood... In honor of this action that you have personally exercised for the institution of this promising policy [the economic aid program Point Four, in particular], to mark its full adhesion and its recognition of all types of positive outcomes that our country awaits, my government has decided to name “Boulevard Harry Truman” the largest avenue of the International Exposition of the Bicentennial of Port-au-Prince.63 Haitian youth attending public schools in Port-au-Prince were also exposed to official support for Pan-Americanism. In a 2002 interview, Charles Manigat recalled how Pan-Americanism was one of the many themes eloquently presented by his school director at the start of his elementary school days.‘54 The Haitian government designated several elementary and secondary-level schools to represent American republics. The outside walls of Port-au-Prince’s schools announced that they represented nations such as the “Republic of the United States of America,” the “Republic of Ecuador,” and the “Republic of Chile.”65 On the annual holiday, students represented their “3 Estimé to Truman, 29 November 1949, p. 450, Register (R) #995, Ancien Archives National d’Haiti (hereafter designated as ANH). Correspondence between Estimé and JD. Charles, 24 December 1949, indicates that Truman received and responded favorably to Estimé’s letter, p. 455, R#995, ANH. 6‘ Interview by the author, April 4, 2002, Cap-Haitian, Haiti. ‘5 As of October 2002, evidence of this still existed on the exteriors of Haitian public 63 republics by presenting national songs and flags at public celebrations.66 Such events left a deep impression on at least one student. In a 2001 interview, Jacqueline Levy proudly recalled that at the age of nine her elementary school represented Argentina in the annual Pan-American activities, and without hesitation began a firm chanting of the Argentinean national hymn. Mrs. Levy also recalled being one of three other students from her class whose “Dear [Pan-American] Sister” letters were selected to be sent abroad.67 In 1943, an unspecified group of Haitian Scouts joined in the Pan- American Day celebrations by gathering for a camp fire at Lycee Pétion. The event included a salute to the twenty-one flags of the American republics, a lecture on the goals of Pan-Americanism and a closing film on scouts across the Americas.68 That same year, an essay competition sponsored by a correspondence school in Pennsylvania offered scholarships to Ieam English or Spanish, or a technical subject like radio operating. The competition, authorized by Haitian School administrators, requested that essays treat the theme: Pan-Americanism and the contribution of the International Correspondence Schools of Latin America toward bringing closer relationship schools in Port-au-Prince. 6° Jerry Davila makes reference to a similar use of youth manifestations as national propaganda in Diploma of Whitaness: Race and Social Policy in Brazil, 1917-1945 (Durham: Duke University Press, 2003), 160-165. “7 Jacqueline Levy, multiple conversations with the author, Miami, Florida, 2001, 2002, 2005; La celebration du cinquantenaire de I’Union Panaméricaine,” La Nouvelliste, 16 avril 1940, 1. 6‘ at Les scouts at le jour panaméricain », Le Matin, 16 avril 1943, 2. s4 between the Americas.69 Official visits, public speeches, writings, activities, and designations infused post-occupation Haitian society with new ideas about Haiti’s relationship with the United States, and the role that the latter could play in Haitian national affairs. They also opened up possibilities for travel to the US, and encounters with visiting US. citizens. Lallier C. Phareaux emphasized the important relationship between traveling and fostering inter-American ties in a 1940 article published in Le Nouvelliste on “La panaméricanisme dans les temps modernes.” Phareaux wrote that Franklin D. Roosevelt: wanted to invite his compatriots to undertake voyages in the countries of the Americas in order to provoke frequent contact that would have the virtue of fortifying the work of reciprocal comprehension necessary to have the good harmony between diverse Nations in our Hemisphere rule.70 Cross-cultural encounters were facilitated by a wide range of regional and international organizations and conferences focused on issues such as public health, agriculture, human rights, social services, military defense, governance, foreign affairs, tourism, student affairs, intellectual and technical 1 cooperation. 7 International organizations offered the occasion to network 69 it Sujet de Célébration du 14 avril, fete Pan-Américaine, par les Ecoles Intemationales par Correspondence de I’Amerique Latina aux Etats-Unis. » Le Matin, 12 mars 1943, 3. 7° Lallier C. Phareaux. “Le panaméricanisme dans le temps modernes,” La Nouvelliste, 13 avril 1940. Emphasis mine. 7‘ Ministry correspondence from the study period preserved in Port-au-Prince at the 65 and promote Haitian interests. In 1940, Le Matin reported that Francois Duvalier (then an academic fallow studying public health at the University of Michigan) provided the Pan-American Union with a copy of a journal he contributed to entitled Les Griots. Leo S. Rowe, President of the Union acknowledged Duvalier’s gesture by writing a letter that affirmed the “continental valor of the Great Haitian journal which makes an efficient contribution to the work of Pan-Americanism.”72 Fritz Dorsainville, who had experienced travel to the United States first hand, described how Haitian youth studying at US. institutions and US. citizens traveling as business representatives in Haiti further stimulated contact between the two nations. He observed that: American scholars reveal to us [Haitians] Uncle Sam’s democratic ideals: learned Haitians make the country’s name known in the United States, and while on one hand scores of Haitian graduates from Hampton, Columbia and Tuskegee have brought back an disinterested Amaricanism, on the other, American experts were sent for to help our industries and Agriculture. Such contact, Dorsainville opined, reinforced the sentiment among Haitians that their future lay more with the US. cities of New York, San Francisco, and Ancien Archives National d’Haiti is replete with commentaries on Haitian representation at inter-American conferences and membership in inter-American organizations. 72 it Au jour le jour: Ie Pan-American Union at Les Griots. » Le Matin, 4 janvier 1940, Miami than with the traditionally admired French cities of Paris, Bordeaux, and Marseille. Dorsainville proposed that it would be best for Haitians to renew their traditional ties to French culture by combining them with modern American ways.73 Haitians engaged in the ideas and activities of mid—twentieth century Pan-Americanism sought ways to affirm their own history and culture. But, they also sought a more auspicious future, which many argued meant breaking with certain traditions. As Charles F. Pressoir wrote in 1937, although international politics based on common culture was an excellent unifying principle, it also created limitations for Haiti. Pressoir was responding to a French lecturer who advocated Pan-Latinism as a solution to contemporary European conflict. Pressoir acknowledged that embracing Pan-Latinism would be agreeable to Haitians. However, based on Haiti’s “geographic and economic situation vis-a-vis the United States” he declared that “more than Pan-Latinism, it is Pan-Americanism which is necessary to us :[Haitians].” But he emphasized that in addition to culture, human interests were what joined people together. In the Americas, Pressoir saw “continental necessities, historic circumstances, common anxieties, and the aspiration for peace” as the Western Hemisphere’s binding interests. Pressoir added that “Pan- Americanism does not signify for us [Haitians] exclusion but rather the development and adaptation of Latinism.” 7‘ Pressoir recognized and 73 Fritz [Louis?] Dorsinville. “Front [sic] Paris to Washington,” Voz da Haiti en Ias Americas, (n.d., early 19403), 9. Emphasis mine. 7‘ Charles Fernand Pressoir. “Pan-Latinism and Pan-Americanism,” Enclosure No. 1 67 articulated the Haitian perspective that organizing around these interests and the principle of Pan-Americanism broadened the possibilities for Haitians to fulfill their national goals. Conclusion If, as Max Charlmers wrote in 1940, Pan-Americanism “owes its vitality to the permanence of democratic aspirations found in the citizens of the Americas’ tvventy-one republics,"75 then Haitians demonstrated their nation’s contributions to that vitality by actively promoting historical memories and public activities that they hoped would help translate Pan-American ideals into Haitian realities. In the decades following the US. occupation of Haiti, Haitian leaders worked to find a balance between their insistence on securing national sovereignty and their desire to secure continued U.S. assistance with development. Pan-American political ideals shaped their vision of how renewed ties with the United States could help Haiti achieve the goals of its Second Independence. Haitians demonstrated their nation’s alignment with the political agenda of their American neighbors, particularly the United States, by rearticulating Haitian history as a Pan-American paradigm and actively participating in inter—American activities. In a climate shaped by Pan- Americanism diffused through evocative rhetoric and cultural events, Haitians to Despatch No. 569 of Oct 12, 1937 from the Legation at Port-au-Prince, Haiti, (Translation), copy in author’s files. 75 Max Charlmers, “L’Union Panaméricaine,” La Nouvelliste, 16 April 1940, 1. and US. Americans reached toward a cooperative approach to determining what was necessary for Haitian national progress. But, as I explore in the following chapters, there were many obstacles to the institutionalization of Pan-American ideals in Haiti. CHAPTER TWO Intellectual Cooperation: A Strategy for Bureaucratic and Civic Reform Haitian leaders of the post-occupation period looked to intellectual cooperation with the United States as a viable means of addressing obstacles to the development of Haitian identity and society. According to Maurice Dartigue, who served as Haiti’s Director of Rural Education between 1934 and 1941, the central cause of Haiti’s “insoluble problems” following its independence in 1804 was its poor educational system. Dartigue pinpointed the “lack of preparation and lack of political maturity of the leaders of the time,” as well as the fact that “the entire administrative and economic structure had been destroyed or completely turned upside down” as the central causes of the new nation’s difficulties in the nineteenth century. He believed, furthermore, that these critical issues—a lack of education and of effective administrative structures—still plagued Haiti. As Director of Rural Education during the final year of the occupation, Dartigue viewed gaining access to the United States’ intellectual resources as the first step towards effectively addressing these issues. At the dawn of Haiti’s “second independence,” he worked diligently to continue educational reforms and to build on what he saw as the important gains of the previous years.1 As Director of Rural Education and subsequently, Minister of Public Instruction, Agriculture, and Labor (1941-5), Dartigue played an important role ‘ “On the Eve of the Liberation from the American Occupation, 1934 (Talk)," Papers of Maurice Dartigue, MDP. 70 in setting the tone of the discussions around intellectual collaboration with the United States during the “second independence.” Dartigue’s educational reform program was based on the idea that working with the United States was a practical means of introducing the “best” methods into Haiti’s bureaucracies and social institutions. These methods would make it possible, he believed, to train an efficient cadre of professionals, and ultimately, improve the conditions under which Haiti’s masses lived and participated in national affairs. In this chapter, I examine how Maurice Dartigue and other Haitian public thinkers thought about and articulated their support of intellectual cooperation with the United States during the post-occupation period, and then describe the processes by which these ties evolved after 1934, particularly in the areas of general and professional education in Haiti. The pursuit, by both public institutions and private individuals, of intellectual cooperation with the US. shaped the ways many Haitians came to understand what was necessary to ameliorate their nation's social, economic, and political conditions. Haitian professionals and leaders, and ultimately parts of the larger public, shared broad concepts about the central place of education in nation-building and uplift, a fact reflected in their willingness to work with US. “experts” in various fields. The intellectual exchanges that took place between the US. and Haiti during the post-occupation period served to challenge certain aspects of Haiti’s social stratification, as well as of the unequal relationship between the 71 US. and Haiti. Elite Haitians were encouraged to consider their obligations to the poorer majority, and in a parallel way US. citizens and institutions were pushed to consider their responsibilities to Haiti. And, intellectual cooperation set into motion important changes within Haiti, most notably the development of education for a larger majority of Haitians, and for women, the restructuring of Haiti’s bureaucracies, and programs that encouraged Haitian and US. citizens to interact with their professional counterparts. Driven by the ideals of inter-American cooperation, the thinkers and leaders I discuss in this chapter embraced as much as they could acquire from the United States in seeking the amelioration of Haitian society. Ideas about Education and National Progress It was during the occupation period that Maurice Dartigue’s eagerness to reform Haiti’s public institutions, and his sensibility to the potential resources available from US. institutions, began to evolve.2 In 1924, US. occupation officials established the Central School of Agriculture outside Port-au-Prince, at Thor le Volant, on the Route de Carrefour. The School functioned under the American-run Service Technique d’AglicuItura. It was intended to train agricultural technicians, and instructors for rural and professional urban 2 Unless otherwise noted, details regarding Dartigue’s educational and professional experiences are taken from his Curriculum Vitae, MDP. 72 schools.3 At the age of 21, Dartigue applied and was selected to be part of the school’s first promotional class (1924-6). Prior to this, Dartigue had already secured a degree from Haiti’s Faculty of Law (1921-1924) and completed secondary studies at the College St. Martial in Port-au-Prince. Through his affiliation with the School of Agriculture, Dartigue secured various positions which established his credentials as a professional in the field of education. Between 1926 and 1929, Dartigue served as an assistant to the director of rural education and as a school inspector. Toward the end of his tenure, from 1928 to 1931, Dartigue also served as a teacher in education and social studies in the Ecole Normale Rurale, the Rural Normal School. In January 1928, Dartigue also became the first director of the Farm School of Chatard, a post-primary agricultural boarding school.4 In 1930-31, Dartigue was responsible for supervising the School of Agriculture’s experimental farms. From 1931 to 1934, Dartigue conducted surveys and studies in the rural education division of Haiti’s agricultural school. During this time, he continued his work as an inspector, specifically for rural and farm schools. These positions made Dartigue eligible for study abroad opportunities. In the years 1926-27 and 1930-1, he traveled to the United States and completed a 3 “Historique,” Annuaire das agronomes dip/Omés da Ia FAMV [Faculté d’Agronomie at de Medicine Vétérinaira], 1924-1998, Port-au-Prince, 1999, 4. This document notes that the Central School of Agriculture moved to another area on the outskirts of Port-au-Prince called Damien, its present-day location, circa 1928. Max Vieux, interview with the author, May 17, 2002, Tate de l’eau, Pétion-Ville, Haiti. ‘ “Highlights of annual reports (French) of Rural Education, 1931-1941,” p.3, MDP. 73 master’s degree at Teacher’s College, Columbia University. Following the US. occupation, in 1935, Dartigue returned to Columbia to pursue additional specialized studies. These experiences shaped the ways in which Dartigue understood how educational institutions and intellectual cooperation with the United States could be an effective means of improving Haiti’s capacity for self-rule. Beginning with his tenure as Director of Rural Education (1934-41), Dartigue advocated the idea that civic reform could be attained through universal education. He proposed that an educated citizenry would expect to see “the public services function properly.” Dartigue wrote: If the masses are educated they will no longer accept the bad roads, which soon may not even exist. They will not accept overcrowded poorly run or non-existing hospitals, nor poorly trained doctors and nurses. They will no longer accept illiterate teachers. They will see the difference between good and bad schools and will no longer tolerate the latter. They will not admit that their representatives, the deputies and the senators vote for laws contrary to its interests or refuse laws which are for their well being.5 Dartigue also pursued other administrative reforms. He supported the professional training for Haitian educators and the introduction of competitive exams to “take politics out of [hiring] nominations.” He also looked towards 5 “On the Eve of the Liberation,” MDP. 74 distributing “furnishings as well as class materials throughout the countryside.” More broadly, he encouraged his administration “to maintain and respect honesty, authorize and encourage experimentation and elaborate a distinct new programme.” 6 Dartigue saw the dawn of the post-occupation period as a new era in Haitian governance, and he stressed the importance of preparing all Haitian citizens to play a role in its advance. When promoted to Minister of Public Instruction in 1941, Dartigue used his position to extend his influence to the reform and improvement of Haiti’s normal and professional schools. He advised teachers-in-training for Haiti’s Normal School for Girls that the school’s mission was to “arm [its graduates] with certain techniques for teaching [exercising] their brain power, and [using their] hands for the transformation of matter for the common good.”7 In a 1944 speech prepared for President Lescot, who was addressing the first graduate class of the University of Haiti, Dartigue wrote: The [newly-established University of Haiti] should not shut itself in an ivory tower. Not only should [university] students laam to earn their livelihood but learn to be useful to the community, socially aware and useful. They should be ready to ameliorate the social, economic, cultural, and political situation of the nation. They... must help the govemmant find solutions for the problems '3 “Some Aspects of the Educational Problem in Haiti," p.2, MDP. 7 “Preparation of Teachers," p.7, MDP. 75 it confronts, thanks to work of investigating and inventions, both scientific and mechanical.8 Dartigue sought, then, to convince Haitians that a reformed program of universal education and professional studies in Haiti could positively affect their society. Dartigue’s goals echoed the projects of the US. occupation. As historian Brenda Gayle Plummer has argued, the US. occupation sought to introduce “efficiency and competence as the elements necessary to ensure good government.” She describes the contemporary influence of US. Progressives who believed that, “justice and social stability . . . would stem from prudent management.”9 Dartigue’s critiques of Haitian society and his favoring of the United States as a model for domestic social and political reform helped to sustain ideas introduced by US. occupation officials about what was necessary to “uplift” Haiti during the post-occupation period.10 On the eve of Haitian liberation, Dartigue argued that the “work of the [Haitian] government . . . has become more complex, more delicate than it was 20 a “Council of the University of Haiti, The Giving of Diplomas,” 1944, p.1, MDP. Emphasis mine. 9 Plummer, Haiti and the United States, 107. 1° Dartigue (“The Merit of the US,” MDP) articulated an admiration for the apparent efficiency of American administrative techniques. Particularly critical of the prominence of political patronage in Haitian politics, Dartigue praised the United States' move from a “Spoils System“ to a bureaucratic civil service. Two parallel examples from the US. of how elite members of society looked to education as a technical means of promoting social uplift and how this intersected with contemporary racial assumptions are: James D. Anderson, The Education of Blacks in the South, 1860-1935 (Chapel Hill: University of North Carolina Press, 1988) and Davila, Diploma of Whitenass. 76 years ago. Consequently the business of running the government demands not only prepared functionaries, but especially persons having attained a mental development of a mature adult.”11 In describing the agenda of President Vincent, Dartigue noted that it was one of “economic and moral uplift.”12 The cooperative diplomatic climate of the post-occupation period, in fact enabled Dartigue to carry out initiatives with greater ease than during the occupation. This becomes clear when we compare his administration to that of by Dantés Bellegarde who was Minister of Public Instruction and Agriculture during the first phase of the occupation (1918-1922). Bellegarde also worked to reform all areas of Haitian education, focusing on classical education and an expansion of rural education. Bellegarde also introduced “strict rules” for hiring, promotion, and salary practices into the public system. However, his efforts were limited by lack of support from occupation officials. The most explicit example of this was his inability to secure funds from the US. Financial Adviser, who was responsible for approving all public expenditures.13 Certainly, Dartigue also faced financial constraints. But it seems that he had greater ease in establishing a reform program given that, while it grew out of the educational structures introduced by occupation officials, it also took root “ “On the Eve of the Liberation,” MDP. ‘2 Graduation Talk 1936, p.2, MDP. ‘3 Patrick Bellegarde-Smith, In the Shadow of Powers: Dantés Bellegarde in Haitian Social Thought, (Atlantic Highlands, NJ: Humanities Press lntemational, Inc., 1985), 64, 137. Mercer Cook, “Education in Haiti,“ U. S. Office of Education Bulletin, 1 (1948), 20, 22. 77 in the context of Haiti’s “second independence” and not under the direct control of US. administrators. Although in some ways Dartigue’s reforms were an extension of the occupying officials’ agenda, his efforts fulfilled the goals of at least one major critic of the occupation: Jean Price-Mars. In his 1919 compilation of speeches and essays entitled, La vocation da I’élite, Price-Mars called on elite Haitians to accept their social responsibility. Price-Mars argued that Haitian leaders could “uplift” their society. As a strategy for challenging the US. military presence, Price-Mars pleaded his privileged counterparts to embrace their obligation to the Haitian masses as a way of defending Haitian sovereignty and promoting its development. He emphasized that Haiti’s elite had to become more than intellectual elite who mastered the art of reading, and become an elite dedicated to advancing the country. This, Price-Marsargued would help Haiti’s elite preserve their integrity and privilege, garner good favor from the masses, and, challenge foreign critiques about Haiti’s capacity for self-rule.14 To illustrate the validity of his perspective, Price-Mars made references to Haiti’s revolutionary history. He stressed that Haitian independence from France was made possible by the fact that colonial Saint-Domingue’s privileged affranchis collaborated with the enslaved majority. After independence, however, social inequalities made it difficult to fulfill the " Jean Price-Mars, La vocation de l’alite (Port-au-Prince : lmprimerie Edmond Chenet, 1919), 57-129. 78 principles of political liberty proclaimed in the Haitian constitution. Price-Mars critiqued the traditional practices of domination by the Haitian elite and servitude on the part of the Haitian masses. Progress in Haiti, according to Price Mars, required elite Haitian men and women to play an active role in improving the Haitian majority’s quality of life. ‘5 Dartigue shared Price-Mars” vision of the responsibility of elite Haitians. He argued that elite Haitians were indifferent to mass education because Haitian schools offered classical education and typically produced graduates who became “candidate[s] for a public function.” Dartigue wrote: [l]n a general way the elite of this country have never been convinced of the importance and value of education and consequently its effects on the social, political, and economic amelioration of the country... Unfortunately, there are too many in Haiti who think there is little one can do for the masses and that education is artificial, almost a luxury, and cannot bring about amelioration. Others see education as presenting a great danger of social and political stability. Their conception of the school is as a machine to fabricate candidates for government jobs.16 This conception of education, Dartigue argued, made it difficult for those who held an education “to see how [Haitian schools] can be practical for the '5 Jean Price-Mars, La vocation de l'élite, 27-53; 63-129 ‘° “Education and General intelligence (Talk)," 1939, p.1, MDP. 79 masses,” and indeed made it easy to see broader access to education as “dangerous” because it potentially added to the number of “malcontent” members of society who failed to secure a government position.17 Dartigue hoped to change this concept and to garner elite support for public education as an institution that, rather than simply combating illiteracy, actively helped to improve Haitian society.” Speaking with students in his pedagogy course at the Central School of Agriculture in 1928, and later on, as one of three general directors of public education who participated in a 1933 commission discussing the reform of Haitian public instruction, Dartigue stressed the importance of establishing public schools that did more than teach reading, writing, and French to Haiti's poor children.” To carry out his educational reforms, Dartigue sought to develop a cadre of professionals who were committed to running an effective and nationally-interested rather than a self-interested educational structure in Haiti. But he also had to confront the question of how to simultaneously define and improve Haitian culture in relation to external powers. The Place of Haiti’s Francophone Ties '7 “The Preparation of Teachers,” p.3, MDP. ” Maurice Dartigue. L’Ensaignament an Haiti (1804-1938), (Port-au-Prince : lmprimerie de l’état, 1939), 48. ” In 1928, Dartigue asked a group of first-year students taking a course in pedagogy at the Central School of Agriculture “what is the aim of the public primary school?” The majority answered, ‘The aim of the school is to teach reading and writing to the children of the poor.’ In 1933, a general director of public education answered, ‘The aim of the primary school is to teach French.’ “The Preparation of Teachers,“ p.3, MDP. 80 Haitians eager to embrace intellectual ties with the United States necessarily challenged the privileged place of French culture within Haitian society. Some argued in favor of using ties with the US. to help Haiti distance itself from France, or claimed that establishing ties with the US. was a means of shifting from the outdated cultural center of France to one that was more current. Others, however, viewed ties with the US. as an effective way of helping Haitians better-showcase their French cultural traditions. Whatever their position on the issue, all leaders had to think through the ways in which Haiti’s cultural capital influenced its status in the contemporary world. Maurice Dartigue argued that eliminating Haiti’s heavy reliance on France and French culture within its educational institutions was critical to helping Haiti establish its national authenticity. In 1937, Dartigue asserted the importance of the Vincent administration’s efforts to train Haitians to fill positions in the nation’s rural education program. “President Vincent has done more for ruralnational education than any other president or government. [President] Geffrard did much but he did it with foreign teachers. Now it is being done with Haitians.”20 Dartigue applauded the setting up of “an organization composed of purely Haitian elements” that challenged the long- standing prominence of French clergyman as educators in Haitian schools.21 2° “Some Aspects of the Educational Problem in Haiti, 1937? [sic](Talk)”, p.2, MDP. 2‘ “Some Aspects of the Educational Problem in Haiti, 1937? [sic] (Talk)”, MDP. 81 Dartigue indicated that an over-reliance on French cultural traditions was ”dangerous” for Haitian society. “The Haitian school has not been Haitian in spirit or in [reality]. It has been a pale reflection of another school, an inferior copy. It has never considered that it is a school that is a factor in the development of a national culture.” 22 He critiqued those who favored mass education based on French models. He argued that this approach underestimated the capacity of a small nation (Haiti) to develop its own culture, national identity, and thereby contribute to modern civilization. Dartigue rejected the conceptualization of Haiti as an intellectual province of France.23 In attacking the idea that France was the best model for Haiti, Dartigue decned: The spectacle of a so-called nation ‘independent and free’ for more than 100 years which has textually copied a system of another country [France] which is completely foreign to our lives. We use books to study animals and plants some of which the children have never seen and which 99% will never see. As grown-ups we have access to books about our country but our children have access only to books that refer to the rivers of F lance.24 22 “The Preparation of Teachers (Summer Course Conferences)," p.7, MDP. 23 Dartigue, L’Ensaignemant an Haiti, 49. 2‘ “Some Aspects of the Educational Problem in Haiti, 1937? (Talk)," p.1, MDP. 82 In 1931, Dartigue offered an alternative to Haitian textbooks based on French society by co-authoring with his colleague Andre Liautaud, Géographia Locale."5 He also looked to the United States for resources and methods that could help in the development of teaching materials that reflected the Haitian experience. Dartigue challenged those who believed that Haiti would be Americanizing itself by cooperating intellectually with the United States. He proposed that working cooperatively with Americans offered Haitians a means of creating something distinctly “Haitian.” In Dartigue’s opinion, Haitian schools should be a place for students to gain broad exposure to the world but also to gain grounding in their own nation. As Dartigue described it, “the school permits the individual to have access to the world cultural heritage, to try to understand the world and adapt to it.” The first obligation of the school, however, was to help the student understand his own milieu as a way of both adapting to it and transforming it: “the individual adapts to his milieu in transforming it...[by] bringing changes and ameliorations...by the knowledge he has acquired...”26 “On all levels of instruction [the Haitian school] has neglected to teach about and interpret the Haitian milieu and what makes it operate,” complained Dartigue. “Not only was there the tendency to neglect [the Haitian milieu] but ’5 Maurice Dartigue and Andre Liautaud, Géographia Locale (Port-au-Prince: Deschamps, 1931). 2” ’ “The Preparation of Teachers,” p. 5, MDP. 83 also [the tendency] to disdain it.” 27 He indicated that the “negligence and disdain of the milieu ...result[ed] in part [from]...the fact that [Haiti’s] school programs were copied from foreign programs elaborated for a different milieu.” The consequence of such school programming, noted Dartigue, was that “those Haitians who are more or less educated felt that the school was meant to form ‘intallectuals, ’ and particulariy those ‘intellectuals’ who would live outside of Haiti. "28 A 1943 editorial in Le Matin concurred that Haitians needed to develop their own public education system. The author noted that the traditional practice of the Haitian elite who sent their children to study in France was impractical, since it did not allow for sustaining one’s knowledge. Although he acknowledged that all members of society could not be a “humanist” or “philosopher”, the author argued that everyone could be a learned member of society. He stressed that knowledge is power and the source of prestige for a nation. He argued that mass education was essential to improving Haiti’s future.29 Dartigue and others advocating intellectual ties with the United States did not completely reject Haiti’s ties to France. At times, they expressed an appreciation for Haiti as member of a francophone community. They sought to reap the potential benefits of that connection. For example, in 1941, Dartigue proposed to the US. State Department that “French Canada . . . Martinique 27 ’ “The Preparation of Teachers,” p.5, MDP. 2" “The Preparation of Teachers,” p.5, MDP. Emphasis mine. 29 AM, “Progres intellectual,“ La Matin, Thursday, 25 February 1943, p.1, 3. 