From Douglass to Duvalier

U.S. African Americans, Haiti, and Pan Americanism, 1870–1964

Millery Polyné

• Publisher: University Press of Florida
• Year: 2010
• eBook ISBN: 9780813059068
• Topic: History
• Subtopic: Latin American & Caribbean History
• Index: History

Haiti has long been both a source of immense pride--because of the Haitian Revolution--and of profound disappointment--because of the unshakable realities of poverty, political instability, and violence--to the black diasporic imagination. Charting the long history of these multiple meanings is the focus of Millery Polyne's rich and critical transnational history of U.S. African Americans and Haitians.

Stretching from the thoughts and words of American intellectuals such as Frederick Douglass, Robert Moton, and Claude Barnett to the Civil Rights era, Polyne's temporal scope is breathtaking. But just as impressive is the thematic range of the work, which carefully examines the political, economic, and cultural relations between U.S. African Americans and Haitians.

From Douglass to Duvalier examines the creative and critical ways U.S. African Americans and Haitians engaged the idealized tenets of Pan Americanism--mutual cooperation, egalitarianism, and nonintervention between nation-states--in order to strengthen Haiti's social, economic, and political growth and stability. The depth of Polyne's research allows him to speak confidently about the convoluted ways that these groups have viewed modernization, "uplift," and racial unity, as well as the shifting meanings and importance of the concepts over time.

Table of contents

• Cover Page
• Title Page
• Copyright Page
• Dedication Page
• Contents
• List of Illustrations
• Acknowledgments
• Note on Usage and Terminology
• Introduction
• 1. “The Spirit of the Age…Establish[es] a Sentiment of Universal Brotherhood”: Haiti, “Santo Domingo” and Frederick Douglass at the Intersection of the United States and Black Pan Americanism
• 2. “To Combine the Training of the Head and the Hands”: The 1930 Robert R. Moton Education Commission in Haiti
• 3. “We Cast in Our Lot with the Policy of Good Neighborliness”: Claude Barnett, Haiti and the Business of Race
• 4. “What Happens in Haiti has Repercussions Which Far Transcend Haiti Itself”: Walter White, Haiti and the Public Relations Campaign, 1947–1955
• 5. “To Carry the Dance of the People Beyond”: Jean-Léon Destiné, Lavinia Williams and Danse Folklorique Haïtienne
• 6. “The Moody Republic and the Men in Her Life”: François Duvalier, U.S. African Americans and Haitian Exiles, 1957–1964
• Notes
• Bibliography
• Index
• About the Author