1974 World Cup, Italy v Haiti

Haiti caused a little tremor as soon as they stepped on the pitch: the first half against Italy ended 1-0 for Haiti. It was an enormous surprise – Italy kept a clean sheet for more than 2 years and came to the World Cup as one of major candidates for the title. It turned out unknown Haiti was better.

Read more...

Haiti: The Trial That Gave Vodou A Bad Name

It was a Saturday, market day in Port-au-Prince, and the chance to meet friends, gossip and shop had drawn large crowds to the Haitian capital. Sophisticated, French-educated members of the urban ruling class crammed into the market square beside illiterate farmers, a generation removed from slavery, who had walked in from the surrounding villages for a rare day out.

Read more...

Mary Edmonia Lewis (July 4, 1844 - September 17, 1907)

Mary Edmonia Lewis (July 4, 1844 - September 17, 1907) was a talented American sculptor of Haitian and Ojibwe heritage. She is the first credited Black American Indian female sculptor in the U.S. and gained fame and recognition as a sculptor in the international fine arts world.

Video

Mary Edmonia Lewis - Female sculptor

Photos

• 
• 
• 
• 
• 
• 
• 
• 
• 

events@defend.ht

Mary Edmonia Lewis (July 4, 1844 - September 17, 1907) was a talented American sculptor of Haitian and Ojibwe heritage. She is the first credited Black American Indian female sculptor in the U.S. and gained fame and recognition as a sculptor in the international fine arts world.

Her father was Haitian of African descent, while her mother was of Mississauga Ojibwe and African descent. Lewis’s mother was known as an excellent weaver and craftswoman. She was nicknamed “wildfire” by her mother’s Native community, the Ojibwe. Her family background inspired Lewis in her later work. She was also inspired by the lives of abolitionists and Civil War heroes.

Mary E. Lewis fell on hard criticism and was accused of several crimes at Oberlin, including the theft of paintbrushes by her art teacher, and even the murder of two female students. The girls apparently drank bad wine that was served by Lewis. Although she was not convicted of either crime, the school revoked her chances of graduation.

In 1863, Edmonia Lewis found friendship with abolitionist William Lloyd Garrison. Through Garrison, she was introduced to Edward Brackett who mentored her in her craft. She would become one of the most famed artists in Boston.

Her first creations were medallions with portraits of white anti-slavery leaders and heroes of the Civil War. The replicas from her 1865 bust of Black battalion leader, Robert Gould Shaw, earned her enough money to travel abroad and study in Rome. The bust is now owned by the Museum of Afro-American History in Boston.

Using inspiration from the Emancipation Proclamation, Edmonia Lewis would make her masterpiece and best known sculpture called “Forever Free” in 1867.

Then ten years later, the art world would praise her piece called “The Death of Cleopatra,” because it showed a strong, powerful Cleopatra after death, unlike other artists who made her look weak. The piece is held by the National Museum of American Art in Washington, D.C.

Jacques Roumain (June 4, 1907 - August 18, 1944)

Jacques Roumain (June 4, 1907 – August 18, 1944) was a Haitian writer, politician, and advocate of Marxism. He is considered one of the most prominent figures in Haitian literature.

Read more...

Alexandre Dumas: The Black Count

Alexandre Dumas, born in Haiti 1762, was one of those unforgettable men. Dashing. Powerful. Intelligent. Kind. In battle, he performed like a superhero: single-handedly defeating dozens of men. With his wife, he performed like a romantic: writing soulful letters from the front. As a General commanding some 50,000 soldiers, he succeeded where others had failed, and knocked the Austrians off the Alps for France. He was a legend in his own time. He inspired The Count of Monte Cristo and The Three Musketeers, written by his grandson. Men like Alexandre Dumas are not forgotten -- they are wiped out, carefully, by other men.

Read more...

Carrefour Celebrates Bicentennial (May 1, 1813 - May 1, 2013)

PORT-AU-PRINCE, Haiti (defend.ht) - Founded on May 1, 1813, the municipality of Carrefour, the hub that is the crossroads to four departments, today celebrates its bicentennial. Carrefour also was the epicenter of the January 12, 2010 earthquake.

Read more...

April 26, 1963: Duvalier's Massacre

April 26, 1963 was a day of massacres in Haiti. The Duvalier regime organized mass killings after information circulated that an attempt to kidnap Francois Duvalier's son, Jean Claude was made. There were many victims of this massacre, former military but civilian as well. Homes were set on fire with the occupants still inside, children kidnapped and whole families arrested, tortured, killed, disappeared.

Read more...

William de Fleurville (1807-1868)

William de Fleurville (also known as "Florville") was a Haitian-born businessman who met Mr. Lincoln in New Salem in 1831. After Mr. Lincoln helped him attract clients in that community, Fleurville moved to Springfield where he eventually opened barbershop across from the State House and served as Mr. Lincoln's barber for 24 years.