84 and Guadeloupe . . . be brought into the scope of Pan American intellectual cooperation . . . [in order for] a few outstanding American books . . . be translated into F renoh.”3° By identifying these other nations, Dartigue drew attention to the fact that Haiti was one of several other francophone countries in the region. This was also a way of justifying Haitian efforts to increase their access to information by demonstrating that many people could benefit from the translation of intellectual materials into French. The fact that Haiti’s official language was French and its popular language was Haitian Creole contributed to Haiti’s isolation from other nations in the Americas. Besides providing documents in English, most inter- American institutions and efforts produced materials in Spanish, then Portuguese, only occasionally in French, and almost never in Creole. Beginning in 1941, the Coordinator for Inter-American Affairs and the American Council of Learned Societies began to actively encourage book translations, primarily from English to Spanish and Portuguese, but also vice versa. Those translated included literary, historical, and technical works. By 1943, the Department of State began to develop a translation program that emphasized the translation of technical reference books for university and professional employees in the Americas. There was also an effort to collaborate with commercial publishers to translate important government publications into Spanish, Portuguese and French. These items were to be translated through the Department of State’s Central Translating Division and 3° Letter from Maurice Dartigue to Edward Trueblood, April 18, 1941, MDP. 85 published by the Government Printing Office. The hemisphere’s diplomatic and consular offices facilitated the distribution of as many as 15,000 copies per edition. These translation efforts were complemented by the promotion of book trades and library exchanges. Although some translations were made into French, on the whole Haitians had access to fewer books than other countries in the Americas.31 Many intellectuals, however, saw Haiti’s francophone ties as a central part of its identity and something that should be cultivated and celebrated. Haitian statesman and intellectual Dantés Bellegarde was highly enthusiastic about Haiti’s francophone ties, and indeed promoted Haiti as a “center” of French culture in the Americas. In an address to the Haitian Commission for Intellectual Cooperation, Bellegarde discussed his vision of Haiti as the link between France and the Americas. As a part of the Commission, Bellegarde proposed a free Haitian University that would facilitate the realization of this ideal. In particular, with the support of France and collaboration of the United States, Bellegarde proposed that the Haitian university could provide upper- level training in the arts and sciences; support research activities; instruct the languages and Iiteratures of the Americas, as well as the social sciences; encourage student and faculty exchanges; and organize special summer courses. He made these recommendations in accordance with the Convention for the Promotion of Inter-American Cultural Relations signed by the foreign 3' Haldore Hansen, The Cultural-Cooperation Program, 1938-1943 (Washington: United States Government Printing Office, 1944), 34-5; 36-7; 32-34. 86 ministers of Haiti and other nations at the 1936 Pan-American conference in Buenos Aires. Bellegarde contended that the Haitian university would provide Haitians with immediate access to a prestigious institution, and demonstrate to the Americas that Haiti was an important site for modern intellectual civilization.“2 Other public thinkers believed that, although the presence of French culture in Haiti should be embraced, ultimately the best option for Haiti’s future lay in its broad embrace of diverse cultures. As Maurice Dartigue put it, “[t]he more a culture contains different elements the richer it is.”33 Dominique Hypolite observed that Haitian culture was already a diverse culture. French civilization was, he noted, deeply entrenched in Haitian culture and society. He pointed to the presence of the French language, the prominence of French teachers, and the influence of French writings in Haiti to argue that Haiti had more ties to French culture than any other. But, he explained, while Haitians remain attached to French culture, they also remained open to other cultures. “Haiti,” he wrote, “has never refused to adopt that which is excellent in other cultures.“ As he advocated collaboration with the US, Dartigue emphasized the practical wisdom in combining cultures. He saw his approach to the reform of the educational system as a scientific one that transcended national 32 Dantés Bellegarde, “Haiti, Centre de culture francaise en amérique,” n.d., PSCSM. 3" Maurice Dartigue, “The Preparation of Teachers,” p. 7, MDP. 3‘ Dominique Hypolite, “Haiti y las relaciones culturales amaricanas,” Voz de Haiti en las Americas, n.d., 13, PSCSM. 87 allegiances. Dartigue believed that the US. system was the “best” available at the time. To support his point, interestingly, he cited French educators who referred to the US. system as such. At the same time, Dartigue noted, U.S. Americans were using European and other old world techniques when valuable. His goal, then, was to offer Haitians an opportunity to shape their own system by drawing on the best models available. In the process, Haiti would establish an intellectual autonomy that could complement Haiti’s political independence”5 Fritz Dorsinville made a similar argument in an article stressing the value of Haiti’s cultural shift from Paris to Washington. He pinpointed the US. military occupation and World War era as the moments when Haitians were forced to pay attention to the resources available in the Western Hemisphere. Dorsinville emphasized the many opportunities available for Haitians at US. educational institutions and the possibilities for engagement in contemporary politics. He contrasted this with the physical distance between Haiti and Europe, the outdated trends Haitians followed from France, and the limited progress he perceived in Haitian society since 1804. Dorsinville argued that “American modernism” could help Haiti progress by providing Haitians with access to new opportunities and renewing Haiti’s traditional French culture.36 Another writer similarly emphasized the need for a cultural transition by arguing that a global cultural shift had taken place from Athens, the ancient 35 “Why Our Methods Are Good,“ MDP; also Dartigue, I’enseignament, 49-50. 3" Fritz [Louis?] Dorsinville. “Front [sic] Paris to Washington,” Voz de Haiti en las Americas, (n.d., early 19403). Emphasis mine. 88 center of Greco-Latin culture to Washington, the new site of contemporary civilization.37 Broadening Opportunities for Intellectual Cooperation Haitian proponents of collaboration with the US. could point to the improvements that had been made within the country during the US. occupation as evidence of the possibilities for further development. One of the earliest and most important ways in which Haitians experienced the potential advantages of intellectual cooperation with the United States was in the field of public health. Both Haitian and US. health professionals viewed disease control efforts as a well-needed and viable point of collaboration. US. citizens traveling to work in Haiti-based public health missions and Haitians traveling to the US. for training made it increasingly possible for Haitians to associate medical well-being and expertise with the United States.38 3’ Rene J. Rosamond, “I’Education au service de l’énergie nationale” (Extrait du recent ouvrage de I’auteur), La Matin, Wednesday, 6 January 1943, 1. 3° U.S. professionals working with Haiti, meanwhile, did so in a broader context in which Haitian culture was stigmatized and strongly associated with disease; see Laurent Dubois, A Spoonful of Blood: Haitians, Racism, and AIDS,” Science and Culture 6:26 (1996); Michael Dash, Haiti and the United States: National Stereotypes and Literary Imagination (New York: St. Martin’s Press, 1988, 1997). 89 Haitian-US. American cooperation aimed at improving Haiti’s public health conditions began during the US. administration’s efforts to re-organize the occupation starting in 1922. The Rockefeller Foundation’s International Health Board led the public health initiative and therefore, contributed in important ways to creating one of the most prominent legacies of the US. occupation of Haiti, one that would be a central component of the mid- twentieth century inter-American campaign. Beginning in 1923, the International Health Board responded to requests from the US. American High Commissioner's Officer to address sanitary concerns by conducting a hookworrn infection survey in Haiti. This led to a hookworrn survey and malaria study in 1925, and control efforts from 1929-1933. To complement such disease control efforts, the Rockefeller Foundation Division of Medical Education and Medical Sciences invested in the infrastructure of Haiti’s public health institutions and sponsored development training for its professional staff. This form of assistance was the result of studies and surveys by Dr. Richard Pearce, on the state of medical education in Haiti conducted from 1924 through 1926. Funds were disbursed from 1927 through 1929, and in 1931 to ensure that the National Service of Public Health was “Haitianized”. Correspondence and fellowship records from the Rockefeller Foundation’s provide evidence of the fact that training Haitians and placing them in key positions within Haitian institutions was considered an 90 effective way of ensuring that Haiti would continue to benefit from the “expertise” of Americans.39 The linkages made with US. health professionals and institutions during the occupation period led Haitian professionals after the “Second Independence” to petition the Rockefeller Foundation for continued assistance. The Foundation responded favorably to proposals for disease control. It sporadically extended its disease control mission outside the capital city of Port-au-Prince into the Southern provinces of Jacmel and Petit-Goave until 1943. The Foundation conducted another malaria survey in 1935 and began control work in 1939. Such efforts continued in 1940, 1942, and 1943. According to an officer of the Rockefeller Foundation, these projects were “an ideal way of recommencing..cooperation” during the post-occupation period.40 The Rockefeller Foundation, however, refused to provide continuing assistance for the improvement of medical education in Haiti. It declined post- occupation petitions to reinstate funding for faculty and staff training, and assistance with improving the conditions of the supplies, equipment, and 3° Rockefeller Foundation, Annual Reports; folder 1 (entitled “National School of Medicine and Pharmacy, 1926-1931, 1934”), series 320A, Record Group 1-1, Rockefeller Foundation Papers, RAC; folder 3 (entitled “Pearce, Richard M., Medical Education in Haiti, 1924-1926, 1-116”), series 320A Record Group 1-1, Rockefeller Foundation Papers, RAC. ‘° Letter dated January 24, 1940, folder 4 (entitled “320i Malaria, 1935, 1939-41"), box 1, series 320, Record Group 1.1, Rockefeller Foundation Papers, RAC. 91 school facilities.“ Foundation officers based their decision on an investigation of post-occupation developments at the National School of Medicine and Pharmacy. In the Foundation’s opinion, the National School had failed to expand or create initiatives beyond those put in place thanks to the Foundation’s previous contributions.42 Despite the Rockefeller Foundation’s refusal to contribute to post- occupation medical education development in Haiti, Haitian professionals persisted in their petitions to the Foundation. They also petitioned other US. institutions. This perseverance would pay off. By 1943, medical and dental sciences continued to lead the list of study-abroad opportunities for individuals from American republics traveling to the United States with the support of the Department of State. With the administrative support of the Institute for International Education, Haitians were able to study in the United States with public or private institutional support or their own personal funds.“3 Haiti-US. cooperation in public health during the occupation, then, set a precedent that “ “National School of Medicine and Pharmacy,” box 1, series 320A, Record Group 1.1, Rockefeller Foundation Papers, RAC. ‘2 Rockefeller Foundation Annual Reports; folder 4 (entitled Malaria: 1935, 1939-41); box 1, series 320, Record Group 1.1, Rockefeller Foundation Papers, RAC; folder 5 ( entitled “320i: Malaria, 1942-5); box 1, series 320, Record Group 1.1, Rockefeller Foundation Papers, RAC. I found no evidence of an investigation into the reasons why further developments did not succeed the original mission. ‘3 Department de l’lnstruction Publique, La Preparation da Cadras (Port-au-Princa: I’Imprimerle de l'état, 1942, 1943, 1944) ; Hansen, The Cultural-Cooperation Program, 1938- 1943, 11. 92 encouraged Haitians to pursue professional training from North Americans during the post-occupation period.“4 The growing number of opportunities during the post-occupation period was the result of a concerted effort on the part of the United States government to expand the opportunities for exchange programs — which had been active with European nations and Japan since the nineteenth century - in the Americas. After the First World War, private foundations and universities, encouraged by the Institute of International Education, financed the growing number of exchanges between the United States and other American republics. With the outbreak of a Second World War, the United States government began to supplement these private funding sources. According to a 1944 federal report on the United States’ cultural cooperation program prepared by Haldore Hansen, there were many advantages to supporting student exchanges. First, government funds helped to rapidly accelerate the number and type of exchanges, in the process reinforcing contemporary ideas about inter-American solidarity. Second, technicians from American Republics trained in the United States could ultimately take over U.S.-initiated projects in their homelands. Government involvement could also compensate for the fact that some universities in the US. were no longer able to fully cover foreign student expenses, and help self-supporting students who faced increasing government regulation on their ”Department de I’lnstruction Publique, La Preparation da Cadras (Port-au-Prince: l'lmprimerie de I'etat, 1942, 1943, 1944). 93 travels. The 1941 Lend-Lease Act facilitated arrangements that helped alleviate, for the United States and foreign governments, some of the expenses of training technicians.” In the decades following the “Second Independence” of Haiti, then, the fields of study and the number of travel experiences available to Haitians expanded considerably. U.S. Americans and Haitians traveled to and from Haiti for cooperation in fields including livestock farming, physical education, aviation, forestry, and general education.46 The Haitian-American Institute participated in this process by serving as the main administrative center for study abroad scholarships. The activities of the Institute may have been the most direct linkage between the lives of Haitians, US. American culture and society during the post-occupation period. According to Jean Price-Mars, who then served as president of the Institute, the Institute sought to offer scholarships to those who demonstrated an appreciation for “the value of North America’s civilization,” as well as to “young persons . . . in need of perfecting themselves in any branch of intellectual culture or profession.”47 Scholarship awardees were selected through competitions and private nominations. For example, in the February 20, 1943 issue, Le Matin announced that a selection committee would present Haitian ‘5 Hansen, The Cultural-Cooperation Program, 1938-1943, 8-10. ‘6 Diplomatic Correspondence from Register (R) #946, “Department of Foreign Relations...Correspondence Expedited to Foreign Diplomatic Agents in Port-au-Prince, 12 September 1937-17 June 1940,” (p.327, 389, 375, and p. 203 and 278); R#946 (p. 118, 133, 209, 399, 418); R#946 (p. 219, 71, 197), Ancien Archives National d’Haiti (hereafter designated as ANH). ‘7 “Discours prononcé le 28 Novembre 1944 a I’institut haitiano-américain et enregistré sur disque,” PMC. 94 candidates to the Institute for International Education. The award competition was for one year of post-graduate studies at major US. universities. There were three categories of scholarships. The major award covered expenses for courses, stipend, and return travel expenses. A second award offered partial coverage of these expenses. A third covered expenses for the courses. The basic requirements for the awards were: superior studies in the form of a diploma and/or certificate; Haitian citizenship; successful passing of an English language exam; demonstration of intellectual capacity for advanced studies; good health and moral recognition. In March, the winners were announced. They represented major Haitian cities; and, the committee expressed their desire to see more applicants from provincial towns in the future.“8 Jean Price-Mars’ son Louis Mars was among the students who benefited from these scholarships. He was the first to participate in a faculty and student exchange agreement that Price-Mars arranged with Fisk University and philanthropic foundations based in the United States. Louis Mars would serve as a visiting professor for nine months, instructing a course entitled “Problems in Psychiatry and Culture.” Price-Mars noted that other exchanges were being arranged with institutions such as Northwestern and ‘8 4t Avis : Comite de selection des boursier d’Haiti, » la Matin, samedi 20 fevrier 1943, 5. Winners announced : Mr. Léonce Bonnefil (Cayes), Mr. Leon Wadestrandt (St. Marc), Mr. Wenceslas Ste Luce (PauP); Mlle Elodie deWent (PauP; resident of St. Marc); Mr. Albert Liautaud (PauP); Mr. Camille Tesserot (PauP). “Comite de selection de nos boursiers: Communique,“ La Matin, mercredi 31 mars 1943, 4. 95 University of Chicago to welcome the top scholars from Haiti’s Institute of Ethnology, which Price-Mars co-founded in 1941.“9 The United States govemmant’s funding of scholarships was, in part, an attempt to, to meet the terms of the 1936 Convention for the Promotion of Inter-American Cultural Relations signed in Buenos Aires. One of the agreement’s terms called for an exchange of two graduate students (annually) and one or more professors (bi-annually) from each country between that signed the agreement. The actual exchange program only began in the academic year 1939-1940. At the end of 1943, the United States received 63 students and sent 29 US. citizens abroad. Self-supporting students also benefited from the Buenos Aires agreement. During the 1940-1 academic year, the United States arranged with steamship lines to offer these students reduced transportation fares. Other corporations such as Pan-American Airways also participated by awarding one round-trip ticket to each of the twenty of the American republics each year. Funds from the United States Congress and diverse private organizations, such as colleges, women’s clubs, professional associations and foundations also contributed to covering travel and maintenance expenses. Sending govemmants also contributed to covering some expenses, but the large pool of private donors eased the challenge of meeting the 1936 convention requirement for nominating governments to pay for the students’ travel expenses or the professor’s entire ‘9 Jean Price-Mars to Elia Lescot, 28 juillet 1943, PMC. 96 expenses and for the receiving government’s responsibility for the student’s tuition, board and lodging.50 These programs facilitated Haitian travel to every region of the United States for training that was meant to contribute to the improvement of practically every area of Haitian administration and governance. The benefits gained from exchange programs were described in a series of publications by the Department of Public Instruction called “La preparation des cadres.” These bulletins, printed for the years 1941-1944, listed the institutions and specialization of Haitian students in the United States. In the Northeast, Haitians trained at the Teacher’s College at Columbia University (in secondary school instruction and rural school instruction supervision), Columbia University (in social security), Cornell University (in primary school management, veterinary sciences, agricultural chemistry), Swarthmore College (English instruction), Pennsylvania State College (physics and chemistry), Harvard University (public health), and Howard University (social sciences).51 In the South, Hampton Institute was a popular host for a range of studies including primary school inspection, primary and professional school instruction, organizing and supervising rural instruction, automobile mechanics, and carpentry. Atlanta University (English instruction) and Fisk University (social sciences, music and music instruction, science and science instruction) were two of several other host institutions. In the Midwest, Haitians 5° Hansen, The Cultural-Cooperation Program, 1938-1943, 10-12. 5' In addition to colleges and universities, training took place at private hospitals as well as aeronautic and printing companies. 97 trained at the University of Chicago (in social security and work inspection), Ohio State University (home economics, finance and accounting), Iowa State College of Agriculture (veterinary medicine, livestock farming), University of Minnesota (secondary and mathematical instruction), Olivet College (English instruction), University of Michigan (dental surgery), and Indiana University (bacteriology).52 Sponsors expected that individuals who had the privilege of taking part in these study abroad opportunities would make practical contributions to Haitian society on their return. It was the policy of the Haitian government that individuals benefiting from scholarships must return to Haiti.53 Haitian and US. govemmant officials collaborated to penalize those who failed to meet their obligations. Such was the case of M. Paul Polynice, who left his studies prior to the end of his scholarship period in order to work and refused to resume his position in Haiti. Polynice faced the penalty of repaying his scholarship and being deported from the United States.54 The beneficiaries of intellectual cooperation programs were expected to make innovative contributions to Haitian society. One statistician employed by the Haitian government, for instance, was sent to study in several US. cities on a scholarship sponsored by the Institute for Inter-American Affairs. One 52 In addition to the US, the Haitian govemmant reported that Haitians secured scholarships to study in Canada, Cuba, Venezuela, Chili, Mexico, Argentina, Puerto Rico, Trinidad, and England. “Preparation das Cadres,“ Bulletin du Moniteur, MAE, and ministerial correspondence, ANH. 53 Letter to the Secretary of Instruction Publique, n.d., p. 374, R# 1004, ANH. 5‘ Gerard Lescot to Andre Liataud, 2 July 1943, p. 485, R# 310, ANH. 98 stop was in Washington DC. where he had an internship at the US. Census Bureau. Upon returning to Haiti, this statistician was responsible for collaborating with a US. statistician in the production of Haiti’s first census.55 In 1942, Miss Jeanne C. Sylvain was chosen to pursue studies on “les questions socials,” (social questions) so that la Ligue Feminine d’Action Sociale might found a School of Social Work in Haiti.56 Sylvain was one of seven women who between 1941 and 1944 received scholarships to study abroad.57 Her grant came from the University of Chicago, and the US. Labor Department’s Children’s Bureau functioned as an intermediary for her award. Sylvain’s training contributed to the Ligue’s efforts to promote a sense of collective responsibility and the need for training in social work within Haitian society. She also helped to improve the coordination of different aid organizations based in Haiti. By 1954, the Ligue was offering six evening courses in the major Haitian cities of Port-au-Prince, Port-de-Paix, Saint Marc, and Les Cayes. This was in addition to their many other social work activities including the promotion of hygiene in Jacmel, and efforts to secure public funds for needy youth and elders.“38 Sending Haitians abroad, then, was an investment that was meant to - and in certain cases did — improve the functioning of Haiti’s bureaucracy and ultimately, society. 55 Anonymous conversation with the author, Pétion-Ville, Haiti, 2001. 56 Letter to J.C. White, 9 April 1942, p. 392-3, R#1468, ANH. 57 Madeline G. Sylvain-Bouchereau, Education des Femmas an Haiti, Haiti: lmprimerie de I'Etat, 1944. 5' Ligue Feminine d’Action Sociale. “Femmas Haitiennes,” brochure, n.d. (1954?) 99 Intellectual cooperation efforts, particularly educational exchanges, also contributed to the goal of reforming Haiti’s general education programs by expanding the number of opportunities that Haitians had to learn English language instruction, contributing to the reduction of the high rates of illiteracy in the nation and extending support to an independent American School Program in Haiti. The post-occupation period saw an expansion in the public and private opportunities for Haitians to learn English, in large part as the result of govemmantal policy. In June 1942, the Haitian government passed a law requiring all primary, secondary and post-secondary schools to study the English language.59 By August, Haiti’s Department of Public Instruction made efforts to enact that law. They submitted a request to the US. govemmant for 17 English teachers to teach in Haitian secondary schools and 10 supervisors to be sent throughout the country.60 The two governments agreed that the Haitian government would provide for the lodging and maintenance of these professors throughout their stay. Because of a lack of funds in the Haitian Treasury, further agreement was made for the US. government to send ten professors to initiate the mission. One or two of the ten would be designated as supervisors. Of those ten, four were to be Catholic priests; this was a way of fulfilling the interest of President Lescot in pursuing religious cooperation with the United States. In July 1942, the Haitian government reported that 59 June 1942, 4541, Bulletin de la Moniteur, MAE. °° Letter to J.C. White, 28 August 1942, p. 310-11, R# 1061, ANH. 1oo 18,000 Haitian Gourdes (approximately 8,500 US. dollars) had been allocated to cover the costs of maintaining and transporting US. American teachers who would instruct English in national secondary schools.61 Louis Garoute praised the Haitian Department of Public Instruction’s efforts to promote English language instruction in Haiti were praised in a 1943 article in Le Matin. He wrote that learning English was an ideal way for Haitians to begin learning about the United States’ mentality and culture, which would allow Haitians to gain greater access to the benefits of the contemporary Pan-American climate.62 US. citizens also traveled to Haiti as visiting instructors or supervisors for training programs based in Haiti. This was intended to complement grants awarded to Haitian teachers of the English language for study and travel to the United States.63 In February 1943, La Matin announced a recruitment campaign for future English teachers in national secondary schools. Twelve persons would be selected to undergo three months of courses. Of those students, eight would be selected to continue with an internship at a secondary school where they would teach as an Assistant-Instructor. Following the internship, those in training would pursue a six-week summer ”1 July 1943, 55-2, Bulletin de la Moniteur, MAE. ”2 Louis Garoute, “l’lmportance de I’enseignement de l’anglais,” Le Matin, jeudi 1 avril 1943, 4. 63 it Quatre etudiants seront admises aux Cours d'Anglais organizes en vue de la preparation des futures instituteurs de lycée,» Le Matin, samedi 10 avril 1943, 6; For example, teachers of the English language benefited from travel grant program for hemisphere leaders. Hansen, The Cultural-Cooperation Program, 1938-1943 (Washington: United States Government Printing Office, 1944), 16-17. 101 course in Port-au-Prince. At the end of this course, individuals would be eligible to begin teaching the following October. The final nomination of secondary school English teachers would be contingent upon the completion of the training program.“ The general public also gained access to English language courses. The Office of Inter-American Affairs sponsored courses at the Haitian- American Institute and on the radio station HH3W. In 1942, the Haitian- American Institute reported a sixty-person enrollment in their English course. Across the Americas, the cultural institute’s course principally attracted the participation of office employees of business firms and govemmant agencies, as well as university and technical school students. Tuitions were normally “kept within the reach of clerks and skilled workers."65 In 1946, a fifteen-minute radio program called “L’Anglais sur les Ondes,” was broadcast every Tuesday and Friday from 6:45 to 7:00 pm. In addition to the oral session, lessons were printed for distribution. Half-hour cultural programs complemented these activities every other Sunday from 11:30 am to 12 noon. The program organizers noted that activity had “the aim of relating American and Haitian artistic expression in simple English.” This was done via musical records and readings from literature of both cultures.66 Finally, daily newspapers °‘ “Direction generale de l’enseignement urbain,” La Matin, jeudi 18 fevrier 1943, 1. A sample of the summer school training schedule can be found in the Maurice Dartigue Papers. ”5 Hansen, The Cultural-Cooperation Program, 1938-1943, 67, 23-4. Quote from p. 24. °° Inter-American Educational Foundation. Educational Division Newsletter (Washington, DC, February 1946), 8, RAC. 102 announced private courses and correspondence courses for Haitians eager to learn foreign languages, including English.67 The Haitian government also collaborated with a U.S.-based entity called the Inter American Educational Foundation (IAEF) to address Haiti’s high rate of illiteracy (reported as 85 percent in 1942) and other general education needs in Haiti.68 Created by Nelson A. Rockefeller, the Coordinator of Inter-American Affairs, in 1943, IAEF was a government-controlled non- stock membership corporation charged with helping to carry out the Coordinator’s programs. The foundation’s purpose was to implement “long- standing plans for hemisphere cooperation in the solution of basic educational problems” during the war and post-war period. The foundation sought to extend cooperative efforts between Ministries of Education in the American republics, special ministry departments and a “Special Representative of the Foundation.” The program focus was on educational programs that emphasized vocational and health education, trained teachers, improved rural life and agriculture, developed community schools, and provided English language instruction. Plans and teaching materials were developed in 1943 and 1944. Three-year agreements with the American republics were initiated in 1944. Haiti signed one of the first agreements, as did Peru, Guatemala, Honduras, Nicaragua, Bolivia, and Costa Rica. These agreements were ”7 Commonly printed in Le Nouvelliste and La Matin. ”8 Five-page memo, n.d., folder 40, box 5, series Countries, Record Group III 4, Nelson A. Rockefeller Papers, RAC. Hansen, The Cultural-Cooperation Program, 1938-1943, 54. 103 expected to launch a long-term program that individual countries would eventually absorb into their public school activities. 69 The Haitian Government collaborated with the foundation to arrange human, material and capital resources for the program. The program allowed for the traveling of United States educational specialists to work with Haiti’s Ministry of Education, the development of teaching materials, and visits by distinguished educators, supervisors, and teachers from Haiti to the United States for lectures, studies, and participation in national, state, and local educational programs. By 1946, a total of fifty-one U.S. specialists were sent to work across the Americas and fifty-eight distinguished persons traveled to the United States. In that same year, nearly 50,000 books, pamphlets, maps, charts, and other teaching materials were distributed across the republics. These materials were just a portion of 500,000 items that IAEF made available to its field parties and schools across the Americas. The IAEF complemented these materials by working with locals to prepared and distribute locally created teaching materials.” In terms of funding, the Haitian govemmant reported that, in 1944, it donated $50,000 to compliment a $172,000 contribution from IAEF.71 Relative to other Latin American republics, Haiti received an average amount of financial investment from the IAEF during its first few years. The median expense for Haiti between 1942 and 1949 was ”9 Inter-American Educational Foundation. Educational Division Newsletter. Washington, DC, February 1946, 1-2, RAC. 7° Inter-American Educational Foundation. Educational Division Newsletter. Washington, DC, February 1946, 2, RAC. 7‘ Report on “Cultural Relations-Intellectual Cooperation,” 1943-44, MDP. 104 $184,500. This was in comparison to country totals between $55,000 ’ (Panama) and $570,000 (Brazil) during the same time frame.72 The allocation of these resources enabled a multi-dimensional program in educational cooperation to develop. By 1946, IAEF reported that the Haiti program, like those in Costa Rica, Ecuador, El Salvador, Guatemala, Honduras, and Nicaragua, had a “principle emphasis...on general teacher education.” The description of activities of the IAEF staff in Haiti indicates the breadth of programming that actually took place, primarily taking place at schools in Port-au-Prince. For example, lAEF’s special representative, Dr. J Max Bond, collaborated with a school’s acting directress to inaugurate in January 1946 a new French course by Jean Brierre, plans for teaching economics and small business operation, a feeding program and medical examination for small children, and a new program of art and art education by IAEF’s Art Education specialist, Glen Lukens. The IAEF staff also offered several other types of courses. These included English language instruction courses. There were also general science classes that included special projects in school gardening and the study of practical electricity as a part of the physics class at Damien. Concerns about health education led to the creation of a cooperative program that provided instruction on key topics such as physiology, nutrition, first aid, and 72 By 1949, however, total expenses toward Haiti were at $0. Five-page memo, n.d., folder 40, box 5, series Countries, Record Group III 4, Nelson A. Rockefeller Papers, RAC; Untitled report on the IAEF, folder 40, box 5, series Countries, Record Group III 4, Nelson A. Rockefeller Papers, RAC. 105 communicable diseases. A lecture series was expanded to benefit from the services of local professionals working with the cooperative Sanitary Mission program, Haiti’s Department of Public Health, and Medical School. Efforts were also made to develop illustrative teaching materials, create laboratories, and the creation of a program targeting the improvement of health conditions for local school children. The project was community-oriented, providing for the participation of mothers for follow-up health exams and the use of private homes as demonstration centers.73 The IAEF program in arts and crafts education also initiated the development of a small arts industry. The primary media were ceramics and weaving. Haitian women and men undertook training in pottery and advanced ceramics in Port-au-Prince. Attendees were also teachers-in-training from other towns whose respective schools granted them time away from teaching to participate. Some participants in the arts course even benefited from local scholarships to learn the trade. These manual industry courses in fiber-work and the ceramic arts stressed the production of practical articles of clothing and household equipment. 7” According to Madeline G. Sylvain Boucherau in Education das Femmas en Haiti (1944), Haitian women benefited from these developments. In addition to the seven women who traveled abroad for professional training, 73 Inter-American Educational Foundation. Educational Division Newsletter. Washington, DC, February 1946, 8-9, RAC. 7‘ Inter-American Educational Foundation. Educational Division Newsletter. Washington, DC, February 1946, 8-10, RAC. 106 numerous women participated in local training activities. These opportunities were complimented by efforts on the part of the Haitian government, which in 1943 instituted a series of changes that impacted Haitian women. In that year, a secondary school for young girls was created in Port-au-Prince, and thirty- five students enrolled. That same year, the Normal School was re-organized to introduce new methods for instructing women in agriculture, home economics, hygiene, manual industries, social activities, and teacher training for rural and urban schools. Both the Haitian government’s literacy campaigns and creation of girls’ schools were, according to Boucherau, positive contributions to the needs of Haitian women.75 Program of intellectual cooperation also affected private schools in Haiti. Beginning in 1941, the United States government began supporting an independently-established “American” school in Port-au-Prince called The Union School. This was part of a larger American Schools Program, which sought to bring the “best” that US. American schools had to offer to different American Republics. Religious organizations were the primary creators of these schools (approximately 127), followed by US. industrial corporations (44) and finally, “independent” residents of “American colonies” (24). In 1943, approximately 195 of these U.S.-citizen sponsored schools serviced a total enrollment of 47,000 pupils. The institutions were most often primary schools, although some offered instruction through the high-school level. The Union School was one of the independent institutions. At the end of 1943, it was 75 Sylvain-Bouchereau, Education das Femmas an Haiti. 107 offering courses for grades one through seven for approximately 32 students.” In 1941, the Coordinator of Inter-American Affairs recognized that some of the “independent” schools were suffering financially from the war. Losses from declining donations and the return home of US. business representatives made it difficult for the independent school to maintain their capital equipment, meet operating expenses, and retain their “best teachers.” By December of 1943, in an attempting to maintain the prestige of these institutions, the Department of State and Office of the Coordinator extended grants-in-aid to nine schools in Bolivia, Brazil, Ecuador, Guatemala and Haiti. Grants-in-aid were also given to the American Council on Education who in 1943 created a service bureau for the explicit purpose of supporting U.S. schools in American republics. The bureau was responsible for advising the schools in the areas of personnel hiring, supply purchases, educational method and teaching aids, local educational problems, and scholarship opportunities for children returning to the US. for their university studies. 77 To garner support for the “American Schools Program,” organizers advanced their view that existing “independent American-sponsored schools” were “usually better staffed, better equipped, and more progressive” than the 7‘” Three-page memo, n.d., folder 40, box 5, series Countries, Record Group III 4, Nelson A. Rockefeller Papers, RAC; Hansen. The Cultural-Cooperation Program, 1938-1943, 28-30. Quote from p.29. 77 Brazil, Ecuador and Mexico each had two independent schools. Hansen, The Cultural-Cooperation Program, 1938-1943. Quote from p.29. 108 nationally-funded public schools (“fiscal schools”).78 The US. State Department applauded the fact that these schools brought “together varying nationalities at a most impressionable age.”79 Organizers also argued that these schools would: - provide permanent bridge-heads between the cultures of the United States and the host nations; - be immediately useful in overcoming the influence of Axis- oriented schools in the Other American Republics; - support the development of national fiscal schools through demonstration, materials and personnel assistance... - [and introduce] valuable innovations such as the laboratory technique and extra-curricular activities.80 These forms of professional training, national public education reforms and the introduction of distinctly "American” schools into Haitian society enabled Haitian-US. educational cooperation to bring the culture of US. pedagogy to Haiti.81 7° Three-page memo, n.d., folder 40, box 5, series Countries, Record Group III 4, Nelson A. Rockefeller Papers, RAC. 7° Hansen, The Cultural-Cooperation Program, 1938—1943, 29. °° Three-page memo, n.d., folder 40, box 5, series Countries, Record Group III 4, Nelson A. Rockefeller Papers, RAC. 8' The US. American School Programs were supposed to incorporate a curriculum that met the legal requirements of the host nation and United States college entrance requirements. Is it possible that by establishing separate institutions with “American”-brand names and characteristics, Haitians began socializing themselves away from “Haitian” institutions? Given a Haitian student instructed at an “American” school, did it follow that the appeal of a “Haitian” university became limited? These are important questions to consider, 109 Conclusion During the post-occupation period, Maurice Dartigue and other public thinkers from Haiti enthusiastically promoted intellectual cooperation with the United States as a strategy for civic and bureaucratic reform. In doing so they encouraged and participated in the expansion of programs of exchange and assistance that created new opportunities for a broad range of Haitians and enabled improvements in some areas of education and public health. But these projects of cooperation also had another impact. The increasing prominence of English language instruction, the use of US. pedagogical models, and training in US. institutions to a diverse audience that included urban and rural Haitians, laborers and professionals, women and men, reinforced a privileged place for the US. in the Haitian mind. In a curious way, then, intellectual projects of cooperation served to reinforce many of the social and cultural distinctions that, in principle, they were meant to undo. This is most evident when considering the cultural values affirmed in the intellectual exchange process. Despite the desire of Dartigue and other public thinkers to use intellectual cooperation with the US. as a basic for establishing and celebrating an “authentic” Haitian culture, the elements they selected in defining that culture privileged U.S. models and European traditions, with little to symbolic consideration of Haiti’s African- particularly given that the audience for such programs (Haiti’s elite) would be the first to send their children abroad for post-secondary school studies and ultimately contribute to the first steady wave of immigrants to the United States during Francois Duvalier’s reign. 110 descended and indigenous cultural capital. Although the proponents of cooperation hoped to create a foundation for a true independence, their efforts were in many ways constrained by the legacies of US. occupation and the continuing challenges of US. self-interest and ethnocentrism. In this respect they had much in common with groups of religious envoys from the US. who also sought to transform Haitian society during the decades after Haiti’s “Second Independence.” 111 CHAPTER THREE Religious Approaches to Material Development: The Baha'i Inter-America Teaching Campaign in Haiti On April 10, 1937, an African American man named Louis Gregory wrote to President Sténio Vincent with information that he believed would provide a “complete remedy" for the “apparent" difficulties being faced by the Haitian government during such a “critical time." Gregory's proposed resolution relied on the religious teachings of the Baha'i Faith. He wrote to Vincent as a volunteer of the Faith's Inter-America Teaching Campaign in Haiti. Sharing three sample texts with Vincent, Gregory advised that the Baha'i literature “embodies the sublimest [sic] as well as the most practical ideals of the New Age, making a serious and sustained effort toward the end of all prejudices and strife, and cementing by a spiritual bond the unity of the world." In Gregory's opinion, it was: obvious that human problems in all the nations are rapidly getting beyond human control and that the world is rushing toward another great upheaval which threatens to efface civilization. Nothing short of a complete remedy will long hold. Only God can point us the way and this He has done in his own sublime, simple and workable program of universal peace and brotherhood.‘ ‘ Louis Gregory to Sténio Vincent, April 10, 1937, Louis Gregory Papers, United States Baha’l Archives, Wilmette, IL (hereafter, LGP). The three texts were: The Future World 112 By sharing his ideas and the Baha'i writings, Gregory hoped to create an opportunity for Baha’is to spread their message in Haiti and consequently, contribute to the advancement of Haitian society and the progress of human civilization. Although neither Gregory nor the religious institutions he represented were officially affiliated with the mid-twentieth century campaign for inter-American cooperation, the principles advocated by followers of the Baha'l Faith were in accord with the political campaign.2 The Faith’s driving principle that modern progress was contingent upon respecting the oneness of humanity advocated the moral ideals of embracing human equality and unifying as a way of establishing a new world order. The fact that principles of the Baha’i Faith and the Pan-American campaign overlapped suggests the timeliness of the Faith’s formal introduction into Haitian society. The teaching campaigns of the National Spiritual Assembly of Baha’is in the United States and Canada were a refreshing possibility for working to renew Haiti’s ties to the rest of the world, and particularly to the United States. These advocates of religious approaches to social progress, like individuals campaigning for Pan- Americanism, were committed to translating a progressive philosophy into a concrete reality. Commonwealth and Vars I 'apogee de la race humaine by Shoghi Effendi; and, L'economia mondiale de Baha’u’llah by Horace Holley. 2 The Faith's newsletters contains references to a Pan-American Day address broadcast by Baha’ls and a report on the use of materials from the Coordination for Inter- American Affairs for pioneer youth activities in Latin America. Baha’l News, 163 (May 1943), 6; Baha’l News, 164 (July 1943), 10. 113 This chapter examines the early history of the Baha'l's Inter-America Teaching Campaign in Haiti by focusing on its most prominent pioneers3: Louis and Louisa Gregory (1937) and Ruth and Ellsworth Blackwell (1940- 1943; 1947; 1950-1), two interracial couples from the United States. Relative to Christian missionaries, the Baha'is had a scarce presence in Haiti. Nonetheless, the efforts of Baha'i pioneers reveal some of the visions U.S.- based Baha’ls had for using religious cooperation for social development, and the ways in which they fell in-Iine with other visions about the role of religion in their society. I begin with an overview of the Baha’i Faith, to establish the nature of this religion and its global expansion. This offers added context for understanding how the Faith’s goals intersected with those of the mid- twentieth century political campaign for inter-American cooperation. I also discuss the ways in which Haitian and US. citizens, as early as the colonial period and through the occupation era, came to identify religion as a critical aspect linked to modern development in Haiti. With occasional references to post-occupation cooperation between Haitian officials and U.S.-based Catholics and Baptists, the core of this narrative explores early efforts by individuals to use the Baha'i Faith to create change in Haiti. The distinct experience of the Baha’l teaching campaign—its relatively inconspicuous presence, its attention to an urban, elite Haitian audience, and the Faith’s relative novelty as a global religion—illuminate both the possibilities and the 3 Individuals who work to establish the Faith across the globe are referred to as Pioneers. 114 limits faced by those seeking to use this religious approach to stimulating social change. A Brief History of the Baha'i Faith The Baha'i Faith is an independent world religion that began during the mid-nineteenth century in southern Iran, and has since spread to every region of the world. In 1998, scholars of the Faith noted that the religion had administrative institutions in more than “two hundred independent states and major territories... [and] believers from virtually every cultural, racial, social, and religious background.”4 These scholars explained that the Baha'l Faith is “a distinct religion, based entirely on the teaching of its founder, Baha’u’llah.” The “pivotal concept” of the Faith is “the oneness of humankind.”5 This principle is reinforced by two other fundamental principles guiding the Faith’s believers: the oneness of God and the fundamental unity of religion. 6 These principles serve to articulate the idea that: (1) “humankind has always constituted one species, but that prejudice, ignorance, power-seeking, and egotism have prevented many people from recognizing and accepting this oneness; (2) despite the varied conceptualizations and modes of praying to God, humans are in essence speaking about “the same unique” “superhuman ‘ William S. Hatcher and J. Douglas Martin, The Baha'i Faith: The Emerging Global Religion (Wilmette, IL: Baha’l Publishing Trust, 3rd edition, 1998), xv. 5 Hatcher and Martin, The Baha'l Faith, xv. “ Hatcher and Martin, The Baha'i Faith, 74. 115 and supernatural Being”; and, (3) religious history is a “succession of revelations from God” and that these revelations are the “motive force of human progress.”7 Baha’is accepted Baha’u’llah’s Manifestation as the revelation for the present-day. The evolution of the Baha’i Faith began in 1844, when the Bab (the Gate) announced the advent of a new messenger. 8 In 1863, a noble Iranian named Baha'u’llah (the Glory of God) declared his mission to unify mankind, fulfilling the promise of the Bab. At the age of 27, Baha'u'llah identified with the Cause announced by the Bab and began to promulgate the teachings. Along with many other followers, he was arrested and exiled for his religious activities. He faced such persecution until he died in 1892. Upon his death, Baha'u'llah left behind letters, prayers, meditations, spiritual and social laws that laid the foundation for the faith's covenant. The Faith flourished internationally, thanks to work carried out by Baha'u'llah's descendants and followers. New audiences for the Baha'i teachings emerged across the Middle East, Far East, Northern Africa, Europe, and the Americas. As part of his covenant, Baha'u'llah appointed his son, Abdu'l Baha (the Servant of the Glory), as the sole interpreter of his writings, the Exemplar of the Cause, and the Centre of the Covenant. 7 Hatcher and Martin, The Baha’i Faith, 83. 8 This historical summary of the Baha’i Faith is based on Hatcher and Martin, The Baha'i Faith, 1-74 and Gloria Faizi, The Baha'i Faith: An Introduction (New Delhi, India: Baha'l Publishing Trust, 2'“I edition, 1992, 1996 reprint), 1-23. 116 Abdu'l Baha also faced persecution for his religious activities, but continued to promote the faith as best as he could.9 He corresponded with followers, initiated the administrative order of the Faith, and when a political revolution allowed him to be freed from prison in 1908 he traveled across Europe and the United States. At the time of his death in 1921, there were a reported 100,000 believers primarily in Persia, North America and India. To sustain the Faith‘s maturation, Abdu'l Baha designated his grandson Shoghi Effendi as Guardian of the Cause. This was a position originally conceived of by Baha'u'llah. The Guardian's vision, carried out between 1921 and 1963 (six years after his death) constitute ‘the formative period’ (that is the formal institutional and global establishment) of the Faith. Beginning at the age of twenty-four, Shoghi Effendi created a firm administrative order for the Faith by preparing plans, translating his predecessors' teachings, and relaying his interpretation of those teachings in books and correspondence for the Faith's adherents across the world. The active participation of the Faith's believers was central to advancing the ideas and plans laid out by Baha'u'llah and his descendants. Baha'ls worldwide would make up the administrative body of the Faith: it's Local Spiritual Assemblies (LSA), an elected body formed once a community of believers surpasses nine people; it’s National Spiritual Assemblies (NSA), an elected body of nine persons elected from various LSAs (sometimes 9 Abdu'l Baha believed that, ultimately, there was “no prison but the prison of the self.” Faizi, The Baha‘i Faith, 20. 117 Regional Spiritual Assemblies); a Universal House of Justice (first elected in 1963, serving as the Faith's world center); the Hands of the Cause (appointed by Shoghi Effendi between 1951 and 1957, the Faith's Board of Counselors responsible for teaching the Faith and protecting the Faith's institutions); and Committees (elected within each community to carry out various tasks on behalf of the Faith).These administrative bodies helped to ensure that Baha'is worldwide not only followed the Faith's teachings and honored the Faith's holy days, but also helped to fulfill the plans for progress laid out by Abdu'l Baha and Shoghi Effendi. Baha’is working to unify mankind were guided by The Divine Plan (presented by Abdu'l Baha in 1916) and three multi-year Plans (presented by Shoghi Effendi for the years 1937-1944; 1946-1953; and 1953-1963, respectively). The Divine Plan was a series of fourteen letters that dictated to believers in the United States and Canada their leading responsibility for promoting Baha'u’llah's message. The letters provided plans for teaching the Faith. Baha'u'llah conceived of this region as the ‘cradle' of the Faith's administrative order. This was not because of any ideas of cultural or political superiority but, rather, because of the “profound moral degradation" (materialism, lawlessness, and political corruption similar to that existing in Persia) that characterized the North American societies.” Shoghi Effendi crafted plans to meet the objectives that Abdu'l Baha laid out, particularly for North America. Haiti was specifically included in Abdu'l Baha’s Plan: ‘° Hatcher and Martin, The Baha’i Faith, 68. 118 Likewise the islands of the West Indies, such as Cuba, Haiti, Puerto Rico, Jamaica, the islands of the Lesser Antilles, Bahama Islands, ever the small Watling Island, have great importance; especially the two black republics, Haiti and Santo Domingo, situated in the cluster of Greater Antilles.11 The first of Shoghi Effendi's Plans was a Seven Year Plan that had three major goals: 1) to establish a Local Spiritual Assembly (LSA) in each US. State and Canadian province; 2) to have a Baha'i teacher in each Latin American republic; and 3) to complete the exterior design of the first Baha’i House of Worship in North America, whose cornerstone was laid by Abdu'l Baha during his visit in 1912 to Illinois. The formal pioneering work that occurred in Haiti would be an attempt to fulfill the secondgoal of this first Seven-Year Plan. Effendi crafted a second Seven Year Plan that began in 1946 and called upon the Faith's followers to center their attention on Europe where only two National Spiritual Assemblies had been established in Great Britain and Germany. The second plan also proposed the creation of LSA's throughout Latin America, increasing the number of assemblies in North America and establishing an independent Canadian NSA. This plan was completed as proposed in 1953. This year also marked the formal dedication of the House of Worship located in Wilmette, Illinois. " Abdu'l Baha, Tablets of the Divine Plan, 33. The Tablet of Baha’u’llah does not make specific mention of Haiti, only to the “Rulers of America and Presidents of the Republics therein.” Electronic correspondence with Lewis Walker, United States Baha'i Archives. 119 Finally, before his death, Shoghi Effendi crafted a third plan entitled the Ten Year World Crusade. From 1953-1963, the centennial year of the Baha'u'llah's Declaration in the Garden of Ridvan, Baha'is labored to fulfill Effendi's call to spread the Faith in 132 new countries and major territories, while expanding the Faith in the 120 places where they had already won an audience. Major developments took place in Europe and Latin America. Believers in Bahé'u’llah’s mission succeeded in the Ten Year World Crusade, despite the untimely death of the Shoghi Effendi in 1957.12 Religion and Haitian Society The idea that religion was central to resolving problems in Haitian society was not foreign to Haitians. Traditionally, Haitian leaders perceived Christianity, in general, and the Catholic Church, in particular as being instrumental to “civilizing” and developing Haitian society.” The Church's teachings and services (e.g., marriage, education) dictated an interpretation of “civilized” society that rejected Haiti's popular religious practice, Vodou. These ‘2 In 1963, fifty-six National Spiritual Assembly's elected the first Universal House of Justice, which has been re-elected every five years since during the Ridvan celebration. Moreover, Believers continued to promulgate their Faith by creating new plans (a nine-year plan: 1964-1973. four international plans; and a four-year plan in 1996). Baha'i continuously developed these types of plans to fulfill their mission for a ‘spiritual conquest of the planet'. Quote from Hatcher and Martin, The Baha‘i Faith, 73. ‘3 Kate Ramsey, “Legislating ‘Civilisation’ in Postrevolutionary Haiti,” in Race, Nation, and Religion in the Americas, edited by Henry Goldschmidt and Elizabeth McAlister (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2004), 231-258. 120 ideas about social order and progress were derived from the authority that the Catholic Church held in Haiti during the colonial period. They were reinforced by an awareness of the potential political threat represented in Vodou, which many Haitian people saw as a means of resisting and challenging oppressive structures of authority. Vodou offered enslaved Africans laboring in colonial Saint Domingue an opportunity to affirm their humanity by creating a social space outside the enslaver’s authority. Practicing Vodou allowed Saint-Domingue's enslaved population to affirm anti-slavery sentiments and maintain a vision of the temporariness of slavery. In this way, Vodou became a viable space for organizing resistance and ultimately the Haitian revolution.“ After Haiti's independence from France, Vodou was able to flourish among the peasant population and take root as a national practice among the masses. This was further possible because of two characteristics of Haiti's early national period: the relative absence of the Catholic Church due to Haiti's diplomatic isolation and a growing peasant society within which land, kinship and culture became increasingly intertwined.” 1‘ Laennec Hurbon, “American Fantasy and Haitian Vodou,” in Sacred Arts of Haitian Vodou, Donald J. Cosentino, editor (Los Angeles, CA: UCLA Fowler Museum of Cultural History, 1995), 181-197; Sidney Mintz and Michel-Rolph Trouillot, “The Social History of Haitian Vodou,” in Sacred Arts of Haitian Vodou, Donald J. Cosentino, editor (Los Angeles, CA: UCLA Fowler Museum of Cultural History, 1995), 123-147; Leslie G. Desmangles, The Faces of the Gods: Vodou and Roman Catholicism in Haiti (Chapel Hill and London: The University of North Carolina Press, 1992). ‘5 Mintz and Trouillot, “The Social History of Haitian Vodou“; Desmangles, The Faces of the Gods. 121 Some Haitians and foreigners declared that Vodou was a liability for Haiti's national progress. Vodou practices in Haiti offered striking evidence that Haitian culture was closely tied to African cultures rather than European cultures. Limited by their ethnocentric views, critics assumed that African society was primitive and European society was modern. This, by consequence, precluded the possibility for an “intercultural dialogue" about religion in Haitian society. By engaging in an intercultural dialogue, Haitians and foreigners might have acknowledged the parallels between Vodou and other belief systems, such as Catholicism, which also incorporated spiritual intervention in its doctrine.” To address the prevalence of Vodou and the paucity of “modem" religious institutions in Haiti, Haitian public officials attempted to repress Vodou practices in Haiti, welcomed and supported the work of Christian missionaries, and publicized romantic notions of Vodou. Like their colonial predecessors, nineteenth century Haitian statesmen sought to minimize Vodou’s prominence among the masses by enacting rural codes regulating religious practices.17 Beginning with Touissaint L’ouverture’s revolutionary efforts to establish an independent Haitian society, Haitian statesmen invited foreigners for theological and educational instruction in Haiti. An agreement, known as the Concordat, signed in March 1860 between Haitian President '5 Hurbon, “American Fantasy and Haitian Vodou”; Desmangles, The Faces of the Gods. ‘7 See: Ramsey, “Legislating “Civilisation”; “Without One Ritual Note: Folklore Performance and the Haitian State, 1935-1946” in Radical History Review 84 (Fall 2002): 7- 42. 122 General Fabre Nicolas Geffrard (1859-1867) and the Vatican formalized these international religious ties.” These contributions to Haitian society, combined with long-standing critiques of Haitian Vodou, encouraged Haitian public officials to support the Catholic Church's repeated anti-superstition campaigns. The campaigns called for Vodou practitioners to publicly renounce their ties to Vodou. Anti- superstition campaigns occurred on a large public scale as early as 1869 and continued through the twentieth century.” During the US. occupation, these repression tactics combined with the efforts of US. military officials who also sought to exterminate Vodou practices, which they saw as a source of resistance across the Haitian countryside.” When Haiti's statesmen were negotiating forms of cooperation with the United States after 1934, they continued some of the policies, and remained interested in the potential contributions that US. religious institutions and their congregants could offer Haiti. U. S.-basad Religious Missions in Post-Occupation Haiti The late 19303 and early 19403 marked a particularly important period for Haiti-US. religious cooperation. World War II led to a decline in Haiti's traditional source of religious missionaries from Europe, and Elie Lescot who, ” Desmangles, The Faces of the Gods. ” Ramsey, “Legislating ‘Civilisation"; Desmangles, The Faces of the Gods. 2° Renda, Taking Haiti, 41, 79. 123 as devout Christian and Haitian statesmen, eagerly sought to develop Christianity in Haitian society. In his memoirs about this topic, Lescot argued that Vodou's prevalence in Haiti was not the result of Haitian barbarism. He attributed the prominence of the practice to the historical isolation of Haiti's majority from Western Christian teachings. Lescot acknowledged that Vodou's presence and character in Haitian society reflected Haiti's African ancestry and the reconstitution of African practices in the New World. In Lescot's opinion, however, Vodou’s prominence only prevailed in the absence of exposure to other religions.21 Lescot sought the benefit of the flourishing inter-American political climate to realize his vision of modernizing Haiti's religious mores. As early as 1939, Lescot, then Minister of Haiti in Washington, DC, began collaborating with the US. State Department and the U.S.-based National Catholic Welfare Conference in order to secure a francophone missionary group to work in Haiti. The successful arrangement led to the arrival of the Missionary Oblates of Mary Immaculate, represented by Bishop Jean-Louis Collignon, in Les Cayes, Haiti on January 26, 1943.22 That same year, Lescot also welcomed non-Catholic missionaries, such as the Haiti Baptist Mission, to work with disenfranchised members of Haitian society. According to the mission’s archival records, Lescot told the mission’s founder John C. Turnbull that the 2‘ Elie Lescot. Avant l’oubli:christianisme at paganisme an Haiti at autres liaux (Port- au-Prince: lmprimerie Henri Deschamps, 1974), 154-7. 22 “The Missionary Oblates of Mary Immaculate in Haiti”, p.2, typescript from Archives of the Oblates Provincial Office, Washington, DC. 124 mountainous community of Ferrnathe was “the most needy part of Haiti and [a place where] no other missionary was active.” Prior to his arrival in Haiti, Turnbull served as an active member of the Christian and Missionary Alliance.” Unlike the Catholic and the Protestant missionaries, Baha'ls did not have an official invitation nor did they immediately secure official approval for their religious work in Haiti. In fact, Louis Gregory and his wife Louise met with official hostility as they worked to establish their teaching campaign in Pétionville in January 1937. During the Gregorys' first month in Haiti, a fellow American visitor shared unsettling news that suggested that the Baha'i were not welcome. As the Gregorys’ reported, the visitor advised them that “their every movement was watched, this due to the fact that a high Ecclesiastical authority had warned the country that strangers would come to them, ostensibly to teach religion, but secretly to spread radical propaganda, with a view to sedition and revolution."24 The Gregorys had been sharing their religious ideas with Haitians through informal conversation, bi-weekly meetings and the distribution of printed materials for a month before they met a formal obstacle to their goals. During the second month of their teaching campaign, the Gregorys began organizing “a series of ‘publicly advertised 23Turnbull Obituary, located in archival files of the Baptist Haiti Mission, Rockford, MI. 2‘ “A Teaching Campaign in Haiti," p.3, unidentified and undated manuscript located in LGP. 125 Baha’i meetings in Port-au-Prince "225 It was at this time that a Haitian official advised them to secure permission from the Haitian police department for their activities. In response to Louis Gregory's request of authorization to lecture on the Faith, F. Duvignaud wrote on behalf of the Haitian Ministry of Interior that the Ministry “formally opposes the public promotion in Haiti of this new mysticism called ‘The Baha'i Religion'."26 The Ministry's rejection of the Baha'i teaching campaign contrasted with the Gregorys' sense that the “possibilities for service" in Haiti were “excellent."27 The First Baha'i Teaching Campaign in Haiti, 1937 The Gregorys’ impression about an auspicious future for the Faith in Haiti was grounded in the fact that Haitian statesmen, elite and underprivileged members of Haitian society responded attentively to their message. Gregory noted that: two of the most eminent Haitians, one the former minister of Haiti successively in Berlin and Paris and the other Haiti's former able delegate in the League of Nations...had formerly contacted the 25 Gayle Morrison, To Move the World: Louis 6. Gregory and the Advancement of Racial Unity in America, (Wilmette, IL: Baha’i Publishing Trust), 250. 2" Duvignaud to Gregory, March 10, 1937, LGP. 27 Gregory to Horace Holley [National Spiritual Assembly], quoted in Morrison, To Move the World, 248. 