Read more...

The Venerable Pierre Toussaint and The Old Saint Patrick's Cathedral

NEW YORK, USA (defend.ht) - The Venerable Pierre Toussaint (1766-1853) was a former slave of the French colony of Saint-Domingue who was brought to New York City by his owners at the age of 21.

Read more...

René Préval, PetroCaribe and the U.S. opposition

Former President René Préval doesn't get enough credit for making the bold determination to bring Parliament to ratify and bring Haiti into Venezuela's PetroCaribe agreement. Préval did this despite the efforts of the U.S. George W. Bush administration, the U.S. Embassy in Port-au-Prince and Big Oil, who aimed to stop Haiti from joining the program that was ultimately realized in March 8, 2008 and today accounts for more than half of current government of Haiti's annual national budget.

Read more...

Elizabeth Lange and the Emergence of Black Catholics and Baltimore, Maryland

BALTIMORE, USA (defend.ht) - Sister Elizabeth Lange and four other Saint Domingans, Haitians, refugees of the revolutionary war that migrated to the city of Baltimore between 1792 and 1797 established the first successful Catholic sisterhood for and by women of African descent, in the world, in 1828. The black Catholic movement begun by these Haitian refugees has since shaped the culture and identity of the city of Baltimore and the state of Maryland.

Read more...

Make Haiti's Thugs Tremble by John Kerry

WASHINGTON, D.C. (defend.ht) - In 1994, U.S. Senator John Kerry, today, the U.S. Secretary of State, supported an all-out military invasion on Haiti to restore who critics called an "America-hating communist dictator," former President Jean-Bertrand Aristide. We analyze from his NY Times Op-Ed, "Make Haiti's Thugs Tremble", that the successor of Secretary of State Hillary Clinton differs with her as an economic predator, but militarily, very hawkish; if not towards middle eastern powers, definitely toward lowly countries in the western hemisphere. Granted, it was in the name of democracy.

Read more...

20,000 Haitians were Massacred 75 Years Ago

Most were slaughtered with bayonets and machetes. Infants had their heads smashed against walls. Women were speared with pitchforks. Many who were attempting to escape back to Haiti were captured at the border and killed. From October 2nd to October 4th 1937, 20,000 Haitian immigrant workers were massacred in the Dominican Republic and both governments, Haitian and Dominican colluded to deny justice.

Read more...

Haitians in the Fight for U.S. Independence

SAVANNAH, USA (defend.ht) - When the French allied with the United States in 1778 to help defeat the British in the Revolutionary War, French Commander Comte d'Estaing was accompanied by 500 free men of color from Saint Domingue, present-day Haiti, who fought for U.S. independence.

Read more...

Haiti - 1872: Extortion by the Germans

PORT-AU-PRINCE, Haiti (defend.ht) - June 11th, 1872, the German Naval frigate, the Vineta led by Captain Basch, arrived in the harbor of Port-au-Prince, taking two Haitian hostages in demand for £3000 ($275,000.00 [U.S. today]) from the Haitian government.

Read more...

Bélizaire Says He Was Asked to Kill Prime Minister

PORT-AU-PRINCE, Haiti (defend.ht) - In an article published May 13, 2005, Anel Bélizaire, explains the circumstances of his escape from the National Penitentiary as a result from someone from the interim government of Gerard Latortue (2004-2006) asked him to murder his cellmate, the former Prime Minister, Yvon Neptune.

Read more...

Memorial Service for Anthropologist Antenor Firmin

PORT-AU-PRINCE, Haiti (defend.ht) - A memorial service will be held on Monday in Cap Haitien on the 100th anniversary of the death of Antenor Firmin, an anthropologist, journalist and politician who wrote the renowned work, "Essay on the Inequality of Human Races."

Read more...

U.S. and UN Officials Oversaw Integration of Ex-Army Paramilitaries into Haiti’s Police Force

Throughout 2004 and 2005, Haiti’s unelected de facto authorities, working alongside foreign officials, integrated at least 400 ex-army paramilitaries into the country’s police force, secret U.S. Embassy cables reveal.

Read more...

100: The First Days of President Michel Martelly

When Michel Joseph Martelly was elected the 56th President of the Republic of Haiti, the country, already facing an almost permanent economic crisis and on the verge of social explosion, faced the consequences of the earthquake of January 12, 2010.

Read more...

The Creation of the Tontons Macoutes, July 29, 1959

In July of 1958, A group of former Haitian military officers headed by former Lieutenant of the Haitian Armed Forces, Alix 'Sonson' Pasquet gathered in Miami, Florida to conspire an uprising to overthrow Francois 'Papa Doc' Duvalier.

Read more...