126 Baha‘is in Washington and had a very warm appreciation [for the Faith].28 Upon their arrival in Haiti, Louis Gregory reported a courteous welcome. He wrote that “Mr. Oswald Garrison Villard, a champion of Haitian freedom received me with great courtesy as well as the director of the Haitian Hospital and a number of his assistants." As the Gregorys settled into Pétion-Ville, they generated what they described as an interested and privileged audience. In a letter to the National Spiritual Assembly, Gregory reported: After a month here we have some perspective of possibilities for service and think them excellent....[W]e are almost continually contacting people of high culture and capacity and rarely receive any rebuffs, but on the contrary, a courteous and inquiring attitude. We are also well advertised and our purpose here is well known. A few of the most influential people show a disposition to study deeply into the teachings. Also the young intelligentsia seem[s] interested.29 In a later report, Gregory further specified that: Among those who are listening to the Message and studying the books are two men who have held the rank of statesmen, though now out of power, a happy circumstance that gives them the 2" “A Teaching Campaign in Haiti,” 3, LGP. These credentials suggest that Gregory was referring to Jean Price-Mars and Dantés Bellegarde. 2" Gregory to Holley, [National Spiritual Assembly], quoted in Morrison, To Move the World, 248. Mr. Oswald Garrison Villard was a founding member of the U.S.-based National Association for the Advancement of Colored People. 127 leisure to look more deeply into the Baha'i Faith. A distinguished physician, two members of the present Haitian Cabinet, several members of the Senate and Chamber of Deputies, heads of schools, the American Consul and two sons of the late Episcopal Bishop of Haiti are among those who have availed themselves of this opportunity to study the Baha'i Principles.3o Gregory also noted that he shared the teachings and writings with “the Secretary to the President; the ex-President; members of the Haitian Parliament; physicians; lawyers; dentists; educators; business men; and, the Secretary of State for Foreign Affairs."31 Although Gregory had reservations about the sincerity of his audience's interest, he reassured himself that Haitians would accept his message by recognizing the Faith's teachings as avant-garde and scientific. Of course [the apparent interest of Haitian residents in the Bahai Faith] may in part be set down to the French practice which prefers dissembling to rudeness. On the other hand we are among progressive people, and altho' few of the men are deeply interested in the old order of religion, altho' normally connected with various religious establishments, something that is vin'le and 3° Gregory to Holley, [National Spiritual Assembly], quoted in To Move the Wortd, 248. The African Methodist Episcopal Church led by Reverend James Holly was established by African-Americans who emigrated to Haiti during the nineteenth century (1820s and 18603). It is not evident that Horace Holley, a white man, of the NSA is related to James Holly of the AME Church. 3' "A Teaching Campaign in Haiti,” 4, LGP. 128 effective, scientific and reasonable cannot fail to reveal its power, if there is time.32 Thus, the Gregorys assured the NSA that they would continue to hold bi- weekly meetings, “whether or not anyone comes" with the belief that “that attitude in time [would] prove effective.” Early on, “a number of the upper classes expressed interest" to Gregory, “promised attendance and gave advice about a weekly study class that was being planned."33 Gregory displayed his confidence by stating “a great many seeds must be sown before anything in the way of organization can be attempted."34 In addition to their work with privileged members of Haitian society, the Gregorys also reached out to the Haitian peasantry. Gregory described the importance of working with Haiti's less-privileged and impoverished majority: “We are also taking some steps toward contacting the most primitive people, the burden-bearers, the poor whom Baha'u'llah especially wishes to help and bless in His Day."35 Gregory noted the contrast between his two audiences when he wrote: “We find on the one hand wealth, culture, progress, on the other, never before such extremes of poverty and distress." According to Gregory's biographer, 32 Gregory to Holley, [National Spiritual Assembly], quoted in Morrison, To Move the World, 248. Emphasis mine. 33 “A Teaching Campaign in Haiti,” 4-5, LGP. 3‘ Gregory to Holley, [National Spiritual Assembly], quoted in Morrison, To Move the World, 248. 35 Gregory to Holley, [National Spiritual Assembly], quoted in Morrison, To Move the World, 249. 129 Gayle Morrison, these life conditions “shocked [Gregory] profoundly. He had experienced poverty and hunger as a child, and in his travels as an adult had visited many poor black communities from Northern ghettoes to the rural South. But nothing had prepared [Gregory] for Haiti." “I have never seen [such poverty as witnessed in Haiti] anywhere in the US,” Gregory said, “altho' at various times I have passed through all of them save the Dakotas."36 The Gregorys faced many challenges when seeking to teach their Faith to an underprivileged class of Haitian residents. The Gregorys' noted as obstacles to their work the “almost entire lack of education and Creole dialect" of Haiti's laboring class. The difficult situation of this class, furthermore, provided for less “leisure [time] to look more deeply into the Baha'i Faith." This class of Haitians was also more likely than their elite counterparts to identify with Vodou. Gregory indicated an awareness that the indigenous faith had roots in African religious practices, and reported that he met a Haitian author who embraced the Baha'i writings because they reinforced his anthropological findings that Vodou and Roman Catholicism, originating in two distinct societies (Africa and Europe) could share common principles?7 Nonetheless, Gregory’s reports referred to Vodou as 3° Gregory to Holley, [National Spiritual Assembly], quoted in Morrison, To Move the World, 249. 37 “A Teaching Campaign in Haiti,” 4, LGP. Again, Gregory seems to be referring to Price-Mars. 130 “superstition,” therefore placing it in the category of practices that Baha'u'llah denounced.38 Nevertheless, the Gregorys made some noteworthy strides in capturing an audience within the Haitian peasantry. In the face of illiteracy and foreign languages, the Gregory's met with individuals such as one young man who could “neither read nor write, but who can make himself understood in four languages." Furthermore, in contrast to the difficulty he had in organizing study groups with elite Haitians, he wrote that “a study class was easily organized" among the Haitian peasantry, “a group of humble but very sincere souls."39 The appreciation that members of Haitian society had for the Baha'i teaching campaign became most evident in the months and years following the beginning of the Gregorys’ pioneering mission to Haiti. Respectfully accepting the Haitian government's declaration that the Faith should not pursue its teaching campaign, the Gregorys departed for the United States. Upon their return to the United States, Louis Gregory received a letter from Haitian statesmen and intellectual Jean Price-Mars. Price-Mars wrote with regret that “in a country [Haiti] that enjoyed for so long a reputation of tolerance, you were prohibited from presenting the profoundly moving doctrine of Bahaism.“° Louis Gregory also received a letter of news and support from 3" Martin and Hatcher, The Baha'i Faith, 87-8. 39 Gregory to Holley, [National Spiritual Assembly], quoted in Morrison, To Move the World, 249. ‘° Jean Price-Mars to Louis Gregory, 17 May 1937, LGP. 131 P. Van Putten, a representative of the St. Paul AME. Church in Port-au- Prince. In that letter, Van Putten wrote “many times while driving from Petionville in public cars l have been asked by chauffers [sic] and passengers if I know anything about the Baha'i Movement?" According to this correspondent, the spiritual “seed" which Louis and Louise planted was “still growing silently under the watchful eye of the Master [God]."41 That seed began to sprout in the 1940s with the arrival of Ruth and Ellsworth Blackwell, who led the Inter-America Teaching Committee's next pioneering mission in Haiti. The Second Baha'i Teaching Campaign in Haiti During the Blackwell's tenure in Haiti, the number of individuals who expressed an interest in the Baha'i Faith continued to surpass the number of individuals who formally declared themselves Believers. Nonetheless, the Blackwells were able to formally establish the Faith's presence in Haiti by organizing Haiti's first Local Spiritual Assembly in 1942. Consequently, Haiti which initially was a member of a Spiritual Assembly of the Greater Antilles, eventually established its own National Spiritual Assembly in 1961, and became an increasingly visible member in the Faith's global community by hosting conferences and other gatherings. 4‘ P. Van Putten to Gregory. n.d., LGP. 132 In addition to indicating the ways in which the Baha’i Faith developed into a global religion, the challenges that the Blackwells sought to overcome when pursuing their mission to Haiti also illuminate some of the ways this new religion confronted long-standing barriers to social development in Haitian society. Taking a cautious approach, the Blackwells attempted to challenge the prevalence of social hierarchies in Haiti. They did so by working to minimize the prominence of Catholicism and class distinctions. The Committee's instructions to Ruth Blackwell, who traveled to Haiti six months prior to Ellsworth, were to go “very slowly with the work on the Cause so as not to arouse any antagonism."42 Thus, Ruth Blackwell pursued her mission with caution. Upon her arrival in 1940, she proudly announced to the Inter-America Committee (IAC) that when entering the country the “Bahai Books were M discovered by the officials _a__r1<_:l_ those very officials of Haiti have become my friends."43 She also noted the local impression that she was a journalist who would write a book on Haiti.44 Two months later, she was still maintaining a very low profile. She reported to the IAC that she found it “best to say little about...being a ‘teacher.' It arouses antagonism as you well know."45 As late as August 1940, Ruth still “found it best to remain almost ‘2 Letter to Ruth Blackwell, April 30, 1940, Ellsworth Blackwell Papers, United States Baha’l Archives, Wilmette, IL (hereafter designated as EBP). ‘3 “Report from Haiti," attached to a letter from Blackwell to Matthews, April 19, 1940, EBP. “ Blackwell to Matthews, April 19, 1940, EBP. ‘5 Blackwell to Inter-America Committee (hereafter designated as IAC), June 17, 1940, EBP. 133 in seclusion." Her strategy was to share the message “when the opportunity presents itself."46 Ruth advised the Committee that a new approach to sharing the Baha'i message was critical to succeeding in Haiti. She described that upon her arrival, she “was given a few names" of “persons who had heard of the Faith." Among those contacts, Ruth was asked if she was “a propagandist." Ruth replied that she was not, clarifying that she was a “teacher & a guide etc.". Eventually, Ruth's contacts informed her that “the old methods of publicity, etc. create[d] the wrong impression with and inevitably lead to antagonism".47 This concern may explain why unlike the Gregorys, the Blackwells never publicly advertised their teaching campaign. Their efforts seemed to expand via word of mouth. In fact, when announcements about the Faith’s activities in the Haitian press emerged Haitians promoted them, not the Blackwells. Identifying ‘Souls of Capacity': The Role of Class in Establishing Successful Missions Class and social status played a central role in the Blackwell's efforts to promote the Baha'i Faith in Haiti. As they prepared for their Pioneer-post in Haiti, they relied on contacts from Chicagoans who had traveled to Haiti. Ellsworth noted in a letter to the NSA, that in the absence of a Haitian Consul ‘° Blackwell to IAC, August 5, 1940, EBP. ‘7 Ruth Blackwell to IAC, June 17, 1940, EBP. 134 in Chicago, he and his wife “had to rely solely upon the information of friends who have been there [to Haiti]."48 A memoir on Ellsworth noted that among the Haitian contacts made prior to their departure “were members of the Holly family of Haiti". These were “well-known Episcopalians there." Ellsworth was referred to “Major Leon Holly of Port-au-Prince, who had been a Military Judge during the American Occupation of Haiti." Never becoming a Baha'l himself, Holly led “the Blackwells to others who became Believers and later formed the first Administrative Unit of our Faith in that country."49 Upon her arrival, Ruth attempted to relay the importance of establishing a respectable place for the Faith in Haiti. She observed: “In Haiti there is of course a class distinction but to my mind and from what contacts I have made the important thing is to be correct. It seems very easy to become déclassé." 5° Thus, to secure her social standing, Ruth welcomed the acquaintance of figures such as a man she described as “the most influential person in Port- au-Prince" who took Ruth into “his especial custody." She also advised the IAC on what she considered proper lodging arrangements. On April 5, 1940, Blackwell wrote to the IAC that she found lodging in a “most economical hotel" that was also “at once most practica ." Ruth elaborated by writing that, ‘8 Ellsworth Blackwell to National Spiritual Assembly (hereafter NSA), September 22, 1939, EBP. ‘9 “Ellsworth Blackwell...ln Memory of Services Rendered as a Baha'l Pioneer to Haiti from 1940-1975," undated manuscript, EBP. 5° Ruth Blackwell to Matthews, April 5, 1940, Port-au-Prince, EBP. 135 the “Elite, true elite, emanate from [the hotel] and as I said before standing is most important to obtain one's footing. Am I making myself clear?"51 The Blackwell's attention to social status in Haiti led them to value the role that prominent contacts could play in helping them achieve the goals of their mission. On June 17, 1940, she wrote about Major Roland and his family, who she described as “people of position", “distinction" and ‘capacity." Blackwell referred to “all the persons" on the contact list she was sending to the Committee as “souls of capacity." In Ellsworth's opinion, befriending and attracting the attention of elite Haitians interested in the Faith helped to generate a pool of people who would “be in a position to REM the Cause, in that they will never become antmnistic." being personal friends of the Blackwells.52 The important role privilege played in the expansion of the Baha'i Faith in Haiti is further evidenced by the way in which the Roland family learned about the Faith as an established religious organization. Major Roland and his wife experienced their first exposure to the Faith while traveling to visit the United States. Ruth noted that she did not have a chance to “give the message" to this family when she first me them in Haiti; but, that she shared the “names of friends in Chicago and of course Ellsworth" when learning that the family was traveling. Ruth used the Roland family's travels as an opportunity to suggest a visit to the Baha'i temple. This was a way to advise 5' Ruth Blackwell to Matthews, April 5, 1940, Port-au-Prince, EBP. 52 Ellsworth Blackwell to IAC, November 5, 1940, EBP. 136 the Rolands that she and her husband were Baha'i. According to Ellsworth, he and his Haitian guests “had a grand time" visiting the Temple.53 The Blackwells spread their message by “everyday of the week...visiting people and discussing the Cause." This allowed them to “have a number of people who [were] reading literature".54 But, like the Gregorys, the Blackwells and future pioneers found it difficult to understand which members of Haitian society sincerely appreciated and accepted the Baha'l teachings. During Ruth's first month in Port-au-Prince, she reported to the IAC that she “talked with two or three directly on the Cause and many indirectly." She said that she could “see the effects already." But she cautioned her reservation in making these comments:“it [is] so important to become detached. Until that time comes it is impossible to teach. Believe me! And this is especially true of Haiti - it is an absolute requirement."55 Expressing a mixture of disappointment with their progress and a reaffirming charge to promote the Faith, the Blackwells wrote to the IAC on October 1, 1941. In that letter, they articulated their concerns and conviction by stating: We hope that the Teaching Work in this country is progressing according to the Divine Plan! We feel that you would really like Haiti because it is a very subtle place. Whatever appears on the 5" Blackwell to IAC, June 17, 1940, EBP. 5‘ Blackwells to IAC, December 19, 1940, EBP, Blackwells to IAC, November 5, 1940, EBP. 55 Blackwell to Matthews, April 19, 1940, EBP. 137 surface here does not appear underneath! The art of 'Evasion’ and 'Lying’ is developed to the highest degree in Haiti! Nearly all projects that come here do not succeed. Perhaps one “thinks" that he has succeeded but actually there is not a ripple. This is true of a_|l things whether it is business, religion or merely ideas! The prize method used here toward the accomplishment of such an end is to keep you in one circle of friends - a circle of persons who is not at all interested in what you might have. However, this group does have one single and united interest which is to prevent you from contacting other persons who actually would be interested! Very, very subtle! Most people when leaving Haiti and are on the boat do not realize what has happened to them. The only thing that saved us was the power of the Bahai Cause. Baha'u'llah tells us that you can know the truth by reason of the untruth. We investigated all the untruth available and then followed the opposite. Bahai subtlety!56 Such elaborate explanations for the slow progress of the Blackwells' pioneering efforts may have been the product of mounting pressure to meet the goal of establishing a Local Spiritual Assembly in Haiti by 1944, as outlined in Shoghi Effendi's Seven Year Plan. 5" Blackwell to IAC, Oct 1, 1941, EBP. 138 The Spiritual and Material Appeal of Religious Missions among the Haitian Public Despite these challenges, the Blackwells were able to report on a group of Haitian residents who were attracted to the Baha'i Faith and had particular reasons for wishing to see the Faith establish itself in Haiti. For example, following a meeting with the Sylvain family, we learn that the Blackwells were able to identify a viable ideological place for Baha'i ideology in contemporary Haitian society. Learning that members of this family were “devout Catholics" and “leaders of the Feminist movement in Haiti," the Blackwells shared the Faith's teachings on “the Equality of Sexes."57 A commentary entitled, “Two Wings of a Bird: The Equality of Men and Women” explains these teachings. The document, prepared by the National Spiritual Assembly of the Baha’Is of the United States, is based on the writings and speeches of the Faith’s spiritual leaders and scholars. “Two Wings” emphasizes the importance of promoting mutual respect and opportunities for both genders. Among the numerous approaches proposed, the text proposes the importance of extending respect to women and prioritizing women’s education, as a means of increasing a mother’s capacity to instruct the world’s children. "Two Wings” contains commentaries on the need to encourage full participation of women in all spheres of life—social, economic, and political. The authors of the document write that doing so could help the world's 5" Ellsworth Blackwell to IAC, November 5, 1940, EBP. 139 civilizations better acquire feminine qualities, such as “mental alertness, intuition, and the spiritual qualities of love and service” to balance out the tradition of forceful masculine dominance. This was a strategy for establishing a “community based on partnership...cooperation and consultation.”58 Overall, the authors proposed “the achievement of full equality between the sexes is essential to human progress and the transformation of society.”59 Ellsworth proudly noted that these teachings on the link between gender equality and social progress “made a great impression on the whole family."60 Besides tapping into the progressive ideas that privileged Haitians advocated, the Blackwells learned about they ways in which Haitians might view their Faith as materially resourceful. Ellsworth reported on his contact with Dr. Rindal Assad. Ellsworth described Assad as “the only Radio- Therapist in Haiti" and indicated that Assad coordinated “a clinic for the poor at the behest of the Haitian Government." Ellsworth also advised that after his conversation with Assad, the latter “wrote the National Assembly submitting a plan for their approval...to ask the Bahais of North America to send discarded summer clothing for distribution among the poor of Haiti...from his clinic."‘51 While the Blackwells did not express any aversion to Haitians pursuing material contributions from the Faith in this manner, they did offer a harsh 5" “Two Wings of a Bird: The Equality of Women and Men. A Statement by the National Spiritual Assembly of the Baha'ls of the United States,” (Wilmette, IL: Baha'l Publishing Trust, 1997), 8. 59 “Two Wings of a Bird,” 1. 6° Ellsworth Blackwell to IAC, November 5, 1940, EBP. 6‘ Ellsworth Blackwell to IAC, November 5, 1940, EBP. 140 critique of those seeking financial remuneration for declaring themselves Believers. The Blackwells reported on “souls...who would be delighted to accept the Faith if they could derive financial benefit." The Blackwells pointed to Mrs. Bertha DeWendt who had “been of great assistance... by introducing the [Blackwells] to persons of much capacity." However, the Blackwells lamented that DeWendt “means well but she thinks that...the Cause...is a money-making affair and she would like to be the ‘President."' The Blackwells presented this “ludicrous" story to the NSA to reiterate their cautious and sincere approach to converting Haitians. The Blackwells, meanwhile, praised individuals who demonstrated an appreciation for the Faith's spiritual contributions to Haiti. For example, the Blackwells mentioned that a “boy" named Axel Dulyx was among those reading Baha'i literature. They believed Dulyx was “capable of inflaming the whole country" given his character as “a potential Bahai possessing fire, courage and. all such qualities as are found in the true Latin." They thought Dulyx was “attracted" to them for their “sealing knowledge of God."62 The McBean family, Jamaicans residing in Haiti, did accept the Faith's spiritual teachings. Like Dulyx, the Blackwells saw in“the character of the [first] three [declared] believers" - Mr. and Mrs. George McBean and their niece May Johnson — persons who “possess[ed] the proper attitude toward the Cause, spiritually. In other words, they are not looking for ‘something for nothing' -for material benefits. They know that the only benefit to be denied ‘2 Blackwells to IAC, November 5, 1940, EBP. 141 from the Bahai Faith is spiritual. These souls, ...devote their time and money for the spreading of the Message. They have gm their home and use their own funds for promotion of the Cause here, i.e., provide food and carfare for those who cannot afford, etc. This, as Shoghi [Effendi] has said, is one of the tests of a believers faith."63 The Blackwells were clearly concerned about ensuring the integrity of Haitian converts. In a letter to the NSA, they wrote: We have acquainted you with these facts in order that you may know that we will see that any person whose names we send in will have the proper understanding of this Faith of God. From this you can see that it would be possible to have ‘crowds' of Bahais in Haiti if the basis of the Faith were material rather than spiritual.‘54 The fact that the Baha'i Fund (in contrast to many Christian missions) in fact had little to offer materially increases the likelihood that that Haitians who did join were attracted to the Faith for its progressive ideals. Indeed, the Baha'i administrators were reluctant to disperse funds until the Blackwells secured a more substantial number of converts. In January 1941, the IAC advised the Blackwells that Haiti was one of the “places where [Baha'l work] seems to be going too slowly to warrant the outlay [of funds] at this time."65 The Blackwells' challenged the lAC's comments by responding, 6" Blackwells to NSA, March 10, 1941, EBP. °‘ Blackwells to NSA, March 10, 1941, EBP. “5 IAC to Blackwells, January 7. 1941, EBP. 142 “None of us can say whether or not the ‘growth of the Faith is correspondingly slow' for God's ways are ever mysterious. He has his own hour for the awakening of souls." The Blackwells saw themselves as mere “instruments." They wanted to avoid “high-pressure methods, personality, etc" to “persuade individuals to accept Baha'u'llah" because they knew that the convert “would be of no benefit to the Cause, nor would [they] be a Bahai.” The Blackwells further noted that, “Abdul Baha said that ‘one holy soul is better than a thousand other souls'."66 The Blackwell's thinking was likely informed by the strategies employed by Christian missionaries, who were heavily engaged in concrete material development projects in Haiti. Eleanor Turnbull of the Baptist Haiti Mission, for instance, understood that before she and her fellow missionaries could succeed in their evangelical work, they had to address the social service needs of the local community. Eleanor described her early impressions that the Haitian population was “backwards," “primitive," “lazy" and “un- ambitious." In her opinion, this made for an unproductive community. Eleanor attributed these problems to the absence of social services, like schools and medicine. To renew this community, which the missionaries viewed as “illiterate" and “full of vermin," they built schools and treated intestinal parasites.67 The Turnbulls observed that the Baptist Mission appealed to Haitians who were unable to fully participate in Catholic services since they 6" Blackwells to IAC, December 19, 1940, EBP. '57 Eleanor Turnbull, interview with the author, February 24, 2002, Fermathe, Haiti. 143 were required to pay for sacraments. The Turnbulls described their contributions as unlike any made by the Catholic clergy, whom they believed were focused primarily in preserving Catechistic rituals.68 The early history of the Missionary Oblates of Mary Immaculate in Haiti suggests that the Baptist Missionaries view of their Catholic counterpart's activities was only partly accurate. During its earliest years, the Oblates worked to insure “the future of the Church and of religious life, fostering education, and alleviating suffering, hunger, and poverty" in Haiti.69 Their evangelical focus, “by necessity... [involved] no more than the bare essentials, with a heavy accent on the administration of the Sacraments."7o During the first nine years of the Mission, efforts were made to address the “scarcity of priests".71 Evidently, the Oblates sought to provide religious 6° Eleanor and Wallace Turnbull, interview with the author, February 24, 2002, Fermathe, Haiti. 6" “The Missionary Oblates of Mary Immaculate in Haiti", 3. This document is an othenlvise unidentifiable 12-page typescript located in archival files of Oblates Provincial Office, Washington, DC. The first reference note of the document reads: “All the information in this article is taken from sources not available to the public. Should anyone be interested in further details, please contact: Le R.P. Provincial, Missionaries O.M.l., Casier Postal 691, Port-au-Prince, HAITI, West Indies.” 7° “The Missionary Oblates of Mary Immaculate in Haiti," 3. 7‘ “The Missionary Oblates of Mary Immaculate in Haiti," 5. A minor seminary was created in Camp Perrin in 1945. In 1950, the Cathetical Committee was founded and annual congresses began to be held. By 1953, 250 catechists were trained. By 1985, the seminary had 40-45 alumni, i.e., ordained priest who worked between Cayes and Port-au-Prince to address the “scarcity of religious brothers and nuns," “scarcity of Native Vocations," “scarcity of Schools," and the “Conditions of churches and rectories." There was also work to address the paucity of “resident priests" in most parishes by focusing on the need to expand ministry. Religious lifestyles were promoted by providing catechistic instruction encouraging 144 services as a way of sustaining the Church and addressing the quality of life in Haitian society. The Oblate missionaries described their concerns about Haitian society by reporting on Haiti's “population density" and relative poverty. They also noted high rates of illiteracy (recorded as 95%, with 16% of children attending school, and fewer than 20% attending secondary school), poor roads, undemourishment of 95% of the population, and the existence of a caste system. This system was described as “rigid", with three million blacks, five thousand whites, two percent elite, upper caste, 98% peasantry, lower caste, and no middle class/bourgeoisie. These issues added to the Oblates concerns about the prevalence of “superstition”, which they described as being “deep set in the hearts of many, if not most, which constitutes an acute problem."72 To address these matters, the Oblates worked to assist the sick at La Charlté S'iI-Vous-Plait hospital. They helped to establish cooperatives “in the form of Banks, where money is deposited and borrowed."73 They saw these financial institutions as a “powerful incentive to the poor, who [they believed] had [been] never saved before." Also, the Oblates built roads between Les Anglais and Tiburon, “to facilitate communication." Finally, the missions attendance at mass, “the frequent reception of the Holy Communion," and “legitimate unions...[to] reduce the staggering number of illegitimate children." 72 “The Oblates in Haiti," 4, four-page typescript located in archival files of Oblates Provincial Office, Washington, DC. The signature of Real B. Bourque, OM. is located at the end of this document, but it is not clear whether or not he is the author of the document. 73 “The Oblates in Haiti," 3. 145 gathered “bundles of clothing and cases of food, etc., from American and Canadian charities" in an effort to alleviate “rampant poverty."74 The financial advantage of the Baptist and Oblates missionaries over the Baha'i pioneers affected the types of material contributions each religious organization was able make to Haitian society. This affected the appeal of each organization to Haitians themselves. When seeking to secure a religious mission, President Lescot had emphasized that the resourcefulness of the Oblates’ skills could help develop Haiti’s countryside. Internationally, Oblates had built schools and churches wherever they pursued missions. He noted that development was possible with the assistance of the Brothers Covers who were masons, carpenters, mechanics, printers, gardeners, bookbinders, farmers, sailors, fishermen, and chefs. By sharing these skills, Lescot argued, the Oblates would secure the faith of Haitians by doing more than simply “distributing bags of [US] dollars.”75 However, Lescot also drew attention to the fact that missions were also a way to procure contributions from American Catholics whose funds could complement those of the Haitian government and people, for development work.76 The Baptist Haiti Missionaries also raised their financial capital by soliciting funds from U.S.-based patrons.77 7‘ The Missionary Oblates of Mary Immaculate in Haiti," 9, emphasis mine. This was the approach to evangelizing that the Missionary Oblates took until 1967. ’5 Lescot to Vincent, 28 March 1940, FC. 76 Lescot to Vincent, 04 April 1940. In this letter Lescot also mentions a dinner held in the Washington, DC. with local religious representatives interested in his efforts. 7’ Wallace Turnbull, interview with the author, April 14, 2002, Fermathe, Haiti. 146 In keeping with the Faith’s guidelines, most Baha'i program funds derived from voluntary contributions received solely from individuals who had declared themselves adherents of the Faith.78 Indeed, the Blackwells faced challenges in securing funds even for their own expenses, let alone for the work of the Faith. On their departure, the Blackwells were optimistic that their education and work histories would enable them to find work in Haiti. When preparing for their pioneer-service in Haiti, Ruth Blackwell described the potentially useful practical skills that she and her husband possessed. Ruth announced that she could speak Haiti's official language, French, “having had three years of study." As to their capacity to gain employment and be self- sufficient while residing in Haiti, Ruth described her ten years of legal experience working with “a firm of attorneys“ in Chicago. Prior to that, she “was employed by the Federal Reserve Bank. Ellsworth had a diverse working background, with “business experience in the Automobile Industry, Newspaper and Social Service." The Blackwells anticipated making “connections with some firms in Haiti."79 As the Blackwells eventually discovered, it was not easy to establish financial security in Haiti. In fact, it seems that they never secured employment in Haiti. During Ruth's first seven months in Haiti, she received $150 from the Baha'i Fund and supplemental income from Ellsworth who was working in the United States. Upon arrival, Ruth expressed regret but understanding that 7“ Martin and Hatcher, The Baha’l Faith, 180-1. ’9 Blackwells to Matthews, July 26, 1939, EBP. Emphasis mine. 147 most American companies had contracts that required the hiring of Haitians. Later, she discussed how her increasing proficiency in French should have helped her secure a job. By December 1940, Ellsworth and Ruth wrote to the IAC about how Haiti's economic conditions challenged their employment possibilities: The unemployment and economic situation [in Haiti] is worse than in any other country in this Hemisphere. Ruth has tried for months to secure work, but it is almost impossible. And the American legation is of no assistance whatsoever in this regard. The only avenue left...from which we might derive an income is to rent a house and take boarders and at the same time we would be in a position to have Bahai meetings. But it is impossible to do this even unless we have some assurance of a budget.80 In August 1941, the Blackwells were still dependent on the NSA for funds and sent a series of letters to Mrs. French describing the “desperate" nature of their situation (e.g., having borrowed 12 cents to mail the letter, borrowed taxi fare to attend the Bahai meeting in Petion-Ville). On August 21, 1941, the Blackwells proposed to Mrs. French an increased stipend of $60 for five months rather than $50 for six or $100 for two. In an effort to arrange their stay or departure from Haiti, the Blackwells outlined their monthly cost of living °° Blackwells to IAC, December 19, 1940, EBP. 148 in Haiti and the cost of return travel to Chicago.81 The Blackwells were careful to note that they “would not ask for assistance if [they] had some means of securing it." To prevent future tensions around this matter, they suggested to the IAC that should “other pioneers [be sent] to Haiti" they should be “those who [would] not be dependent on employment for a livelihood."82 As soon as Haiti established an LSA, the NSA of the United States and Canada agreed to augment the Blackwells stipend. On January 26, 1942, the Blackwells requested that their monthly stipend be increased by at least $10 “in order [to]... meet the monthly cost of living during the War."83 On March 16, 1942, the Blackwells finally received official word from the Inter-America Committee that the National Spiritual Assembly voted for “a budget of $60.00 a month for four months, beginning with May 13'.“ The IAC also indicated their expectation that these funds would “carry [the Blackwells] through the summer and the NSA will then know better what arrangements to make for the future."84 The Blackwells' experience demonstrates the financial constraints that even privileged members of Haitian society could face, and the good reasons that a great value was placed on securing financial income from foreign sources. Although their experiences might have made them sympathetic to the efforts of the Haitians they worked with, the Blackwells consistently sought to discourage attention to the material contributions they 8‘ See: Blackwells to French, August 16, 1941, EBP. “2 Blackwells to IAC, December 19, 1940, EBP. ’3 Blackwells to IAC, EBP. “ IAC to Blackwells, EBP. 149 could potentially acquire from the Baha'i Teaching Campaign, instead emphasizing the need for spiritual study and regeneration in Haiti. Catholicism as the Source of Darkness and Material Backwardness in Haitian Society Upon her arrival in 1940, Ruth Blackwell reported to the IAC that Haiti was a place ripe for Baha'i teachings. She declared that there was “a lack of consciousness of the Love of god. And that is what Baha'u'llah wants known here. His Love." In other letters, Blackwell described Haiti as a “land of darkness" in need of the “light" of Baha'u'llah. In the face of their challenges, the Blackwells expressed their commitment to Haiti by declaring that it was “absolutely imperative" that “some Bahai...remain [in Haiti]...because of this black-out of spirituality."85 The focus of the Baha'i pioneers, however, was not on a darkness perpetuated by Vodou practices. It was on the predominance of Catholicism in Haitian society. The Blackwells' critiques of Catholicism, interestingly, paralleled the critiques of Vodou made by Christian missionaries. For example, Ruth Blackwell pointed to devout Haitian Catholics as spiritually complacent and immature. She wrote to the Inter-America Committee about her view that the “warping influence" of Catholicism was the reason Haiti was “so backward in ‘5 rm to Blackwells, December 16, 1940, EBP. 150 material acquisitions."86 She described Haiti as “a Catholic stronghold, [where] the majority of persons do not even think freely much less are looking for a religion!" Many of Ruth's contacts were Catholic; and she found them to be “politely interested or so it seems. When they discover that I am not only a Bahai but am here in their (Bahai) interests they [Haitians] immediately regard me as an irredeemable heathen and will explain with care about the actions etc. of the priests!" Ruth found this to be “sometimes very amusing, but on the other hand" Ruth said that her “heart cries for them, for as far as religion goes they are as children."87 Blackwell's observations echoed the reflections of Eleanor Turnbull about the essential importance of renouncing Vodou in Haitian society. Turnbull stated her belief that knowing Christ meant “knowing a better way." The Christian message, she argued, was important because it emphasized the role of the individual in life. Eleanor said the Baptist Mission's message “emphasized that it is ygu_r responsibility not the supematural's to determine fate (ie.- “where would spend eternity") As a result, she claimed, that her Haitian converts began to “take on responsibility to decide other things, responsibilities in life, especially with children and family planning. Responsibility for ourselves and fellowman was found in the Christian message."88 °° Blackwell to IAC, August 5, 1940, EBP. ‘7 Blackwell to IAC, June 17, 1940, EBP. Emphasis mine. 8" Eleanor Turnbull, interview with the author, February 24, 2002, Fermathe, Haiti. 151 No matter the power of the Christian or Baha'i message, the Blackwells recognized that Catholicism -- if not Vodou -- dominated much of Haitian life. Upon Ellsworth's arrival in October 1940, he described the challenge of his mission by writing that the prominence of Catholicism was “a real problem...in Haiti. Ninety-five percent of the people are orthodox Roman Catholic and are consequently completely satisfied with their religion." Ruth lamented the national celebration of Catholic holidays. She pointed out that the feasts were “endless" and entailed “parading statues". She said she could “scarcely bear" the sight at times, and was further distressed by the scarce presence of Protestants. She said, “They are present but submerged."89 Ruth understood Catholicism in Haiti as a “last stand” for the Church. “A_|l their holidays are observed throughout the Island. All business shuts down, etc. Dreadful! The priests look, to me, like emaciated vultures! You see, I see their lack of spirituality. My heart grieves for Haiti."90 Ruth saw Catholicism's influence in Haiti as a “vise [sic]" awaiting redemption from the Baha'i Faith.91 She declared: “I know that Baha'u'llah will awaken his people here. And when that time comes we will see a new and vibrant Haiti, a land that even now is wanting to be known."92 Ruth believed that “the very presence of an established Bahai will one day save a redeem the country."93 “9 Blackwell to IAC, August 5, 1940, EBP. Emphasis mine. 9° Blackwell to IAC, June 17, 1940, EBP. 9‘ Blackwell to IAC, August 5, 1940, EBP. ”2 Blackwell to IAC, August 5, 1940, EBP. 9" Blackwell to IAC, June 17, 1940, EBP. 152 To achieve the goal of saving and redeeming Haiti, Ruth indicated that there was “only one thing to do [and that was] to follow the Command of the guardian to the letter and the Spirit and that is to ’Establish’ physically and spiritually.” According to Ruth, despite the negative influence of Catholicism, Haiti could be “won" because Haitians were “truly spiritual people, loving Jesus sincerely."94 Without records from weekly meetings or memoirs of Haitian Believers, it is difficult to determine how Haitian residents responded to these critiques and how they used Baha'i teachings to envision positive developments in their society. However, at one of the Blackwells' earliest gatherings they noted the ways in which their teachings could positively affect Haitian society. On June 17, 1941 they wrote to the IAC: One of the first problems in Haiti is to gather persons together of different social positions in one meeting. Even in the churches here the persons of the Lower Class are permitted in only certain sections of the building—preferably the rear! However, it is wonderful to see how the power of Baha’u’llah has brought these divergent groups together under the roof of the McBean’s [site of the Baha’i meetings]. At some of our meetings there are in the room relatives of President Lescot . . . and also domestics and people of the lower class. This is a miracle within itself.95 9‘ Blackwell to IAC, August 5, 1940, EBP. 95 Blackwells to IAC, June 17, 1941, EBP. The Baha’l News (164 (July 1943), 5) published Inter-America Teaching news that “the son of a former Haitian President“ was the 153 The Emergence of an Active Community of Haitian Baha'is Although it is not evident how long-lasting such mixed gatherings were, it is evident that Haitian residents continued to engage with Baha’i teachings. They also played an active role in nurturing Baha'i study groups by attending and leading discussion meetings, soliciting literature, and translating texts. Mr. and Mrs. Gerald McBean, and their niece May Johnson, were the first three people to formally declare themselves Baha'i. Their participation in the Faith created a central site for Haitians to become exposed to and actively involved with the Baha'i religion. The McBean family opened their home in the Port-au- Prince neighborhood of Bas-Petits-Choses to serve as a Baha'i Library, a meeting place for study classes and site for feast celebrations. In 1942, the Blackwells declared that the McBean home was “the real Bahai Center at the present time." In a December 1, 1942 letter the Blackwells reported that since January 1941, the McBeans' hosted Thursday evening classes and had “not missed a week." An annual report for 1941-1942 listed that classes held at the McBeans' were complemented by Sunday afternoon sessions at the Blackwell home in Petionville. The Blackwells noted that the “attendance at [the McBean] class is usually good and most Believers have come in through this class."96 chairman of the Spiritual Assembly being organized in Haiti. l was unable to verify who this person was from the documents I reviewed. 9" Blackwells, 1941-2 Annual Report, Haiti, submitted September 12, 1941, EBP. 154 These study sessions and events following special dates on the Baha'i calendar helped to generate a growing interest among Haitians and foreign residents in the Faith. In December 1942, the Blackwells proudly proclaimed that “the Cause and Community are increasing steadily. There are now gm of us in Port-au-Prince. We have now two regular weekly meetings-Mondays and Thursdays--both in Port-au-Prince at which the attendance is steady and encouraging. The Bahai calendar is meticulously observed and the Friends are learning rapidly."97 One vivid example of this was the celebration of Feast Days. In their 1942 Annual Report, the Blackwells reported: There were 25 people present. The evening was fresh and delightful and they were seated on our porch in the shadow of an enormous bread-fruit tree which we have in our yard. The readings were in both French and English as there were persons of both cultures present. Everyone was very joyous and afterwards made comments on that state of happiness. It was new to them. For the following celebration, Ridwan, the Blackwells reported that 35 people attended.98 Haitians demonstrated their interest in actively promoting the Faith to their countrymen by helping the Blackwells translate Baha'i literature into French, sharing the Message when they traveled to other provinces, and 9’ Blackwells to IAC, December 1, 1942, EBP. 9° Blackwells, Annual Report, Haiti, 1941-1942, submitted September 12, 1942, EBP. 155 hosting study sessions based on the Baha'i teachings. In June 1941, Ruth Blackwell announced to the IAC that she and a Haitian man were collaborating on the translation of Baha'i prayers into French. The Blackwells continuously petitioned the IAC for assistance with gathering literature in French for their teaching campaign in Haiti. The Blackwells considered the paucity of materials, particularly in French, to be a major “handicap" to their pioneering mission.99 They wrote the IAC on numerous occasions to describe the importance of securing literature for their Haitian audience. For example, on March 8, 1941, they requested a text called “The Manifestation" because as they saw it in “a Catholic land their problem is to see another manifestation than Christ."100 Moreover, the Blackwells welcomed a small translated book of prayers, which they felt could help them reach a wider audience since, the “one thing that all of the followers of Catholicism or Protestantism...in Haiti are permitted to do freely is to pray!"101 Despite the Blackwell's continual dissatisfaction with the amount of materials in their possession, the IAC did succeed in sending materials to Haiti on several occasions. At times, the books and prayers in English and Spanish were sent to accommodate multilingual Friends; and, whenever possible the IAC sent published or translated texts in French to Haiti. On December 15, 1950, Blackwell reported 9° Blackwells to IAC, December 19, 1940, EBP. ‘°° Blackwells to IAC, March 8, 1941, EBP. '°' Blackwells to IAC, Nov. 17, 1941, EBP. 156 that she was typing texts while a Haitian Believer named Mr. Bailey took primary responsibility for translating them.102 Haitian Baha'is also shared the Message with their compatriots when traveling to cities and towns across the country. As early as May 1941, Believers residing in the capital city succeeded in generating interest in the southwestern city of Les Cayes. Nearly a decade later, frequent visits to the Artibonite Valley by several Friends led Ruth Blackwell to report: “The friends here have been doing some teaching work in St. Marc and appear to have some five believers there."103 Several months later, Blackwell reported that the friends organizing group in Saint Marc, claimed that there were “some persons there who have been registered Baha'is."1°‘ Progress reports prepared by the Blackwells demonstrate the active role Haitians played in organizing study session in Haiti. On September 11, 1950, Ruth Blackwell reported that three weekly meetings were being held in Port-au-Prince on Tuesdays, Wednesdays, and Thursdays. A Haitian doctor named Lafleur took responsibility for the Tuesday sessions, during which time he led discussions on the ‘Divine Art of Living.‘105 Blackwell noted that in a "’2 Blackwell to National Teaching Committee of Central America, Mexico, and the Antilles, December 15, 1950, Papers of the Inter-America Committee (hereafter noted as IAC Papers), NBA . Blackwell noted that Mr. Bailey was primarily responsible for the translation work and that she was copying it/typing it. ‘°3 Blackwell report, July 31, 1950, IAC Papers. ‘°‘ Blackwell to National Teaching Committee of Central America, Mexico, and the Antilles, November 1, 1950, IAC Papers. ”5 Blackwell to National Teaching Committee of Central America, Mexico, and the Antilles, September 11, 1950, IAC Papers. 157 given month, approximately eight to eleven persons attended scheduled meetings. The audience was composed on two to five Baha'is; and, she anticipated that the numbers would increase with additional members and contacts. There were three to five prospective new members at the time of her report. In addition to Baha'i Friends, Ruth noted six additional students attending the sessions.106 Active participation in Haiti's Baha'i community fluctuated over time based on individual and group circumstances, including varying leadership from local Baha’is and foreign pioneers. A report by Ruth Blackwell in 1950 is the first to specifically discuss the “active" and “inactive" members of the community. She noted that her group of Baha'is included 22 active and seven inactive members. She referred to the absence of leading figures in the community, including her brief return to the US. and the Bates family's departure to New York, along with “attitudes" within the local spiritual assembly as being factors affecting the local community. Blackwell described the significance of her return to the community by reporting that reaching out to old friends, and organizing events such as a reception for visiting Baha'ls, Ruth believed that her presence helped to encourage the inactive to join the active community. In September 1950, she wrote: The inactive part is showing signs of life and I feel it is just a question of time and the situation will level itself off. The first ‘°° “Reporte del Progreso de la Causa," completed by Ruth Blackwell. September 11. 1950, IAC Papers. 158 effort I made in that direction was when Katherine McLaughlin and her young daughter passed through Port au Prince on their way home at which time I gave a small reception for them at the Baha'i Center. It served as a rallying point and started the healing process. At least this is my impression and I want of course to share it with you.107 Ruth soon reported her opinion that things were “progressing satisfactorily" in Haiti.108 Conclusion At the time that Baha'i pioneers from the United States arrived into Port-au-Prince to fulfill the vision of their spiritual leaders to promote global unity, Haitian public officials and urban residents were already engaged in an inter-American campaign that espoused similar ideals. The Baha’i Inter- America Teaching Campaign offered Haitians another means of asserting their equality to all world citizens and their ideas that the social progress of the world's citizens was intertwined. That Baha’i pioneers offered Haitian residents spiritual teachings in far greater proportion than any material contribution indicates the appeal of the Faith’s progressive philosophies in Haiti. The absence of first-hand testimonies "’7 Blackwell to National Teaching Committee of Central America, Mexico, and the Antilles, September 11, 1950, IAC Papers. ‘°° Blackwell to IAC, September 20, 1950, IAC Papers. 159 from Haitians who either declared themselves Baha’is or became actively engaged with the Baha’i Faith certainly limits our understanding of the particularities of this appeal. Nonetheless, the praise and the queries that prominent (e.g., Jean Price-Mars) and not-so-prominent (e.g., local youth) Haitians had for the pioneers demonstrates a local desire to pursue the relevance of the Faith for Haitian society. Although the pioneers worked with a primarily urban and socially-elite population, both privileged and less- privileged Haitians demonstrated their willingness to play a part in applying the Faith's relevance to their communities by participating in informal conversations, study sessions, feasts, the translation of Baha’i prayers and teachings, and the formation of assemblies and the hosting of international conferences. Baha’i pioneers identified the prominence of Catholicism and Vodou, as well as class and gender inequalities as major challenges to development in Haitian society. The Faith’s solutions to these issues could be found in its teachings on progressive manifestations, the need to renounce superstitious practices, and eliminate social prejudice. Like U.S.-based Christian religious missions to Haiti, Baha’l pioneers offered a message that reinforced Haitian ideas about the need to modernize Haiti’s religious mores and work to reduce social gaps in Haiti. However, their experience also demonstrates that the process of achieving those changes would be difficult without adequate support structures and an intercultural dialogue about the majority’s spiritual beliefs. 160 CHAPTER FOUR Haiti, the Rockefeller Foundation, and UNESCO: A Pilot Project in International (Under)-Development In November 1947, Haiti’s delegate to the United Nations Educational, Social, and Cultural Organization (UNESCO) conference in Mexico City made “an impassioned plea...for Haiti’s claim to help” in the field of Fundamental Education. UNESCO’s Fundamental Education (FE) section was intended to assist member states “reduce illiteracy and bring to the people such elementary knowledge and simple skills as would enable them to improve their living conditions.” The Haitian Government proposed the rural Marbial Valley for an FE/ Pilot Project because it was an area that represented“‘the most crucial problems of Haiti" and “many under-developed areas” of the world. 1 The Rockefeller Foundation’s liaison to the Pilot Project, John Marshall observed during his investigative visit to Haiti in late April 1948 that Marbial comprised “the middle portion of the valley of the river Gosseline in the south of the island. Rising in the La Selle range, the Gosseline river flows south-east through the mountains and foothills and reaches the sea at the little harbour town of Jacmel.” Marshall noted that the valley had an estimated "population of about 28,000, excluding the town of Jacmel which probably had about 10,000 more."2 A UNESCO report on its project in the Valley listed ‘ UNESCO, The Haiti Pilot Project, Phase One [1947-1949], (Paris, 1951), 11. 2 John Marshall interview notes on the UNESCO Pilot Project in Fundamental Education Marbial Valley, Haiti, April 28-30, 1948, folder 132, box 20, series 100, Record Group (RG) 1.2, RAC. The “Marbial Valley” appears to be better-known by Haitians as it la 161 “overpopulation, land hunger, deforestation and soil erosion, poverty and intermittent famine, widespread illiteracy and a declining agriculture“ as the major challenges facing Marbial's residents. 3 According to a scholar of UNESCO’s education and development policies, establishing a Pilot Project in the Marbial Valley was intended to be a way of testing “new or well-tried methods of community-education.” The UNESCO! Haiti Pilot Project was, it seems, the only one of several other plans proposed for China, Peru, and East Africa, that actually reached a working phase, even if for a brief moment. Collaborative efforts to launch the Haiti Pilot Project began in 1947. In September 1949, Haiti and UNESCO signed a formal agreement. However, as early as March 1950, UNESCO field representatives declared that the project was unviable. This was the fate of a project intended to serve as a model for bringing universal literacy, social, economic and political development, and consequently, peace and security across the world.‘ In this chapter, I examine the short-lived efforts of Haitian public officials, Haitian citizens, and affiliates of the Rockefeller Foundation and Vallee de la Gosseline. it See: Arthur Bonhomme, « Avec I'UNESCO at Les Griots, May 7, 1948, (Port-au-Prince, Haiti), 1, folder 133, box 20, series 100, R6 1.2, Rockefeller Foundation Archives, RAC. A UNESCO working plan for the project indicates that “the region chosen by the Haitian Govemment...comprises the Parish of Marbial, covering the remote mountain-gin valley of the River Gosseline, which runs down to the town of Jacmel on the south coast.” UNESCO, “Fundamental Education Pilot Project in Haiti Working Plan,“ 26 February 1948, (Paris), 2, folder 132, box 20, series 100, R6 1.2, Rockefeller Foundation Archives, RAC. 3 UNESCO, The Haiti Pilot Project, 11. ‘ Phillip W. Jones, International Policies for Third World Education: Unesco, Literacy and Development, (London: Routeledge, 1988), 65-66. 162 UNESCO to establish a Pilot Project in Fundamental Education in Haiti's Marbial Valley. My main source of evidence is a body of documents stemming from the work of John Marshall, who as Humanities Officer for the Rockefeller Foundation became intimately involved with the Haiti Pilot Project. Marshall was primarily responsible for helping the Foundation assess the possibility of contributing to the literacy and language-training arm of the FEIPilot Project. As a result of his two visits to Haiti (in 1948 and 1949) and correspondence with project affiliates, Marshall became an important voice in deliberations about strategies for launching and nurturing the Pilot Project in the Marbial Valley. In addition to his personal appeal, Marshall's growing influence was based on his role as a Foundation officer, and the access to resources that his position offered him. Using Marshall’s files, I discuss how Haitians and foreigners affiliated with UNESCO envisioned using Haiti as a viable model for pursuing development work via international cooperation. These documents elucidate the central role that institutions and individuals from the United States experienced in inter-American development activities played in the UNESCO experiment. Moreover, they indicate that while the newly-fonned UNESCO struggled to establish itself, the project initiatives reinforced the United States' place as a leader in international aid and Haiti’s place as an underdeveloped nation. Although it is difficult to ascertain the ultimate demise of the project from the existing records, it is evident that the project's organizers failed to produce the highly-anticipated outcomes. This failure reflects the skepticism 163 that UNESCO and Rockefeller Foundation staff members had about the project from its very early stages. The demise of the Haiti/Pilot Project also demonstrates that international organizations were not prepared to meet the needs nor match the dedication of Haitian officials and residents of the Marbial Valley to developing the area. Envisioning the Importance of the UNESCO/Haiti Pilot Project As a liaison between the Rockefeller Foundation, the Haitian government, and UNESCO, John Marshall was privileged to multiple views on using Haiti as an experimental site for developing models in fundamental education. In 1948, UNESCO's first field representative, Alfred Métraux, invited Marshall to visit Haiti in order that he might gain a better sense of the country and the efforts to carry-out the UNESCO project in the Marbial Valley. Upon visiting Haiti in late April, Marshall learned that Haitian President Durmarsais Estimé looked to the UNESCO project as a source of greater possibilities for the government’s current efforts in promoting adult education in the area. Marshall noted that Estimé “stressed his conviction of the need of the Haitian peasant for help, not only from [the Haitian] government, but from outside sources [as well]." 5 5 John Marshall Oral History, p.484, Interview 13, folder 7, box 1, RG ".13, Rockefeller Foundation Archives, RAC; John Marshall interview notes from a meeting with President Durmarsais Estimé, Port-au-Prince, Haiti, April 28, 1948, folder 132, series 100, RG 1.2, Rockefeller Foundation Archives, RAC. 164 The working proposal for the Haiti Pilot Project in Fundamental Education illuminates the dynamic possibilities for helping the Haitian government accumulate and secure additional resources for its current and proposed development projects in education, public health, agriculture and the arts. The Pilot Project proposal lists development efforts in six broad areas. These included: primary schooling and general adult education; auxiliary language teaching (i.e., Basic French); health education and medical services; agricultural and veterinary education and extension work; community library, museum and arts centre; women’s education; and, rural industries and cooperatives. Each of these activities were scheduled to follow a six-month “survey and documentation of the existing social and ecological conditions and local customs” of the Valley. 6 Métraux, an American anthropologist of European origin, was responsible for carrying out the survey work for UNESCO.7 Prior to this appointment, Métraux served on the staff of the 6 UNESCO, “Fundamental Education Haiti Pilot Project Working Plan,” March 12, 1948, folder 132, box 20, series 100, R6 1.2, Rockefeller Foundation Archives, RAC; UNESCO, The Haiti Pilot Project. . 7 The record of Métraux’s background is somewhat conflicting. Rockefeller Foundation Officer, Roger F. Evans notes that Métraux is an “American-trained Swiss sociologists and ethnologist”. In his oral histories, John Marshall recalls that Métraux “was born in the Argentine of a Swiss physician father who had established practice there, and a Roumanian Jewish mother. He had grown up in the Argentine but had gone on to Europe for his higher education. He took his doctorate in anthropology in the Sorbonne under Paul Rivet of the Muses de L'Hommes and then went on to another doctorate in Sweden. He went back to the Argentine and taught for a time as a young man in the University of Tucuman, and then at other universities in Latin America, including the Institute of Anthropology and History at Mexico City and the Collegio de Mexico.” Marshall also noted that Métraux had “what has since come to be called a problem of identity—who was he? A Swiss, an Argentine, a 165 Economic and Social Department of the United Nations.8 His findings were to guide each aspect of the Pilot Project. The execution of the project was planned as a cooperative effort between local Haitian government officials, experts and residents, and UNESCO-appointed experts, some of whom were affiliated with other specialized agencies of the United Nations. Some of the Marbial Valley's residents also expressed their enthusiasm and optimism about a Haitian agreement with UNESCO. Describing his visit to the valley in late April 1948, Marshall wrote “there was high excitement in the valley about the UNESCO project. In fact, as we drove in, several people by the roadside shouted, “Viva UNESCO.”9 Marshall and the project team members who escorted him into the valley were also greeted by a reverent welcoming committee. An article in the Haitian periodical Les Griots described the scene: the director of the adult education center, “a peasant leader” named Charitable Cyprien, invited them in from the road to attend the day's graduation. A hundred well-dressed peasants sat under a coconut palm canopy waiting for the UNESCO party to arrive. The Haitian flag was raised Frenchman, and American? He did have an American citizenship.” RFE interview notes from a meeting in John Marshall’s office [with John Bowers] on Alfred Métraux, December 17, 1947, folder 132, box 20, series 100, R6 1.2, Rockefeller Foundation Archives, RAC; John Marshall Oral History, p. 481-3, Interview 13, folder 7, box 1, RG ".13, Rockefeller Foundation Archives, RAC. ° UNESCO, The Haiti Pilot Project, 12; 61-73; The results of the survey prepared by Métraux in collaboration with Mr. Edouard Berrout and Dr. and Mrs. Jean Comhaire-Sylvain were published as “Making a Living in the Marbial Valley,“ Occasional Papers in Education, (Paris: UNESCO, December 7, 1951). 9 John Marshall Oral History, p. 486, Interview 13, folder 7, box 1, RG ".13, Rockefeller Foundation Archives, RAC. 166 atop a bamboo flagpole. The crowd stood and initiated a “moving” rendition of Haiti’s national anthem in Creole. This was followed by a “fete Iittéraire” composed of poetry, short stories, proverbs, saynetes in French and Creole. The celebration honored twenty-one new graduates from the adult education center, which made a total distribution of 73 literacy diplomas from the local center. The day's graduates demonstrated their new skills by reading and explaining randomly selected texts on hygiene. Marshall commended the community members, who displayed their appreciation by offering the UNESCO team cigarettes, mangoes, and coconuts.10 In Marshall’s opinion, “This occasion, and a visit to the nearby school, could leave no doubt of the eagerness of the people for education.”11 Marshall’s visit to the Marbial Valley inspired him to become an advocate for the UNESCO Pilot Project. From his observations, he concluded that the residents had a “sincerity...in wishing to advance themselves, and likewise ...the inadequate opportunity...to do so."12 Marshall's notes and correspondence from his 1948 visit relay the existence of inadequate textbooks, hazardous infrastructure, a minor economy, and life-threatening health conditions in the area. For example, he commented that: “The texts used...under...volunteer teachers were essentially texts for fundamental education, and were...in Creole: but the opportunity for making them more 1° Bonhomme, tr Avec I'UNESCO ». " John Marshall interview notes from a visit to Haiti April 28-30, 1948, p. 2, folder 132, series 100, RG 1.2, Rockefeller Foundation Archives, RAC. ‘2 John Marshall to John Bowers, April 30, 1948, p.1, folder 132, series 100, RG 1.2, Rockefeller Foundation Archives, RAC. 167 effective for the ends of fundamental education was only too patent.”13 In addition to what Marshall observed as some-what practical Creole language materials used by the adults, he noted that children in a local school were “studying a French primer dated 1890". “[A] ten year old girl was reading a passage entitled “The Death of a Philosopher,’ naturally, as questioning showed, with minimal comprehension."14 Marshall also observed the relative isolation and inaccessibility of the valley which he described as: a place reached only by the most rudimentary kind of road, which fords the Marbial River at least five times, and so will be virtually impassable when the river is in flood twice a year during the rainy seasons. Some food can be obtained in the valley, but all building materials, supplies, and the major portion of the food needed will have to be brought in from Jacmel [twelve miles out] or even from Port-au-Prince, which is some four hours distant by motor road from Jacmel over the Selle Mountains.15 Marshall’s 1948 records also describe how poverty and four months of drought threatened Marbial’s residents with starvation: ‘3 John Marshall to John Bowers, April 30, 1948, p.1, folder 132, series 100, R6 1.2, Rockefeller Foundation Archives, RAC. “ John Marshall interview notes from a visit to Haiti April 28-30, p. 1, folder 132, series 100, R6 1.2, Rockefeller Foundation Archives, RAC. ‘5 John Marshall interview notes from a visit to Haiti April 28-30, p. 1, folder 132, series 100, RG 1.2, Rockefeller Foundation Archives, RAC. 166 [T]heir diet consists of a small bowl of cereal night and morning, and fruit through the day. Total family budgets average round five centimes ($.01) a day. Most families have eaten the seed that should have been saved for the crop just now to be planted as the rainy season begins.16 Moreover, Marshall noted evidence of yaws and malaria, diseases studied in 1943 by the Foundation’s International Health Board in nearby Jacmel. Marshall predicted that conditions among the smaller population would be worse. He feared that these could be exacerbated by the absence of irrigation and poor sanitation. As he described it, “There is no water save the trickle of the river which is used for washing, bathing, and drinking; there is no sanitation whatsoever."17 The challenging living conditions of the Marbial'Valley residents led Marshall to concur with the project’s advocates that this area was an ideal site for an experiment in Fundamental Education. Upon his return from Haiti, Marshall wrote to the Acting Head of Fundamental Education, John Bowers. Marshall described the site as “ideal in one sense: you could hardly have found a spot where there is more to do."18 In light of his own reservations about the practicality of working in the Marbial Valley, Marshall concluded that 1° John Marshall interview notes from a visit to Haiti April 28-30, p. 1, folder 132, series 100, RG 1.2, Rockefeller Foundation Archives, RAC. ‘7 John Marshall interview notes from a visit to Haiti April 28-30, p. 1, folder 132, series 100, RG 1.2, Rockefeller Foundation Archives, RAC. 1° John Marshall to John Bowers, May 11, 1948, p.1, folder 132, series 100, R6 1.2, Rockefeller Foundation Archives, RAC. 169 “[f]rom the point of view of what work in fundamental education [could] accomplish” UNESCO had been offered a promising case to study.19 Marshall went so far as to suggest that the Project could be viewed as “essentially an international service” by Haiti. That is, “[flrom the Haitian point of view, it could be stated that Haiti was doing UNESCO a favor in allowing the experiment to take place there”.20 Unfortunately, the very same issues that Marshall pointed to as making the Marbial Valley an ideal site for UNESCO’s Pilot Project in Fundamental Education led to persistent critiques of the valley, in particular, and Haiti, more generally. These concerns resulted in a general feeling of regret about the site selection; weak support, delayed developments and, reoccurring threats to abandon the project. '9 John Marshall interview notes from a visit to Haiti April 28-30, folder 132, series 100, RG 1.2, Rockefeller Foundation Archives, RAC; John Marshall Oral History, p.488, Interview 13, folder 7, box 1, RG ".13, Rockefeller Foundation Archives, RAC. 2° John Marshall to Alfred Métraux, June 11, 1948, folder 133, series 100, RG 1.2, Rockefeller Foundation Archives, RAC. This comment is all the more interesting when one considers the contentious accounts that foreigners have made on how the project began. Jones notes comments from Julian Huxley's memoirs (then-Director-General of UNESCO): “To stress the universal character of Unesco, it was felt that we should have a coloured man on the staff; after some searching we enlisted a Haitian creole schoolmaster. I fear that he proved not to be of much use - except in inducing Unesco to send a mission to his native island to help over its educational system.” Jones also cites comments from a scholarly article that 'a serious misunderstanding had developed as a result of a story in a Port-au-Prince paper alleging that Unesco was prepared to spend $200,000 on the pilot project. The government was therefore cool to the suggestion that Unesco expected it to assume the financial responsibility)” Jones, International Policies, 67. 170 On October 6, 1948, Frederick Rex, UNESCO's Field Representative in Fundamental Education, met with John Marshall in New York and explained his recent recommendation that the Haitian government propose an alternative site for the Pilot Project. In his record of the meeting, Marshall noted that: Rex was convinced...that the situation of the [Marbial] Valley is just about hopeless. He was there during the rains which made the road up the Valley impassable; no potable water is available there; two of the native Haitian staff members of the project had come down with malaria; there were two deaths from starvation in the Valley which Rex himself saw; the restoration of the land for agriculture would involve long-tenn effort; even Public Health work seems dependent on economic improvement; according to Rex there is not even soap for personal cleanliness, so that even recognized therapy for yaws is only temporarily effective. Finally there are no centers of population in the Valley.21 Marshall pressed Rex to address the fact that the Iatter's observations “seemed to indicate an explicit admission on UNESCO’s part that there were people in the tropical belt for whom nothing could be done." Earlier that year, Marshall had acknowledged, in a letter to Bowers, the “little short of desperate” conditions in the Marbial Valley. However, his commitment to the project led him to conclude with caution that work in the valley could 2' John Marshall interview notes from a meeting with Frederick Rex, UNESCO, October 6, 1948, folder 134, series 100, R6 1.2, Rockefeller Foundation Archives, RAC, emphasis mine. 171 “bring...some...relief" to the Haitian people.22 Lamentably, Rex confirmed the seemingly impossible conditions in Haiti. In Rex's opinion, the needs of areas such as Haiti’s Marbial Valley could be effectively met solely through “a massive operation...and one that would begin well below the level of education.” 23 According to a 1988 study Phillip w. Jones, UNESCO’s budget and its plans insufficiently and impracticably addressed those needs. As a young organization, UNESCO was still fleshing out the best approach to meeting its goals. Jones concluded that, “The optimism and enthusiasm for the pilot-project approach stemmed largely from the desire to demonstrate UNESCO's practical relevance, and the na'l'vety of this view was considerable)“ Besides practical matters, Marshall also noted Rex’s concerns that Haiti was not a useful case for addressing poverty in the world. Based on his travels across Latin America for UNESCO, Rex reportedly opined that “virtually all the Latin American countries felt that any demonstration in Haiti would have no effect elsewhere in Latin America. While Haiti is one of the sister republics, it is not regarded as a really integral member of the Pan American group.” Wlthout additional specificity, Marshall noted Rex's comment that such views were “Iargely...because of race differences," but that he also did not expect “work in Haiti [to] have influence in Africa.” 22 John Marshall to John Bowers, May 11, 1948, p.2, folder 133, series 100, RG 1.2, Rockefeller Foundation Archives, RAC, emphasis mine. 23 John Marshall interview notes from a meeting with Frederick Rex, UNESCO, October 6, 1948, folder 134, series 100, RC 1.2, Rockefeller Foundation Archives, RAC. 2‘ Jones, lntemational Policies, 65. 172 Nonetheless, Marshall noted that Rex "took occasion of his trip to point out that the countries of the Western Hemisphere had a common share in Haiti’s present plight and some degree of responsibility for it.” Rex’s perceptiveness to the world’s obligations to Haiti was likely the result of his previous work with the Institute for Inter-American Affairs and the Inter-American Educational Foundation?5 To avoid UNESCO’s abandonment of the FEIPilot Project in the Marbial Valley, Haitians made exhaustive efforts to demonstrate the importance and viability of the site as a development model. Métraux reported the opinions of local residents that extreme and tragic consequences would follow a pre- mature departure by UNESCO from the Valley. He said: “[T]he people of the valley and of the Jacmel region see such hope in what UNESCO may do that...its withdrawal would be followed by suicides, poverty being the principle cause of suicide among the Haitian population.” 26 Métraux saw the UNESCO project as the Marbial residents “only hope.” 27 Moreover, he assessed that “a change [in location] would provoke such reaction as to impair the usefulness of a similar project elsewhere in Haiti.” Métraux’s team members spoke with local peasants who were: ’5 John Marshall interview notes from a meeting with Frederick Rex, UNESCO, October 6, 1948, folder 134, series 100, RG 1.2, Rockefeller Foundation Archives, RAC, emphasis mine; John Marshall to [W.] Freeman [Twadell], December 3, 1948, folder 134, box 20, series 100, R6 1.2, Rockefeller Foundation Archives, RAC. 25 John Marshall interview notes from a visit to Haiti April 28-30, p. 1, folder 132, series 100, RG 1.2, Rockefeller Foundation Archives, RAC. 27 Alfred Métraux to John Marshall, June 8, 1948, Port-au-Prince, folder 133, series 100, R6 1.2, Rockefeller Foundation Archives, RAC. 173 unanimous in stating that if we [UNESCO] pull out serious social consequences will follow. The peasants will lose faith in the city people, the education centers will be abandoned, the cooperative movement based on UNESCO, will collapse and many young people will migrate from the valley to the city. According to Métraux, UNESCO had no choice but to follow-through with its agreement. He said: “UNESCO cannot play with people's feelings and hopes. Marbial was a bad choice, but le vin est tiré, il faut Ie boire.” 28 The Haitian government's field representative, Arthur Bonhomme, promoted the realization of local efforts with great fervor. In June 1948, Métraux remarked that Bonhomme was “doing his best to assure the continuation of the project from local resources if necessary, and quite independent of what UNESCO may go on to do.”29 Bonhomme frequently corresponded with John Marshall, providing him with copies of extensive reports to the UNESCO Secretariat, clippings from Haitian newspapers, and personal observations about what was taking place in the Marbial Valley. Bonhomme’s reports allowed Marshall to relay his appreciation for Haitian efforts to UNESCO. In June 1948, Marshall wrote to UNESCO’s Acting Director-General Walter Laves about the former’s “personal impression. . .that the Haitians are doing about all that they can by way of support for the 2" Alfred Metraux to John Marshall, June 8, 1948, Port-au-Prince, folder 133, series 100, R6 1.2, Rockefeller Foundation Archives, RAC. Emphasis mine. 2° John Marshall interview notes from a meeting with Alfred Métraux, NYC, June 28, 1948, p.1, Port-au-Prince, folder 133, series 100, R6 1.2, Rockefeller Foundation Archives, RAC. 174 Project.”30 These types of messages reinforced Bonhomme's own reports and correspondence to the UNESCO Secretariat)”1 This was important, given Marshall’s impression that Haitian efforts were not “fully appreciated in Paris."32 Beginning in November 1948, Bonhomme extended his efforts. This generated renewed confidence and commitment from UNESCO to the Haiti- based Pilot Project. Métraux reported to Marshall that in response to “the assumption” that UNESCO would abandon the project on December 31“, “Bonhomme...threw himself into the Project with new vigor.” Consequently, “the ‘transitional’ work suddenly began to show,” and international favor for working in the Marbial Valley was rekindled.33 Métraux described the range of progress he observed prior to the arrival of a UN team commissioned by the Haitian Government in July 1948 to study development needs in Haiti. Canteens had been set up for the children: children who were listless suddenly began to be jolly and playful; they cooperated in building a playground, something unknown in the Valley. The 3° John Marshall to Walter Laves, June 24, 1948, p. 3, folder 133, series 100, R6 1.2, Rockefeller Foundation Archives, RAC. 3' For example: Bonhomme to Bowers, 27 November 1948, folder 134, box 20, series 100, RG 1.2, Rockefeller Foundation Archives, RAC. 32 Excerpt of a letter from John Marshall to Hibbert, September 3, 1948, folder 134, series 100, R6 1.2, Rockefeller Foundation Archives, RAC. 3" John Marshall interview notes from a meeting with Alfred Métraux and Yvonne Oddon, NYC, November 3, 1948, p.1, folder 134, series 100, RG 1.2, Rockefeller Foundation Archives, RAC. 175 local cooperatives not only built an excellent road up the Valley, but are prompt in maintaining it: It is now an easy thirty-five minute ride to the station from Jacmel.“4 Additional “success achieved” that “surprised” Métraux included the findings of a Swiss doctor from the UN commission that "children of the Valley showed less malaria, less worms, and less malnutrition than he had expected to find there, and furthermore showed a striking difference between the children who have been fed at the canteens and the others.” Moreover, Métraux's work in the Valley contributed to his “encouraged [sentiment] about the general educational situation in Haiti." Métraux “was deeply impressed by the group of Haitian adult education workers who came to the Valley for a kind of seminar with him. Throughout they were eager to get whatever training he could give them in the methods of inquiry which he had developed in the Valley.” The results of Métraux’s work with these educators would be used to produce “a little book which will be published in Haiti indicating questions which should be asked in this type of rudimentary, anthropological inquiry.”35 3‘ John Marshall interview notes from a meeting with Alfred Métraux and Yvonne Oddon, NYC, November 3, 1948, p.1, folder 134, series 100, RG 1.2, Rockefeller Foundation Archives, RAC. Following the request by the Haitian Government for the United Nations to pursue a Technical Mission Survey in Haiti, Haitian President Durmarsais Estimé and UNESCO's Director-General corresponded with one another regarding the development work required to follow-through with the Marbial Valley Pilot Project. UNESCO, The Haiti Pilot Project, 48. 35 John Marshall interview notes from a meeting with Alfred Métraux and Yvonne Oddon, NYC, November 3, 1948, p.2, folder 134, series 100, RG 1.2, Rockefeller Foundation Archives, RAC. 176 Haitian specialists demonstrated their capacity to make well-needed contributions to the UNESCO project. Alfred Métraux commented positively about two of the three Haitian specialists who worked directly with him. Edouard Berrout was an experienced agronomist who remained on site to recommend and carry-out efforts to stimulate agricultural production in the Marbial Valley. He worked with foreign aid officers to identify seeds and farming techniques that would be viable in the area.“6 The other specialist, Jeanne Sylvain, was a Haitian woman who studied social work in the United States. Métraux praised Sylvain’s “intelligence and...her energy.” His positive impression led him to rely on her to further stimulate the other two trained Haitian specialists in the field and to oriente Yvonne Oddon, a French woman, who would be arriving in July 1948 to work on the literacy arm of the project."7 The Pilot Project also benefited from the support of other Haitian experts who were tangentially affiliated with the Marbial Valley project. Two contributors were Albert Mangones and Francois Duvalier. Mangones was a Haitian architect “who had just returned to Haiti from work with the UN Building Commission” who was identified as able to design a “base camp” for the Pilot Project. Duvalier was affiliated with the Inter-American Sanitary Commission 3" John Marshall to John Bowers, May 11, 1948, p.2, folder 133, series 100, R6 1.2, Rockefeller Foundation Archives, RAC. This appears to be the same Jeanne Sylvain that I mention in the chapter on intellectual cooperation. 37 Alfred Métraux to John Marshall, May 11, 1948, folder 133, series 100, R6 1.2, Rockefeller Foundation Archives, RAC. 177 and traveled to the Valley with Métraux to arrange for an independent yaws clinic. 3" Last but certainly not of least importance, the contributions of local residents led to the project’s advancement. In June 1948, Métraux advised Marshall of the efforts of local residents, particularly the Catholics and Protestants who despite territorial and political feuds formed “cooperatives” to improve the Valley's road .39 One month earlier, religious tensions threatened to politicize the project. At that time, rumors of a ‘riot’ emerged when supporters of the local Catholic priest (Father Louis Charles) demonstrated against the ‘protestant-communist’ members of the Pilot Project team. Louis Charles protested in a local newspaper against the “‘bad elements’ -i.e. [P]rotestants” who were members of the team. Interestingly, Métraux noted that there were but two Protestants on the project team, Bonhomme and Camille, “all the other boys are good [C]atholics.”4o Apparently, the Haitian government’s support of the project squashed these protests. Bonhomme noted that President Estimé refused to have him fired; and, the local police threatened to arrest and prosecute future protesters. The project team members reinforced the official’s stance by threatening to 3" John Marshall to John Bowers, May 11, 1948, p.2, folder 133, series 100, RG 1.2, Rockefeller Foundation Archives, RAC. 39 John Marshall interview notes from a meeting with Alfred Métraux, NYC, June 28, 1948, p.1, Port-au-Prince, folder 133, series 100, RG 1.2, Rockefeller Foundation Archives. RAC. ‘° Alfred Métraux to John Marshall, May 11, 1948, folder 133, series 100, R6 1.2, Rockefeller Foundation Archives, RAC. 178 abandon Marbial as a site for the project should such outbursts continued.41 As Métraux recalled it, he warned “the peasants that if they allowed themselves to be dragged into such silly manifestations, UNESCO would abandon Marbial.”42 According to Bonhomme, things became “tranquil" after these threats; even the priest seemed to be interested in collaborating; and “cordial relations reigned between the priest and the group of investigators)“ As further testimony to this, a report by Bonhomme two weeks later noted his “cordial” visit to Father Louis Charles, with the Director of Rural Education.44 This coming together demonstrated how much local residents valued the UNESCO project. The determined efforts of the Haitian Government, local experts, and community members led to a renewed sense of faith and commitment from UNESCO at the end of 1948 for the FE/Pilot Project in the Marbial Valley. On November 3, 1948, John Marshall noted Alfred Métraux’s report that “on returning to Haiti and seeing what had been done,” Frederick Rex “very happily reverse[d]...himself’ and, ultimately recommended that the Pilot Project in Fundamental Education taking place in the Marbial Valley continue. ‘1 Arthur Bonhomme to John Marshall, June 2, 1948, p. 2, folder133, box 20, series 100, RG 1.2, Rockefeller Foundation Archives, RAC. ‘2 Alfred Métraux to John Marshall, May 11, 1948, folder 133, box 20, series 100, RG 1.2, Rockefeller Foundation Archives, RAC. ‘3 Arthur Bonhomme to John Marshall, June 2, 1948, p. 2, folder133, box 20, series 100, RG 1.2, Rockefeller Foundation Archives, RAC. “ Arthur Bonhomme to John Marshall, June 17, 1948, p. 2, folder 133, box 20, series 100, R6 1.2, Rockefeller Foundation Archives, RAC. 179 ‘5 Métraux also noted his impression of the “virtual certainty” that the UN commission would report that the Marbial Valley project was “essential for Haitian recovery.” 46 And, indeed, in 1949, a United Nations Commission reporting on overall strategies needed for developing Haiti described the Pilot Project as an “integral part of the work recommended in Haiti.”47 This led to a pledge of $13, 500 by UNESCO for the year 1949. Those funds would cover the expenses of employing one grade-15 specialist: Alfred Métraux.”8 Once again, there was foreign support for using Haiti as the site for a model in international development. Marshall noted that Rex was “in general eager to see the Haitian Project become a center for the study of all kinds of tropical problems. Furthermore [Rex] believes that the work done. . .should be of a character and quality to be useful elsewhere and to set standards for the preparation of other materials of the same type.”49 ‘5 John Marshall interview notes from a meeting with Alfred Métraux and Yvonne Oddon, NYC, November 3, 1948, p.1, folder 134, series 100, RG 1.2, Rockefeller Foundation Archives, RAC. ‘6 John Marshall interview notes from a meeting with Alfred Métraux and Yvonne Oddon, NYC, November 3, 1948, p.1, folder 134, series 100, RG 1.2, Rockefeller Foundation Archives, RAC. ‘7 John Marshall interview notes from a meeting with CE. Beeby, UNESCO, December 15, 1948, folder 134, series 100, R6 1.2, Rockefeller Foundation Archives, RAC, emphasis mine. See: United Nations, Mission to Haiti: Report of the United Nations Mission of Technical Assistance to the Republic of Haiti, (Lake Success, NY: 1949). ‘8 John Marshall interview notes from a meeting with CE. Beeby, UNESCO, December 15, 1948, folder 134, series 100, R6 1.2, Rockefeller Foundation Archives, RAC. ‘9 John Marshall interview notes from a meeting with Alfred Métraux and Yvonne Oddon, NYC, November 3, 1948, p.2, folder 134, series 100, RG 1.2, Rockefeller Foundation Archives, RAC. 180 Writing to Métraux on December 23, 1948, after the General Conference, Marshall confirmed that: “[T]he stock of the Haitian project is now high indeed. So far as I know there was no debate whatsoever about UNESCO’s continued interest in it: that was simply taken for granted. Everyone was much impressed with the way that Haitian support had materialized, and likewise impressed with the apparent attitude of the UN Commission toward the work.”50 Through their determination, the Haitian Government, local experts, and community members effectively conveyed their belief that international aid could contribute to a remarkable amelioration in Haitian society. The Central Role of the United States Institutions and individuals from the United States experienced in inter- American efforts targeting Haiti’s development played a central role in the experiment in Haiti’s Marbial Valley. The extent of US. influence in the Pilot Project is evident in an early working plan for the project. The plan drew on program models from the expertise of the Institute for Inter-American Affairs (particularly, its servicio model), the Inter-American Educational Foundation, and the Rockefeller Foundation.51 A number of individuals who worked with 5° John Marshall to Alfred Métraux, December 23, 1948, folder 134, series 100, R6 1.2, Rockefeller Foundation Archives, RAC. 5‘ UNESCO, “Notes for further discussion on the legal orientation for the Pilot Project in Haiti,“ from a meeting held March 9, 1948, folder 132, box 20, series 100, R6 1.2, 181 these institutions, furthermore, lent their expertise directly to the UNESCO project. For example, Frederick Rex offered administrative and operational opinions based on his experiences as a staff member of the Institute of lnter- American Affairs and Inter-American Educational Foundation. There were also contributions to the development of the arts component of the UNESCO project. These came from Glen Lukens, a University of Southern California Ceramics professor who had worked previously with the Inter-American Affairs’ Educational Foundation and De Witt Peters, who established the Centre d’Art in Port-au-Prince following his teaching assignment through I’lnstitut haitiano-amt-Stricain.52 The prominence of US. citizens, institutions, and resources was consistent with UNESCO’s plan that member-states should contribute according to their capacity to provide resources.53 The first financial backer of the Pilot Project was the Viking Fund of New York, which donated $9,000 to facilitate the anthropological survey by Métraux. This grant included $1,500 to support a Haitian assistant to the survey. UNESCO also sought additional Rockefeller Foundation Archives, RAC; John Marshall, “Relations with Governmental and Intergovernmental Agencies," 1951, folder 38, box 3, series 1, John Marshall Papers, RAC. 52 UNESCO, “Fundamental Education Haiti Pilot Project Working Plan,“ (March 12, 1948), folder 132, box 20, series 100, RG 1.2, Rockefeller Foundation Archives, RAC; UNESCO, The Haiti Pilot Project. DeWitt and the Centre d’Art are well known for their contributions to the international promotion of the Haitian arts. 53 Robert Charles Sio, “The United Nations Fundamental, Scientific, and Cultural Organization’s Program in Fundamental Education" (MS. Thesis in Education, New Mexico Western College, July 1951), 100. 182 funds from the Rockefeller Foundation, which eventually donated $10,000 for the development of Creole language materials. 54 As he worked on the language and literacy aspect of the Pilot Project, John Bowers explained to John Marshall that UNESCO sought to make the initiative one of “cooperation (in terms of expert personnel and financial support)” He clarified that UNESCO was unlikely to allocate additional funds to facilitate the desired participation of the American Council of Learned Societies (ACLS).55 The need for financial contributions outside of UNESCO was reinforced when a $400,000 reduction in the organization's overall budget was proposed at its general conference. On December 2, 1948, Marshall noted a proposed $20,000 budget cut for the Haiti project “in the interest of the general economy." Consequently, Marshall recommended that the Rockefeller Foundation extend funds to the project.56 In an effort to address the literacy project’s financial frailty, Foundation officers held conversations with representatives of the ACLS about UNESCO’s budget crunches, further specifying that 80 percent of the overall Pilot Project 5‘ John Marshall interview notes from a visit to Haiti April 28-30, 1948, p. 2, folder 132, series 100, RC 1.2, Rockefeller Foundation Archives, RAC; UNESCO, The Haiti Pilot Project, 53. 55 John Bowers to John Marshall, November 27, 1948, folder 134, series 100, R6 1.2, Rockefeller Foundation Archives, RAC. 5° John Marshall interview notes from the UNESCO General Conference, Beirut, Lebanon, December 2, 1948, folder 134, series 100, RG 1.2, Rockefeller Foundation Archives, RAC. 183 funds were to come from other sources. 57 However, as with most institutions, the ACLS faced its own monetary constraints and similarly was seeking ways of putting its projects onto other institution’s budgets. On December 7, 1948, Charles E. Odegaard met with the Rockefeller foundation and explained that “no funds [would be available] for the Creole project” because “the whole future of the Language Committee” would be “heavily committed to a few projects that could not conceivably get on other budgets." Odegaard further explained that the ACLS had a $21,000 budget. He was, however, planning on “going to the [US] government to urge federal financing of every language project related to national defense.”58 John Bowers also attempted to collaborate with the United States’ federal defense activities. In seeking support for UNESCO’s development projects, Bowers met with a Rockefeller Foundation officer, identified as RSM at the Foundation office. RSM noted that Bowers was: interested in collecting the experience of others in the coordination of economic, medical, political and public health activities. He [Bowers] has recently been in touch with the State Department which is actively planning for carrying out the Truman ideas for developing backward areas [i.e., Point Four Program]. It is hoped that some arrangement may be worked out 57 John Marshall to Twadell Freeman, December 3, 1948, folder 134, series 100, RG 1.2, Rockefeller Foundation Archives, RAC. 5' David H. Stevens interview notes from a meeting with Charles E. Odegaard (whom John Marshall also saw), December 7, 1948, folder 134, series 100, RG 1.2, Rockefeller Foundation Archives, RAC. 184 for coordinating an adequate model since integration between representatives of the various techniques involved occurs only on the highest level if at all. It seems necessary to invent some coordinating body which would work in the field and have the power to draw all interested groups together on the spot.59 Ultimately, Bowers secured additional funds from the Rockefeller Foundation which allocated monies for Professor Robert A. Hall of Cornell University who would be attending a “conference with the officers in Humanities in connection with the language problems of the UNESCO Pilot Project)”50 According to John Marshall, John Bowers’ “central...position [was] that UNESCO...pay for as little of the work as possible.” To do so, BoWers moved towards increasing the obligations of the Haitian Government to supporting the project. Bowers also worked on negotiating agreements with a diverse body of organizations including specialized agencies of the United Nations (Food and Agriculture Organization, the World Health Organization) 59 RSM interview notes from a meeting with John Bowers, March 8, 1949, folder 135, series 100, RG 1.2, Rockefeller Foundation Archives. Claude C. Erb (“Prelude to Point Four: The Institute of Inter-American Affairs," Diplomatic History, 249-269) discusses the ways in which US. President Harry S. Truman's Point Four Program extended and reorganized the mission of the Institute of Inter-American Affairs. In particular, Erb argues that Truman's inaugural pledge in 1949 to make “‘the benefits of our scientific advances and industrial progress available for the improvement and growth of underdeveloped areas' represented a commitment which ultimately made foreign aid a permanent element of [US] national policy. Unlike the Marshall Plan of the previous year, Point Four envisioned a continuing and self- perpetuating global mission." 6° John Marshall memo dated March 1, 1949, folder 135, series 100, R6 1.2, Rockefeller Foundation Archives. 185 and the Inter-American Service of Agricultural Production (SCIPA) to tackle the multiple components of the Fundamental Education project. Marshall saw these efforts as promising a “first”; that is, a “first time” collaboration between the “specialized agencies”.5‘And, according to Phillip Jones' 1988 study of UNESCO, the Pilot Project in Marbial did demonstrate, for the first time, the successful possibilities of field collaboration between specialized agencies of the United Nations. This stood in contrast to the inter-agency tensions that existed at the bureaucratic level.62 Contributions of John Marshall and the Rockefeller Foundation The affiliation of the Rockefeller Foundation with the literacy and language training arm of the FE/Pilot Project illuminates the manner in which the United States provided UNESCO with well-needed funding and access to training, professional networks, and background information about developing Haitian society. John Marshall approached his involvement in the FEIPilot Project by emphasizing the importance of assessing the viability of the project, clarifying the limited contributions the Foundation could make, and defining the terms upon which such assistance would be offered. Prior to confirming the Rockefeller Foundation’s contributions to the project, Marshall conducted interviews and maintained correspondence to 6' John Marshall interview notes from a visit to Haiti, March 3-6, 1949, p. 4-5, folder 135, series 100, R6 1.2, Rockefeller Foundation Archives, RAC. “2 Jones, International Policies. 186 verify the project’s status of affairs. This is evident from Marshall’s diary of events from his April 1948 visit to Haiti. For example, when Marshall met with Haitian President Durmarsais Estimé a few hours after his arrival into Port-au- Prince, their meeting was “exclusively concerned with the UNESCO Pilot Project in Adult Education.” In response to Estimé’s profound interest in the project, Marshall “explained that his visit was of course an evidence of interest on the part of the RF but that until the RF had studied the possibilities of the project there could be no prediction as to what the RF could do to help with its work.” 63 Thus, in addition to gathering evidence for the Foundation, Marshall’s visit allowed him to assert the terms under which the Foundation would provide assistance to the development of a Pilot Project in Haiti. In a letter written to John Bowers, following his first visit to the Marbial Valley, Marshall enthusiastically confirmed his interest and vision for supporting the literacy arm of the Pilot Project. Marshall determined that Yvonne Oddon was “uniquely qualified” to create more effective Creole language textbooks.64 However, due to the Valley’s precarious living conditions, Marshall proposed what he saw as a more practical approach than sending Yvonne Oddon (the French language specialist) directly into the Valley. His plan was that: “3 John Marshall interview notes from a meeting with President Durmarsais Estimé, Port-au-Prince, Haiti, April 28, 1948, folder 132, series 100, RG 1.2, Rockefeller Foundation Archives, RAC. 5‘ John Marshall to John Bowers, April 30, 1948, p.1, folder 132, series 100, RG 1.2, Rockefeller Foundation Archives, RAC. 187 Miss Oddon should at the outset get as much acquaintance as she can with the people of the Valley and their present state. I believe that she can do this by coming to Haiti and making her headquarters at Jacmel.65 Marshall proposed that Miss Oddon pursue living arrangements with Mrs. Remy Bastien, an American woman married to a Haitian specialist on Métraux's team. If Oddon did so: she could go into the Valley frequently for visits during the day, as the condition of the road permitted; and when she could not, she could learn a good deal about its people from the people in Jacmel, who after all, are not so different. As soon as she had acquired a basic knowledge of the situation it might be desirable for her to go up to the United States where she would have better resources and materials for developing materials which might be put into use in the first stage of actual work in the Valley, after the erection of the headquarters building, and after the director has been able to get work under weigh. But again, I must say that I could not be a party to her actually living in the Valley until such time, however willing she might be to do so. 6"” John Marshall to John Bowers, April 30, 1948, p.2, folder 132, series 100, RG 1.2, Rockefeller Foundation Archives, RAC. Marshall gathered information from an unspecified Foundation survey that malaria rates were lower in Jacmel. 188 In lieu of the UNESCO proposal for Foundation funds, Marshall proposed a $7,500 grant-in-aid to provide Oddon with “her salary, living allowances, travel, etc, by UNESCO standards, and some allowance for the preparation of experimental materials for use in the initial stage of the project.”66 The confidence with which Marshall proposed this contribution stemmed from his views that: There should be little question of the value of that work [to be conducted by Miss Oddon], no matter what the future of the [UNESCO Pilot] project. Any materials developed by Miss Oddon could be readily utilized by the Haitian adult education services, to replace patently inferior materials now in use. The opportunity arising from Miss Oddon’s availability and willingness to serve is such as not to be neglected. 67 Marshall’s on-site assessment of the Marbial Valley and his familiarity with the Rockefeller Foundation’s development policies also led him to make more general suggestions to UNESCO administrators on how they should proceed with the Pilot Project. His comments were based on his personal reaction to what he witnessed in the Marbial Valley, as well as the breadth of knowledge he gathered as an officer of the Rockefeller Foundation, in the form of past survey reports and organizational strategies. Marshall's visit also allowed him 6° John Marshall to John Bowers, April 30, 1948, p.2, folder 132, series 100, R6 1.2, Rockefeller Foundation Archives, RAC. “7 John Marshall to John Bowers, April 30, 1948. p.2, folder 132, series 100, RG 1.2, Rockefeller Foundation Archives, RAC. 189 to stress the importance of approaching development work in Haiti by beginning with work that was “more fundamental even than fundamental education.” He emphasized the need to address health issues in the Valley, restoring local agriculture, and improving local infrastructure (i.e., developing roads, buildings, and irrigation).68 Marshall's visit also allowed him to identify the project’s needs for "on-the-spot authority” to more effectively direct the project, handle public relations matters with the local community, and maintain diplomatic ties with the Haitian Government based in Port-au-Prince for the purpose of proper etiquette and gathering profitable advice.69 Marshall’s correspondence with members of the Pilot Project field team indicates that he generated value and respect for his opinions. Following Marshall’s visit to Haiti, Métraux wrote that he knew “of few Americans who...left behind as good a memory as [Marshall, who was] often remembered and praised.”70 Arthur Bonhomme wrote to Marshall directly and provided Marshall with copies of correspondence sent to UNESCO officials on developments in the Marbial Valley. Marshall was advised about road improvements, and the receipt of “peanut” and “chicken corn” seeds from the 6"John Marshall to John Bowers, April 30, 1948, p.1, folder 132, series 100, R6 1.2, Rockefeller Foundation Archives, RAC; John Marshall to John Bowers, May 11, 1948, p.2, folder 133, series 100, R6 1.2, Rockefeller Foundation Archives, RAC. “9 John Marshall to John Bowers, May 11, 1948, folder 133, series 100, RG 1.2, Rockefeller Foundation Archives, RAC. 7° Alfred Métraux to John Marshall, May 11, 1948, folder 133, series 100, RG 1.2, Rockefeller Foundation Archives, RAC. 190 United States that expanded the deteriorating eight-month harvest season of local inhabitants. 7‘ Additional correspondence from Alfred Métraux supplemented Bonhomme’s reports by offering further insight on how project plans were holding up. Comments on the efficacy or inefficacy of particular staff members were common topics of discussion in Métraux’s letters. He complained of team members who deserted the project or carried their responsibilities out inadequately. He enthusiastically praised the dedication and contributions of others. One such accolade was given to Jeanne Sylvain, whom Marshall had apparently referred to Métraux.72 This correspondence allowed Marshall to see the critical importance of his contributions, even when indirect, to the Pilot Project. Through these, Marshall also learned how his attachment to the project helped local residents and project team members to deal with the daily sense of “despair" and discouragement they tended to face. On June 8, 1948, Métraux wrote to Marshall: “Your letter which I found here was the only refreshing note in this period of doubts and uncertainties. I can hardly tell you how grateful I am for your kind words and your personal interest in this undertaking which I have very much to heart.” 73 Similar affirmations were 7‘ Arthur Bonhomme to John Marshall, May 28, 1948, folder 133, series 100, RG 1.2, Rockefeller Foundation Archives, RAC. 72 Alfred Métraux to John Marshall, June 8, 1948, Port-au-Prince, folder 133, series 100, RG 1.2, Rockefeller Foundation Archives, RAC. 73 Alfred Métraux to John Marshall, June 8, 1948, Port-au-Prince, folder 133, series 100, R6 1.2, Rockefeller Foundation Archives, RAC. 191 made by Bonhomme who expressed his appreciation for Marshall’s encouragement, particularly during a period of confusion surrounding the future of UNESCO's commitment to the project.74 In addition to the opinions of John Marshall and the policies of the Rockefeller Foundation, UNESCO gained access to a network of professionals who were positioned to assist in the particular development goal of addressing language and literacy in Haitian society. As previously mentioned, Rockefeller Foundation survey findings contributed to helping program organizers secure a well-researched sense of working conditions in the Valley. Marshall contributed additional information from his contacts at the Foundation by helping Edouard Berrout secure seeds and information on pest control and improving agricultural productivity.75 Also, when the Pilot Project’s team specialists visited the United States, they contacted the Foundation offices and were able to meet with officers with potentially useful insight. For example, When Oddon met with Marshall and Rockefeller officer, GCP on November 3, 1948, GCP advised Oddon that “Metropolitan Life Insurance Company, the [Center for Disease Control] in Atlanta, and other places which are on her line of travel” could be useful for helping the Pilot Project evolve into a center for 7‘ Arthur Bonhomme to John Marshall, September 28, 1948, folder 133, series 100, R6 1.2, Rockefeller Foundation Archives, RAC. 75 John Marshall to Edouard Berrout, January 9, 1949, folder 135, series 100, R6 1.2, Rockefeller Foundation Archives; File note dated September 9, 1949, folder 136, series 100, R6 1.2, Rockefeller Foundation Archives, RAC. 192 research in anthropology, health problems and medicine.76 Meanwhile, a meeting with Marshall and another Foundation officer allowed Oddon to be advised that consulting information used in work with African Americans might be useful.77 Marshall also made use of contacts from outside the Foundation. During his 1948 visit, Marshall established contact with US. public officials such as Campbell, the United States’ Cultural Attache in Port-au-Prince and Muna Lee, OIE. These two men concurred with Marshall’s Observations and ended up supporting the Pilot Project by respectively sponsoring films and lectures.78 The showing of films apparently drew a significant interest among project organizers and community members. On June 28, 1948, Bonhomme shared news clippings with Marshall about educational film sessions hosted in Marbial by the cultural division of the US. Embassy. It was reported that “nearly 500 persons watched with interest films on intestinal worms, irrigation, and nutritional dieting.”79 On September 8, 1948, Bonhomme reported that Yvonne Oddon collaborated with the US. Embassay office to host a manual illustration workshop at the Centre d’Art. As part of this activity, participants 7" GCP's Diary, November 3, 1948, folder 134, series 100, RG 1.2, Rockefeller Foundation Archives, RAC. 77 John Marshall interoffice correspondence with FMC, November 3, 1948, folder 134, series 100, R6 1.2, Rockefeller Foundation Archives, RAC. 7° John Marshall interview notes from a visit to Haiti April 28-30, p. 3, folder 132, series 100, R6 1.2, Rockefeller Foundation Archives, RAC. 7“ “Dans les Montagnes de Marbial,” unidentified newsclip accompanying a letter from Arthur Bonhomme to John Marshall, 28 June 1948, folder 133, box 20, series 100, R6 1.2, RF. ' 193 watched educational Walt Disney films. Bonhomme also noted plans for another U.S. Embassy-sponsored film session in Marbial. This gathering was intended to generate funds for the local canteen and to generate the interest of Jacmeliens to visit Marbial.80 Contacts with US. public offices continued to develop with the project. For example, during Marshall’s 1949 visit, a representative of the State Department’s library division (Miss Josephine C. Fabilli) traveled to Marbial as part of her visit to Haiti.81 The most extensive use of Marshall’s contacts logically related to the Foundation’s agreement to fund the language and literacy arm of’the Pilot Project. John Marshall identified the ACLS as a useful source of linguistic expertise for studying language and literacy in Haiti. It seems that the choice of ACLS stemmed from his previous experience as a former employee of ACLS and his current position as an officer of the Rockefeller Foundation. The Foundation regularly sponsored the ACLS by providing “general support” in the form of regular grants for administrative expenses, fellowships, grants-ln- aid, and special projects.82 Marshall made the connection between the ACLS and the project because he anticipated that the committee might find such °° Bonhomme to Bowers, September 9, 1948, p.4, 6, folder 134, box 20, series 100, RG 1.2, RF. In this letter, Bonhomme also asked Bowers if UNESCO could support the local interest in films by helping the Marbial project team to acquire equipment to present films. 8' John Marshall interview notes from a visit to Haiti, March 3-6, 1949, p. 1, folder 135, series 100, RG 1.2, Rockefeller Foundation Archives, RAC. ’2 John Marshall Oral History, Interview 2, p. 70-3, folder 1, box 1, RG ".13, Rockefeller Foundation Archives, RAC; Interview 3, p. 88, folder 2, box 1, RG ".13, Rockefeller Foundation Archives, RAC. 194 study useful for its own purposes, and because the committee might be interested in making “a direct and useful contribution to UNESCO’s work.” “3 Eager to develop a "world model” for promoting literacy, US. and Haitian experts welcomed the opportunity to study language instruction in Haitian society. The project organizers worked to determine which language was best suited for promoting literacy, an individual’s mother tongue (Haitian Creole) or an auxiliary language (French). There was favor for both approaches; however, developing the use of Creole garnered the most suppon. Supporters of Creole-focused activities emphasized the critical need for a “scientific” study of Haitian Creole. In November 1948, Alfred Métraux prepared a memo on recent studies in Creole languages; and, the need to include Haiti into this scholarly pursuit. Métraux drew attention to the fact that Robert Hall (a linguist at Cornell University) recently published “an excellent study of the Negro Creole of Dutch Guiana.” He also mentioned that there was another study on the French Creole from Dominica, “but no attempt has been made to analyze the Haitian Creole spoken by 4,000,000 people.”84 The strongest arguments in favor of studying Haitian Creole however, were in response to debates about the legitimacy of Haitian Creole as an instructional language. The controversy surrounding literacy projects using “3 John Marshall to Twadell Freeman, December 3, 1948, folder 134, series 100, RG 1.2, Rockefeller Foundation Archives, RAC. °‘ Memorandum from Alfred Métraux to John Marshall, November 8, 1948, 1-2, folder 134, series 100, R6 1.2, Rockefeller Foundation Archives, RAC. Métraux refers to “Taylor“ as the author of the second study. 195 Haitian Creole pertained to the religious and political biases of elite Haitians and Haiti’s Catholic clergy. Among this population, there were critics who argued against the Haitian government's recognition of the methods of Dr. Franck Laubach, an international phoneticist, for promoting literacy in Haiti. These critics viewed the Laubach method as an imperialist tool of Protestants and the United States government.85 W. F. Twadell, an ACLS linguist consulting on the project, responded to this threat of opposition, by stating: “The American imperialism label is a danger....that suggests that UNESCO is a safer sponsoring agency than any specifically American Council or Foundation.”86 The Marbial Valley project’s focus of Creole studies was an attempt to address the legitimacy of using the Laubach method as a preferred orthography. Métraux and Rex concurred that it was “necessary to undertake a serious phonetic and phonemic analysis of Creole and to propose a system of transcription which might be even simpler than the one established by Mr. Laubach.” Métraux proposed that “[a] system recommended by a trained linguist would have the advantage of settling once and for all the dispute about the scientific character of the system and of putting the whole problem on an “5 Memorandum from Alfred Métraux to John Marshall, November 8, 1948, folder 134, series 100, R6 1.2, Rockefeller Foundation Archives, RAC; The history and controversy surrounding Haitian Creole orthography is discussed in Bambi B. Schieffelin and Rachelle Charlier Doucet, “The 'Real' Haitian Creole: Ideology, Metalinguistics, and Orthographic Choice,” Bambi B. Schieffelin, Kathryn A. Woolard, and Paul V. Kroskrity, eds, Language and Ideologies: Practice and Theory, New York: Oxford University Press, 1998, 285-316. 3° W.F.Twadell to Alfred Métraux, attached to a letter from Twadell to John Marshall November 15, 1948, folder 134, series 100, R6 1.2, Rockefeller Foundation Archives, RAC. 196 objective basis without the stint of a religious bias.” He concluded that, “Scientifically it is of importance to study the phonetics of Creole.”87 Aside from a preoccupation with Haitian Creole, the linguists involved with the project also wanted to address the existence of French in Haitian society. For example, even when working to define the Creole project’s criteria, Twadell stated that “a good spelling of Haitian Creole ought to place as few obstacles as possible in the way of a transition to conventional French.”88 Another linguist closely affiliated with the project, I.A. Richards, was eager to pursue direct instruction of French in the Marbial Valley. In mid- November 1948, Richards spoke with Yvonne Oddon about a trial teaching project that diverted from the Laubach method.89 Later that month, Richards corresponded with John Marshall about his vision of using the Marbial project as a site for disproving the idea that “it is better to teach reading via the mother tongue”. Richards said, “I would like a chance to prove it wrong prominently. It is badly misleading the world, I think, at present”.90 “7 Memorandum from Alfred Métraux to JIVI, November 8, 1948, folder 134, series 100, RG 1.2, Rockefeller Foundation Archives, RAC. In the end, Hall reported that the Laubach method was sound. See, UNESCO, The Haiti Pilot Project. The on-going debates are discussed in Schieffelin, et. Al, “The ‘Real' Haitian Creole,” 303-305. 3° Marshall quotes Twadell in a letter to Bowers, January 3, 1949, folder 135, box 20, series 100, RG 1.2, Rockefeller Foundation Archives, RAC. ’9 l.A.Richards to John Marshall, November 18, 1948, folder 134, box 20, series 100, RG 1.2, Rockefeller Foundation Archives, RAC. 9° Correspondence between l.A.Richards, John Marshall, and Alfred Métraux, November 28, 1948, folder 134, box 20, series 100, RG 1.2, Rockefeller Foundation Archives, RAC. 197 Richards found support for his ideas about challenging conventional theories about language and literacy; however, the UNESCO staff kept efforts to promote literacy in French secondary to developing materials in Haitian Creole. Métraux, Bonhomme, and Rex concurred with Richards. However, in his report to the United Nations, Rex planned to note that alongside the possibility of such experimentation there was a need “to develop special methods and techniques for passing from Creole to French) 91 Given the “deep political controversies involved,” John Bowers stressed his preference for maintaining the distinction between a project that prepared “sample materials in Creole” and one that was concerned with “teaching French direct." Moreover, he commented that his “own inclination on a short acquaintance with Haiti is to go for the teaching of Creole first and possibly develop the teaching of French from Creole as a second thing, at a later stage.”92 Despite his preferences for working with French, Richards led the training and material preparation activities for Creole-based instruction in the Marbial Valley. In late 1948, Yvonne Oddon continued her training with Richards. Oddon and Richards also began making plans for the Haitian artist 9‘ l.A.Richards to John Marshall, November 28, 1948, folder 134, box 20, series 100, R6 1.2, Rockefeller Foundation Archives, RAC. 92 Bowers to John Marshall, December 2, 1948, folder 134, series 100, RG 1.2, Rockefeller Foundation Archives, RAC. Bowers also advised Marshall that at one point UNESCO administrators “considered the possibility of a comparative experiment teaching Creole in one selected area and French direct in another. This was decided against as being too much like the human guinea pig project and also as raising complicated rivalries.” 198 George Remponeau to travel to the States for manual illustration training.93 On April 25, 1949, John Marshall received a letter from Emmanuel Gabriel, a Haitian delegate to UNESCO working on the literacy project. Gabriel wrote to Marshall to advise him of the “very creative and exciting” work he was conducting alongside Christine Gibson and other individuals affiliated with an unidentified research center at Harvard University)“ Richards also wrote to Marshall saying: “Gabriel is doing beautiful work. Yesterday we pretty well wrote a Primer for the illiterate’s entry into Creole.” Richards hope it would be a “world model."95 By August 1950, Emmanuel Gabriel was able to fonlvard John Marshall copies of teaching materials prepared for the Haiti literacy project. Three sample Creole language reading instruction books remain in Marshall’s files.96 Keeping in contact with Marshall allowed Gabriel to solicit additional funds from the Rockefeller Foundation to assist with the project, particularly the distribution costs of the teaching materials.97 93 l.A.Richards to John Marshall, November 18, 1948, folder 134, box 20, series 100, R6 1.2, Rockefeller Foundation Archives, RAC. 9‘ Emmanuel Gabriel to John Marshall, April 25, 1949, folder 136, box 20, series 100, R6 1.2, Rockefeller Foundation Archives, RAC. 95 Excerpt from letter, I.A. Richards to John Marshall, May 16, 1949, folder 135, box 20, series 100, R6 1.2, Rockefeller Foundation Archives, RAC. “6 Gabriel and Ella Griffin are listed as co-authors of the primers prepared “dapre meted dokte I.A. Richa.” The illustrations are attributed to George Remponeau. Sample primers can be found in a folder 137 (entitled “Supplemental Materials,” 1950), box 20, series 100, RG 1.2, Rockefeller Foundation Archives, RAC. 97 Letter from Emmanuel Gabriel, April 25, 1949, folder 136, series 100, RG 1.2, Rockefeller Foundation Archives; Emmanuel Gabriel to John Marshall, August 16, 1950, folder 136, series 100, RG 1.2, Rockefeller Foundation Archives. 199 Emmanuel Gabriel’s participation in the project reflects the organizers’ interest in working with native Haitian Creole speakers. When John Marshall was in Haiti in April 1948, he noted that “competent writers of Créole can readily be found in the US, particularly through the Haitian consul in New York.”98 In early November 1948, Métraux noted that working with Haitians based in the United States could help defray the costs of the study. He wrote to Marshall, “A study of Creole phonetics would not entail the expense of travel to Haiti. There are a great many Haitians living in New York and it would be an easy matter to use them as informants. Dialectical differences are slight. They should be disregarded if we want to keep in view the practical matter of the system.”99 Later that month, Twadell reported to Métraux that Robert Hall, who became the expert linguist on the project, had already begun gaining familiarity with Creole “with a cultivated Haitian in Ithaca."100 Twadell anticipated that after carrying out a grammatical (rather than phonetic) analysis of Haitian Creole several weeks would be spent testing the results out on “some good laboratory animals.”101 He assumed these would be “well- 9° John Marshall interview notes from a visit to Haiti April 28-30, p. 4, folder 132, box 20, series 100, RG 1.2, Rockefeller Foundation Archives, RAC. “9 Memorandum from Alfred Métraux to John Marshall, November 8, 1948, folder 134, box 20, series 100, RG 1.2, Rockefeller Foundation Archives, RAC. 1°° There is no indication of who this “cultivated Haitian" was. John Marshall to [W.] Freeman [Twadell], December 3, 1948, folder 134, box 20, series 100, RG 1.2, Rockefeller Foundation Archives, RAC; Twadell to Alfred Métraux, December 21, 1948, folder 134, series 100, RG 1.2, Rockefeller Foundation Archives, RAC. '°‘ Twadell to John Marshall, December 21, 1948, folder 134, box 20, series 100, RG 1.2, Rockefeller Foundation Archives, RAC. 200 informed native speaker[s]" who would also assist in “the construction of actual reading materials)”2 The Demise of the UNESCO/Haiti Pilot Project Unfortunately, individuals invested in the Haiti/Pilot Project were not able to sustain its gradual move toward visible outcomes. During the spring of 1949, John Marshall received positive news about developments with the language and literacy project from Richards and Gabriel. By September 1949, UNESCO and the Haitian government finally signed a formal agreement for the Pilot Project, despite having worked in the Marbial Valley on project- related activities for nearly two years. This agreement coincided with the publication of the United Nations’ Mission to Haiti Report, documenting what was necessary for developing Haitian society. However, in that same month, there was a controversial shift in authority over the project that seems to have ultimately undermined the signed agreement. In March 1950, nearly six months after the “working phase" of the Pilot Project was formally initiated, UNESCO’s field representatives Alfred Métraux alongside a newly-appointed director, C.J. Opper explained to John Marshall the reasons why the Haiti/Pilot Project could not “be effectively carried on” and 1°“ Twadell to Alfred Métraux, December 21, 1948 folder 134, series 100, RG 1.2, Rockefeller Foundation Archives, RAC. 201 why they would both state this in “no uncertain terms)”3 In particular, Métraux explained that the major obstacles to the Pilot Project‘s success to “difficulties involved in relations with the Haitian government”, namely its field representative Arthur Bonhomme. 1°” The challenge pertained to the task of disassociating Arthur Bonhomme with the UNESCO project. Bonhomme, who had previously generated great praise for his contributions to the Pilot Project, was now described by Métraux as being at the center of a "score of difficulties with the Haitian government)”5 In Bonhomme’s opinion, the problems began with the arrival of the first director of the Pilot Project appointed by UNESCO, Mr. Ballestros. Upon the arrival of Ballestros, Arthur Bonhomme began to lose authority over the project and respect in the eyes of foreign aidofficials. In a letter to Marshall, Bonhomme explained that Ballestros contradicted the existing policies governing the project and refused to cooperate. Apparently, John Bowers eventually asked Bonhomme to resign from the project despite Bonhomme’s protests that it was Ballestros that “should be relieved of his post) Bonhomme's conclusion was that it was “all a plot aimed against me by all these people [in the Marbial Valley] because of the religious question.” The issue of contention which rose in May 1948 resurfaced once more; and, '°3 John Marshall interview notes from a meeting with Alfred Métraux, March 6, 1950, folder 136, series 100, RG 1.2, Rockefeller Foundation Archives, RAC. ‘°‘ John Marshall interview notes from a meeting with Alfred Métraux, March 6, 1950, folder 136, series 100, RG 1.2, Rockefeller Foundation Archives, RAC; John Marshall interview notes from a meeting with Mr. and Mrs. Alfred Métraux, October 5, 1951, subfolder entitled “January-June 1951, folder 29, series 1, John Marshall Papers, RAC. 1°5 John Marshall interview notes from a meeting with Alfred Métraux, March 6, 1950, p.1, folder 136, box 20, series 100, R6 1.2, Rockefeller Foundation Archives, RAC. 202 Bonhomme thought it was “unfortunate” that “Mr. Bowers is getting himself mixed up in it and wishes to embroil UNESCO in it.”106 Alfred Métraux confirmed the criticism against Bonhomme by reporting to Marshall, in March 1950, that despite Bonhomme’s suspension from his civil service post and the termination of his place on the project team, he continued to be involved with the project’s affairs. Part of the problem lay in the fact that, “neither the [Haitian] Ministry of Education nor the President is prepared to make a public announcement that [Bonhomme’s] connection with the project has ended.” This seems to affirm the important place Bonhomme occupied, at least in the community’s view, with the project. Moreover, Métraux explained that there were concerns that Bonhomme arranged through the Haitian Ministry of Labor to independently guide “a small mission from the information section of UN” through the valley. The mission traveled to Haiti “to photograph and make sound recordings of the project for use in UN information services." Métraux described how Bonhomme “arranged all kinds of project activities to be photographed—when in fact nothing had been going on in the Valley for some months.” Finally, Métraux lamented the fact that although “Bonhomme ' had been clearly instructed to terminate all operations in September, 1949, Bonhomme presented the second director appointed by UNESCO, Opper, (upon his arrival) with bills for work done since September, fees in the amount of $4,000 and then later up to $5,000. This involved the project with the 1°“ Arthur Bonhomme to Marshall, September 8, 1949, folder 136, box 20, series 100, R6 1.2, Rockefeller Foundation Archives, RAC. 203 Ministry of Labor, which under Haitian law takes over such cases)”7 Given the synergy that previously existed between Métraux and Bonhomme, and the praise Bonhomme had generated for his contributions, this mounting tension about Bonhomme’s involvement with the Pilot Project points to the failure of the Haitian government and UNESCO to facilitate a smooth transition between the survey and the working phase of the Pilot Project. In addition to his concerns about the Bonhomme and the Haitian government, Métraux also shared his critiques about UNESCO’s operational inefficacy with John Marshall. During their meeting in March 1950 and later in October 1951, Métraux lamented “the almost complete lack of proper administration in the Fundamental Education section of the UNESCO Secretariat,” and the "inequities” of United Nations Technical Assistance missions.108 Métraux’s critiques about the administrative inefficacy of the Fundamental Education section of UNESCO were characteristic of observations John Marshall made in 1948 about how poor communication between the Secretariat and the field frustrated field team members. This was echoed when Métraux complained in 1950 about how UNESCO sent “without 107John Marshall interview notes from a meeting with Alfred Métraux, March 6, 1950, p.1, folder 136, box 20, series 100, RG 1.2, Rockefeller Foundation Archives, RAC. 1°“ John Marshall interview notes from a meeting with Alfred Métraux, March 6, 1950, folder 136, series 100, R6 1.2, Rockefeller Foundation Archives, RAC; John Marshall interview notes from a meeting with Mr. and Mrs. Alfred Métraux, October 5, 1951, subfolder entitled “January-June 1951, folder 29, series 1, John Marshall Papers, RAC. 204 warning (the letters arrived later) an elderly American lady who was to make up science kits for children in the [Marbial] Valleyl” 1°“ Métraux’s critiques of development missions carried out by the United Nations (UN) and its specialized agencies became harsher after serving as part of a “UN mission to evaluate accomplishments of UN Technical Assistance” in Bolivia. From this experience, Métraux made general comments about the difficulties of succeeding in international aid missions world-wide, including in Haiti. Métraux criticized the “inequities of such work.” First, he protested the expenditure of monies particularly on the “salaries, traveling allowances, living allowances, etc. of ‘experts’” as compared to “how little is actually spent in the countries themselves.” Wider knowledge of these disparities, in Métraux’s opinion, could lead to “a scandal.” Second, Métraux called attention to the so-called expertise of individuals sent to provide technical assistance. In Métraux’s observation,”not only in Bolivia, very, very few of the experts sent are in any real degree effective: they simply find it impossible to adapt their theoretical knowledge to local conditions.” Third, Métraux noted that the payments received by and standard of living maintained by “experts” were “so completely out of scale with the standards of the countries they work in as to cause real discontent there: seeing the relative opulence of these experts, qualified Bolivians instead of wishing to work at home, are eagerly seeking opportunities to work abroad where they might 109John Marshall interview notes from a meeting with Alfred Métraux, March 6, 1950, p.2, folder 136, box 20, series 100, RG 1.2, Rockefeller Foundation Archives, RAC. 205 receive similar remuneration.”11o Métraux’s observations suggest that if international organizations wanted to provide true assistance to developing communities, they should have invested a greater amount of funds into the countries where projects were taking place. Métraux also stressed the importance of creating incentives to ensure that natives receive globally competitive standards of remuneration for their efforts. And, he saw a need for training foreign experts to make sacrifices and be sensitive to conditions in the project area. By October 1951, Métraux added that UNESCO’s failure to contribute to the success of the Pilot Project had to do with its lackadaisical commitment to working in Haiti. Even after the arduous task of getting UNESCO to carry- through with the survey work and sign an agreement for the Pilot Project in Haiti, UNESCO did not maintain diligence in fulfilling its obligations. Métraux commented that he had to “virtually force” UNESCO to publish the “study of the economic and social organization of the Marbial Valley...by pointing out that the work had been done with the help of a $9,000 grant from the Viking Fund which definitely anticipated publication.”111 The lack of interest on the part of UNESCO for publishing the survey findings indicates that it abandoned its commitment to producing a survey that promised to offer a plan for 11° John Marshall interview notes from a meeting with Alfred Métraux, March 6, 1950, p. 1, folder 136, box 20, series 100, R6 1.2, Rockefeller Foundation Archives, RAC. "1 John Marshall interview notes from a meeting with Mr. and Mrs. Alfred Métraux, October 5, 1951, subfolder entitled “January-June 1951”, folder 29, series 1, John Marshall Papers, RAC; Métraux, Bonhomme, and Comhaire-Sylvain, “Making a Living in the Marbial Valley". 206 educational work in Haiti, and providing “a yardstick against which to measure the subsequent progress of the Project”; and, “[s]erve as a prototype for other Projects...in other parts of the world.”112 Indeed, in his study on UNESCO, Phillip W. Jones notes the absence of any evaluation reports on the Marbial Valley Pilot Project.113 UNESCO clearly stated in its working proposal for the project, that a Iong-tenn commitment (described as a minimum of five years) was the only means of ensuring the Pilot Project’s success.114 Therefore, when UNESCO failed to preserve its own standards about the meaning of Iong-tenn commitment it conceded a poor outcome in Haiti. This unsteady commitment from UNESCO reflected a general shift in UNESCO’s strategy for development work. In the early 19505, UNESCO began to pour its energy for fundamental education activities into the establishment of a Fundamental Clearing House and the support of “associated projects.” Thus, as early as 1953, the work in Haiti became an “associated project.” The Haitian government was, therefore, primarily responsible for the financial and administrative duties related to the project. This alleviated the responsibility of wealthy member-states for providing UNESCO with a majority of its resources. It also limited the amount of support UNESCO’s Fundamental Education Clearing House would be obligated to supply to the dissemination of popular innovations in the field of education. "2 UNESCO, The Haiti Pilot Project, 62 "3 Jones, International Policies, 71. "‘ UNESCO, “Notes for further discussion on the legal orientation for the Pilot Project in Haiti,“ from a meeting held March 9, 1948, folder 132, box 20, series 100, RG 1.2, Rockefeller Foundation Archives, RAC. 207 UNESCO administrators argued that this approach was more practical than the Pilot Project approach.115 From the beginning, then, an array of factors threatened to undermine the original vision of the project’s organizers: that Haiti could serve as a model for international development. In Haiti, there was a daunting amount of the work to be accomplished. Geographic, social, cultural, economic, and political conditions in Haiti created persistent obstacles and fueled skepticism. As a newly-established organization, UNESCO also had a difficult time pursuing its goals. Poor communication between the UNESCO Secretariat and its field representatives or the specialized-agencies of the United Nations it sought to collaborate with created obstacles to progressing with the project. The UNESCO Secretariat was also inconsistent with regard to clearly identifying its expectations about the relationship, particularly leadership roles, between its field representatives and the Haitian government’s field representatives. Other indications of how the pilot project’s success was hindered by weaknesses in the UNESCO Secretariat include the organization's overall inexperience as a development agency and its failure to maintain a steady commitment to the "5 Jones, International Policies, 71. John Bowers, Acting Head of the Fundamental Education Division gave an early indication that UNESCO executives were interested in altering their approach to projects in fundamental education in a letter to the Rockefeller Foundation's Humanities officer, John Marshall. In a letter dated July 22, 1948, Bowers noted that the operative role that UNESCO had taken on in Haiti “put a disproportionate burden on our small staff.” Although Bowers noted that UNESCO “must carry this baby and make sure it grows good and strong," he also noted that they were “thinking of gradual reorientation of the Pilot Project idea.” Letter located in folder 133, box 20, series 100, RG 1.2, Rockefeller Foundation Archives, RAC. 208 plans it set forth. Finally, it is important to consider that Haitians and foreigners may have, respectively, over- and under-estimated the other’s capacity to successfully alter Haitian society. Conclusion After visiting the Marbial Valley in 1956 (six-years after the end of his assignment), Alfred Métraux informed John Marshall that the Haiti/Pilot Project “had virtually no effect. The conditions of life of the Valley have hardly altered and the project itself is virtually defunct.”116 The only evidence that the Marbial Valley Pilot Project produced anything resides in three adult primers in Haitian Creole, a field survey, and a body of ethnographic publications produced by individuals affiliated with the Pilot Project.117 These outcomes reflect the ways "6 John Marshall interview notes from a meeting with Mr. and Mrs. Alfred Métraux, October 5, 1951, subfolder entitled “January-June 1951,” folder 29, series 1, John Marshall Papers, RAC. “7 John Marshall officer diary, March 5, 1956, R6 12.2, Rockefeller Foundation Archives, RAC. In her 1991 dissertation, Aline Bory-Adams wrote: “Modern day visitors to Marbial would be hard pressed to find any signs of a one-time UNESCO presence in the Valley) See: Bory-Adams, “Educational Policies for development in the Caribbean: An analysis of UNESCO's role and contribution to educational development in Haiti,” (Ph.D. thesis, Florida State University, 1991), 122. Indeed, Métraux and several other individuals affiliated with the UNESCO/Haiti Pilot Project in the Marbial Valley produced a body of literature that includes classic references on Vodou, Creole, and rural social structures in Haitian society. Between 1951 and 1960, Métraux published several books from evidence gathered during his time in the Marbial: Alfred Métraux, Voodoo in Haiti (New York: Schocken Books, 1959); L’habitation paysanne en Haiti (Neuchatel, 1949-1951); Medecine at vodou en Halti (Basel: Verlag fur Recht und Gesellschaft, 1953). See also Remy Bastien and Harold 209 in which UNESCO’s Project in Fundamental Education served to secure unique places for Haiti and the United States in international affairs. When the project began, organizers anticipated that the Marbial Valley would serve as a model for development, and the United States would serve as a leading partner in international collaboration for development. By the time support for the Haiti Pilot Project floundered, however, Haiti’s place as an underdeveloped nation had been reinforced, while the place of the US. as a leading source of technical knowledge and financial resources had remained unchanged. While the UNESCO/Haiti Pilot Project helped to cement the view that things in Haiti were “hopeless;” it did not tarnish the image of the United States as an auspicious resource. With the demise of the UNESCO/Haiti Pilot Project, Haitian residents and experts lamented the fact that their dedication and contributions did not result in long-term support for the activities they initiated. Still, they did not relinquish their vision that international ties could help them fulfill their goals. Courlander, Religion and Politics in Haiti (Washington, Institute for Cross-Cultural Research, 1966); Robert Anderson Hall, Haitian Creole: Grammar, Texts, Vocabulary (Philadelphia: American Folklore Society, 1953); Rhoda Bubendey Métraux, Kith and Kin: A Study of Creole Social Structure in Marbial, Haiti (Ann Arbor: University Microfilms, 1951). 210 CONCLUSION Between 1944 and 1971, Nelson A. Rockefeller, John Marshall, and other individuals affiliated with Rockefeller-led institutions working in Haiti received at least sixty-six petitions for assistance related to matters beyond the scope of their original missions in Haiti. The petitioners were primarily Haitian and US. citizens who relayed their concerns via written correspondence or during face-to-face meetings. Twenty-three of the petitions were for projects intended to address matters concerning Haiti as a nation, in areas as diverse as providing hurricane relief and developing Haiti's art industry. Thirty-eight of the petitions were on behalf of individual Haitians or entire families seeking personal gains such as employment, education, and healthcare. Of those personal petitions, five amounted to a search for refuge or a temporary escape. In this conclusion, I examine a select number of these petitions as a way of retracing the arguments of each of my chapters. As a group, the petitions illustrate the main argument of this dissertation that, during the two decades following the US. military occupation of Haiti, individuals and institutions from the United States became increasingly affiliated with hope for developing the Haitian nation and attaining personal goals. Post-occupation petitions from Haitian and US. citizens, and the occasionally favorable responses from those granting assistance, point to the ways in which the United States secured a central place in visions for Haitian progress. This occurred in spite of on-going critiques in Haiti and the United States about the motivations and impact of US. involvement in Haitian affairs. 211 Thus, alongside programs organized by public and private institutions, individual or community-based initiatives helped a culture of regional alliance and cooperation in the Americas to mature. Inter-American cooperation facilitated travel between the two countries and stimulated interactions among the countries’ citizens. Altogether, each of these initiatives and encounters laid the foundation for profound population movements and international ties beyond those originally envisioned by the Haitian or US. coordinators of formal institutional programs. A petition from Mr. Gerard deCatalogne to Nelson A. Rockefeller, for the relief of victims of Hurricane Hazel in Haiti highlights the ongoing significance of the ideals of Pan-American cooperation I examined in Chapter One. The 1954 hurricane “left 100,000 people homeless and...virtually destroyed the food crops in the southern quarter of the island on which one million people were dependent for subsistence.” On November 9, 1954, members of Nelson A. Rockefeller’s office staff exchanged correspondence in response to “a request presented orally by Mr. Gerard deCatalogne, on behalf of a committee of Americans” who were trying to raise funds to complement the US. government’s allocation of “some $2,000,000 worth of foodstuffs”, “free transportation for clothing and foodstuffs” from the Pan American and Alcoa Steamship Company, donations being funneled through the American Red Cross, and $100,000 raised by the Haitian Chamber of Commerce. The relief committee appears to have been a private group of individuals. The committee was “headed by Mr. Frederick Hasler...associated with the Chemical Bank and ...President of the Haitian-American Association.” 212 Hasler sent out membership invitations to numerous individuals including Thomas Watson, James Farley, and Cardinal Spellman. Spellman accepted the invitation and was the donor of $10,000 of the committee’s $50,000 raised funds. DeCatalogne’s petition came as the result of a request by Haitian President MagIoire who was eager to secure Rockefeller’s interest and support for the relief efforts emerging in the United States. DeCatalogne was the Cultural Attache to the Embassy of Haiti and Director of the Haiti Government Tourist Bureau. He also identified himself as a journalist who knew Rockefeller during his tenure as Coordinator of Inter-American Affairs. In response to deCatalogne’s request, Robert C. Bates advised Rockefeller: [I]n this kind of situation the act of giving is more important than the amount. If NAR by reason of past association with Haiti and with Catalogne is disposed to contribute $2,000—$5,000, that would be a nice thing and a real gesture of friendship....Whatever contributions are obtained [in Haiti] can be put to good use and will be appreciated as gestures of international friendship in time of trouble. In this respect they have an importance transcending their total direct impact on the sfiuafion) 1 Inter-office memorandum from Robert C. Bates to Nelson A. Rockefeller, Attn. Mrs. Vera B. Goeller, November 9, 1954, folder 300, series Countries, Record Group III 4, Nelson A. Rockefeller Papers, RAC. 213 This exchange reflects the evolution and application of Haitian expectations about the moral and practical dimensions of Haiti-US. relations during the post-occupation period. As I discussed in Chapter One, these expectations were rooted in the political ideology of Pan-Americanism and the concept of inter-American cooperation. Public officials and intellectuals from Haiti who wrote about and lobbied on behalf of these two ideals diligently worked to promote common-knowledge about their historical memory of Haiti as Ie berceau du panaméricanisme. These individuals, who I referred to as Haitian Pan-Americanists, presented classic moments in Haitian history to document the aid that Haiti’s ancestors extended to North and South American struggles against slavery and colonialism. Haitian Pan-Americanists articulated their understanding that the assistance they offered laid the foundation for each of the Americas” independent republics. Moreover, they used that historical memory to express their sense of long-overdue entitlement to moral and practical support from their hemispheric neighbors for actual nation-building. As Coordinator of Inter-American Affairs, Nelson A. Rockefeller, and the institutions and activities that emerged out of his office, were highly visible to Haiti’s Pan-Americanists. Rockefeller and his affiliates became all the more prominent in Haiti as Haitian Pan-Americanists successfully engaged the participation of a broad spectrum of urban Haitians in the campaign for inter- American cooperation. As a result of this campaign, Haitian and US. citizens gradually forged more intimate relations through official tours, the celebration of Pan-American holidays and figures, and the organization of events by and 214 for women, children, diplomats, and professionals. The ideals of inter- American relations inspired individuals to be cooperative rather than coercive and antagonistic in their exchanges, as was more commonly the case during the period of occupation. In Chapter Two, I discussed the efforts of Haitian public officials and intellectuals to promote intellectual cooperation between Haiti and the United States as a means of improving Haiti’s bureaucracies and civil society. During the post-occupation period, Haitians increasingly valued the English language, as well as ideas and scientific methods from the United States. These developments were rooted in interventions that began during the US. military occupation, in areas of military training, agricultural education, and public health work. After 1934, they were nurtured by a reform campaign led by Maurice Dartigue, a Haitian public administrator who was trained by occupation officials, and by U.S.-based institutions sponsoring programs that fulfilled the terms of inter-American agreements on cultural cooperation. Haitians advocating participation in these programs saw this form of cooperation as a viable means of counterbalancing—or for some, promoting— Haiti's French intellectual traditions. Overall, the idea was that through intellectual ties to the United States, Haitians could acquire the resources for establishing for themselves a well-respected place, intellectually and culturally, in modern civilization. Intellectual cooperation with the United States offered Haitians opportunities for improving public health conditions and literacy rates in Haiti. It made the establishment of new educational institutions such as a School of 215 Social Work possible. It increased the feasibility and necessity of Ieaming the English language. And, it exposed a broad range of Haitians to intellectual and cultural traditions from the United States. Consequently, studying under the tutelage of US. “experts” in Haiti or abroad served to privilege a new group of foreigners, their institutions and their ideas as sources of improvement for Haitians. The tension between the possibilities and dangers of turning to the US. shaped the projects of figures like Dartigue, as they debated the most effective ways of training a cadre of professionals that would remain focused on national improvement and of educating a larger public that would be engaged in civic affairs. Gradually, a number of private citizens began to accept that the foreign resources that public officials and intellectuals promoted as being beneficial for the nation could also help with fulfilling personal aspirations. Starting in the 1940s, individuals at the Rockefeller offices received correspondence from many Haitians pursuing (independent of formal processes and missions) assistance with entering educational and professional training programs in the United States. In 1947, Dr. Moliere Civil wrote to the foundation seeking opportunities for his son. The Rockefeller Foundation had given a fellowship to Dr. Civil, which enabled him to study in Lyon, France in 1930. When he wrote, he introduced himself as an “old friend” of the Foundation. Dr. Civil’s son had two years of experience in medical practice in Haiti, and was hoping to secure a medical internship in the United States. Civil recalled that ten years earlier a Foundation officer (RAL) recommended Presbyterian Hospital to him. More 216 recently, Civil noted that “[sleveral young Haitians have successfully held posts as resident[s] at Provident Hospital in Chicago.” Civil expressed his faith that the Foundation would help his son pursue “further studies in obstetrics in a better-equipped and more modern hospital” because he knew “the Foundation never failed to take an interest in its large family of fellows.” The Foundation's Director of Medical Sciences Alan Gregg, however, responded with regrets that due to limited spaces in hospitals during the post-war period, all the Foundation could do at this time was recommend that Civil write to Provident Hospital. 2 The Rockefellers’ involvement with the medical field and the humanities led several other individuals, from Haiti and the United States, to petition on behalf of others seeking educational and professional training at US. institutions) Some of these individuals sought a more direct application of the resources of the Foundation: Mme. Cleante Guiteau and Camille Lhérisson (a former Foundation fellow) wrote to the foundation soliciting aid with getting medical treatment for Haitians who had been unsuccessfully treated for 2 Dr. Moliére Civil to Mr. Raymond B. Fosdick (President, Rockefeller Foundation), August 29, 1947. Original in French, translation by Rockefeller Foundation staff attached. Civil to M. Alan Gregg, M.D.(Director of Medical Sciences, Rockefeller Foundation), September 20, 1947; Alan Gregg to Civil, October 7, 1947. Each item of correspondence located in folder 2557, box 340, 1947/series 320, Record Group 2 (General Correspondence), Rockefeller Foundation Papers, RAC. 3 Examples of these types of petitions are located in: series Countries, Record Group III 4, Nelson A. Rockefeller Papers, RAC; series Projects, Record Group III 4, Nelson A. Rockefeller Papers, RAC; and, series 320, Record Group 2 (General Correspondence), Rockefeller Foundation Papers, RAC. 217 Scleoderrna and cancer, respectively, in Haiti. In the latter case, the Rockefeller Foundation provided assistance.“ In some instances, awareness of U.S.-based resources threatened Haiti with a loss; at other times, opportunities abroad offered Haitians and potentially, Haiti, with an enriching return. In April 1947, Mrs. Elizabeth Moffat White (wife of the former US ambassador to Haiti, J.C. White) wrote a letter to Rockefeller on behalf of a Haitian physician named Dr. Martial Bourand. Bourand was also a former medical fellow whose studies led to his appointment in Haiti’s General Hospital during the time of the occupation. However, in 1947, Bourand was at odds with the newly-established Haitian administration and sought refuge and employment in the United States. In his response, however, Rockefeller cautioned: [I]t seems inadvisable that he [Bourand] be encouraged to leave Haiti where I understand there is a great need for competent " On November 27, 1958, Guiteau wrote to Rockefeller seeking funds for her daughter to see a dermatological specialist in the United States for a severe illness called “Sleodermie” [sic]. Guiteau explained that specialists in Haiti were unable to assist her with this illness that attacked her daughter's eyes and deformed her daughter's body. Although Rockefeller’s staff declined Guiteau’s request with regret, her petition still offers evidence that in Haiti, the Rockefeller name continued to be affiliated with advanced medical resources and knowledge. Guiteau to Nelson A. Rockefeller, November 27, 1958, folder 299, box 37, series Countries, Record Group III 4, Nelson A. Rockefeller Papers, RAC. On July 2, 1950, Lhérisson, wrote to Dr. Alan Gregg, (Director of the Medical Sciences, Rockefeller Foundation) requesting assistance for a family that was “going through a very sad experience, the young lady has a cancer and of course the first concern was to send her to New-York.” A note dated July 6, 1950, indicates Robert S. Morrison assisted the family with securing accommodations for Mrs. MagIoire at Memorial Hospital. RF-RG 2 (General Correspondence) folder 3311, box 494, 1950/series 320, Record Group 2 (General Correspondence), Rockefeller Foundation Papers, RAC. 218 physicians. In addition, the hospitals here are already overstaffed with returned veterans who are given preference, and to obtain licensure anywhere in the United States would at best be a long and costly process. (In many states citizenship is required.) 5 Mrs. White concurred and agreed to write Bourand with the decision.6 A decade later, Luce Carpi Turnier, a Haitian artist who also benefited from fellowship funding through the Rockefeller Foundation sought assistance with departing from Haiti with a different motive. Unlike Bourand, Turnier’s request was for a temporary escape that she felt would help her artistic development. During a 1947 visit to New York, Tumier and her husband Cioni Carpi met with John Marshall to discuss recent developments in their lives. According to Marshall's notes, Turnier noted that things were well in Haiti but that she and her husband “feel that every so often they must get away from the Island and its meagre [sic] intellectual and artistic atmosphere.” Apparently in understanding of their needs, Marshall prepared a letter of introduction that 5 The correspondence includes an inter-office memo (re: “Mrs. Elizabeth M. White's letter to Mr. Nelson Rockefeller”) from RAL to Nelson A. Rockefeller on April 23, 1947, folder 299, box 37, series Countries, Record Group III 4, Nelson A. Rockefeller Papers, RAC. RAL wrote: “I do not believe there is anything which your office or ours could do to aid Dr. Martial Bourand. As Haiti undoubtedly needs every competent physician and surgeon that it has, Dr. Bourand should not be encouraged to leave the country. Furthermore, I am sure he can earn a living by practice there, while to obtain licensure anywhere in the US. would at best be a long and costly process. (In many states citizenship is required)” 6 Item dated April 30, 1947, folder 299, box 37, series Countries, Record Group III 4, Nelson A. Rockefeller Papers, RAC. 219 would help the two in their pursuit of work on a television program in Montreal.7 In some instances, institutional connections between Haiti and the US. shaped decisions about whether to migrate, as well as choices of destinations within the US. In Chapter Three, I discussed the Baha’i Inter-American Teaching Campaign in Haiti to demonstrate the ways in which Haitians shared with foreigners’ critiques of Haiti's religious traditions and visions of how spiritual development could translate into material progress. Haitians made connections with U.S.-based Baha’is by actively participating in religious study groups, the Faith’s feast days, and promoting Baha’l prayers and teachings to other Haitians. Haitians and foreigners collaborated to introduce progressive religious practices that could help eliminate Vodou and for some, Catholicism. Both religions, Vodou unequivocally more so than Catholicism, were seen as barriers to modern civilization in Haiti. Alongside these shared social and religious goals, however, it seems from reports by Ruth and Ellsworth Blackwell (the pioneering couple who helped to formally establish the Faith in Haiti) that Haitians also saw the Faith as a means of making practical contacts with individuals and institutions in the United States. A 1947 letter written to Ruth and Ellsworth Blackwell from the Inter- America Committee requested a letter of support for Miss Jenny Blakely and her mother of Port-au-Prince in arranging for travel to the United States. 7 John Marshall interview notes with Luce Tumier and Cioni Carpi, May 24 and 27, 1957, folder 355, box 49, 1957/series 320, Record Group 2 (General Correspondence), Rockefeller Foundation Papers, RAC. 220 Beloved Baha’l Brother and Sister, The members of the Inter-America Committee wonder if you could assist us in handling a request sent by Mrs. Bertha D. DeWendt, Bas-Peu-de-Chose, Port-au-Prince, petitioning assistance in the way of a place to live for Miss Jenny Blakely and her mother of Port-au-Prince, who wish to come to this country [the United States] in order that Miss Blakely may study designing at the Art Institute. It seems that in order to obtain a passport, they need a letter from someone in Chicago showing that they are known here and that there is a room waiting for them. According to Mrs. De Wendt’s description, they are very comfortably off financially and well able to pay anything within reason. The girls’ [sic] grandfather was a physician and Haitian minister to Paris. Neither one is a Baha’l, but Mrs. DeWendt says that Jenny is a Baha’i student and that she feels their friendship is important to the Baha’ls in Haiti. We do not know what to suggest. Do you know of any home where they might be able to lodge and would you be able to write the necessary letter of invitation to them sending it do ...Mrs. DeWendt? This is not strictly speaking, Bahai business, but it is a favor which would be much appreciated by the friend asking it, if it is possible to obtain the needed accommodations. 221 With loving greetings to both of you and much appreciation of your advice and assistance in this case.... Very lovingly in His path, THE INTER-AMERICA COMMITTEE8 Mrs. Bertha D. DeWendt was one of the Haitian residents who supported the Blackwell’s in their efforts to establish the Baha’i Faith in Haiti. She might have been encouraged to petition on Miss Blakely's behalf because her own daughters (Yvonne and Elodie) “undenlvent certain difficulties before they found permanent residence [in the United States].”9 The letter demonstrates both types of ties to the Faith. Miss Blakely was known as a student and a “soul of capacity,” i.e., a Friend who could contribute to the development of the Faith in Haiti. At the same time, both Miss Blakely and Mrs. DeWendt demonstrated their awareness that these faith- based connections could prove quite practical. There was a clear overlap between the ideals around which these individuals made their connections and the practical interests that encouraged both parties to sustain such ties. In the case of the U.S.-based Baha’is this was the promotion of progressive religious teachings and institutions. In the case of the Haitian Friends, it was assistance with arranging travel for study in the United States for Haitians. In this case, at least, it was possible for the interests of all parties to be met and the ideals stimulating them to be nurtured: Ruth Blackwell soon wrote to Miss Blakely that although she and Mr. Blackwell did “not have the room to take ° Inter-America Committee to Mr. and Mrs. Ellsworth Blackwell, September 11, 1947, Ellsworth Blackwell Papers, United States Baha'l Archives, Wilmette, IL, EBP. 9 Ruth Blackwell to Mrs. [Bertha] deWendt, September 13, 1947, EBP. 222 care” of the two travelers, any worries Should be eased by knowing that there would be able to find “suitable accommodations at some hotel.” Moreover, Blackwell noted: “be assured that we are looking forward to seeing you both in the near future) Perhaps the two would join Mrs. DeWendt’s daughters Elodie and Yvonne, and at least two of their friends, who met the Blackwells in Chicago for Fireside Classes each Monday.10 The connections that emerged out of formal missions to Haiti could ultimately have exponential consequences. In 1945, Glen Lukens worked with the Inter-American Educational Foundation in Haiti, and returned several years later to work with the UNESCO project in Marbial. AS a result, Lukens established “a small group of people. ..[from] Los Angeles know as ‘Friends of Haiti’.” This group “worked and collected money from bazaars, festivals and sales, and...sent almost a ton of glaze materials to use on...native clay.” Lukens advertised the results of those donations by preparing a series of small photo albums documenting students, crafts, Shops, kilns, items featured in catalog form, and a Shop also being used as a first aid center.11 Lukens anticipated that additional donations from the l.A-based “Friends” and contributions be solicited from others, including Nelson A. Rockefeller in 1948 would help to supply the 13 new ceramic centers proposed by the Haitian '° Ruth Blackwell to Mrs. [Bertha] deWendt, September 13, 1947, EBP. 11 Glen Lukens to Nelson A. Rockefeller (NAR), October 16, 1948; Inter-office memorandum from Francis A. Jamieson to NAR, September 5, 1956. Correspondence located in folder 301, box 38, series Countries, Record Group III 4, Nelson A. Rockefeller Papers, RAC. 223 government.12 In Lukens’ opinion, these plans brought “[h]ope and enthusiasm” to the Haitian communities. Lukens explained that such optimism was rooted in the fact that the ceramics industry was the community's “most recently acquired skill.” Lukens also described the economic and health interests associated with the industry: They know that they can sell the products of their kilns in the market place of Haiti. They know, now, that by making pottery to sell, they can supplement their income, and they will be taught that glazed pottery will relieve much of the intestinal illness which has made life wretched for centuries. ‘3 Lukens pointed to the economic and social benefits of developing Haiti's ceramics industries. He saw opportunities for introducing a supplemental source of income, improving local hygiene conditions in Haiti, and developing local leadership by setting examples to be followed country-wide. Lukens observed that Haitians had a sincere interest in the manual arts industry, they were committed to seeing it flourish, and they had the capacity to progress in this field with basic guidance and material support. In his opinion, “They have worked under difficulties which would have completely defeated any but the valiant."14 ‘2 The planned ceramic center sites were: Cap Haitien, Cayes, Gonaives, Plaisance, Hinche, Belladere, Mirabelais, Port au Paix, Thomande, Deschoches, Perrnier, and Lilavois. ‘3 Glen Lukens to Nelson A. Rockefeller, October 16, 1948, p.1, NAR folder 301, box 38, series Countries, Record Group III 4, Nelson A. Rockefeller Papers, RAC. 1‘ Glen Lukens to Nelson A. Rockefeller, October 16, 1948, p.1, NAR folder 301, box 38, series Countries, Record Group III 4, Nelson A. Rockefeller Papers, RAC; AS a result of Lukens’ petitions and an encouraging referral from Rene d’Haranoncourt (MOMA), Haiti’s 224 Lukens’ petitions, like the UNESCO/Haiti Pilot-Project in Fundamental Education he worked with in Haiti, accentuate the promising potential of intellectual cooperation. The two projects illustrate the dynamic potential of the coming together of Haitian and foreign officials, philanthropists, field specialists, and local residents eager to promote change in Haitian society. Haitians and their foreign supporters continually recognized that within the United States there were individuals and institutions that could play a crucial role in fulfilling development missions. However, both cases also make evident the ever-present challenge of securing and sustaining a satisfactory amount of funding for development projects.15 They stimulated individuals from Haiti and abroad to envision the need for more-effective international aid structures that would establish project self-sufficiency. But they did not immediately succeed in fulfilling such goals. ceramists received a $300 “non-reoccuring" donation from Nelson A. Rockefeller. The funds were disbursed as salary and stipends for Haitians who directed the ceramic centers (Jacques LaFleur and Marcus Douyon, assisted by Jules Guy). ‘5 Nearly a decade after Lukens’ first letter of petition, Rockefeller continued to receive correspondence advising him of how far his $300 contribution had gone and of developments in Haitian ceramics. Lukens' August 5, 1956 petition stressed the need created by the lack of federal funding for his project. To address this Situation, d'Hamoncourt suggested that the Rockefellers’ response include a request for a solid business proposal from Lukens for comparison with other grant applications. The idea was to encourage Lukens to establish a strategy to usher in “the complete economic independence” of the centers. But two years later, Rockefeller's office (Mrs. Veran B. Goeller) corresponded with Mrs. Lester Granger (100 LaSalle Street, Apt. 20F, NY, NY) who had recently Spoken with NAR and forwarded materials documenting Lukens’ work in Haiti. The Items were returned to Mrs. Granger, with a note advising her that Rockefeller was already acquainted with Lukens’ work. Correspondence located in folder 301, box 38, series Countries, Record Group III 4, Nelson A. Rockefeller Papers, RAC. 225 In this dissertation, l have examined a culture of cooperation emerging out of the legacies of the US. military occupation of Haiti and the evolution in Haiti-US. relations during the immediate post-occupation period by studying four types of cooperation between Haiti and the United States: cultural, intellectual, religious, and community development. The history of these projects illuminates how the climate of inter-American cooperation helped Haitian public officials and private citizens lobby for and secure resources from the United States intended to address factors limiting the development of Haitian society. This climate of inter-American cooperation also made it more feasible for US. public officials and private citizens to pursue their own interests in reforming Haitian society or meeting their personal needs. The flourishing nature of these forms of collaboration is a clear indication that, in the face of persistent challenges, Haitian and US. citizens looked to the post- occupation period as a period of promising possibilities. Individuals from Haiti and the US. who were committed to translating the wisdom of the period’s progressive ideals into a lived reality, always faced—as they continue to face—many obstacles in their quest. These obstacles often seemed, as they do for many today, insurmountable. However, reflecting in 2002 on Haitian history as a long-struggle for human rights, and for ideals such as Pan-Americanism and democracy, the scholar-activist Odette Roy-Fombrun explained: “We must have the dream...and try to attain it at its maximum...We must continue to fight, so 226 we can arrive at what is possible...)16 The fervent participation of individuals from Haiti and the US. throughout the two post-occupation decades, discussed in this dissertation, reflect a crucial moment in this on- going struggle to find a better future for Haiti. '6 Odette Roy-Fombrun, interview by the author, May 27, 2002, Musseau (Port-au- Prince), Haiti. 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