Daniel Fignolé, promises F.D.R.-style New Deal. A Negro, he is allied with Louis Dejoi to break François Duvalier’s strength among Negroes.
“Chaos in a Caribbean Hotspot,” Life (June 3, 1957)
Pierre Eustache Daniel Fignolé has been alternately dubbed ‘a Communist,’ ‘a politial genius,’ ‘a vagabond’ and ‘the darling of the street mobs.’ He is proud of the last designation.
Lee Hall, “The Mob and its Man Take over in Haiti,” Life (June 10, 1957)
The calmest period during the whole time since Paul Magliore’s fall was the nineteen days Fignolé was President.
Robert Jackson Alexander, “Conversation with Daniel Fignolé in New York City, June 19, 1957,” Presidents of Central America, Mexico, Cuba, and Hispaniola (1995)
“Cote li, cote li?” cried the black workers of Port-au-Prince last week, tears in their eyes. But Daniel Fignolé, their idol, could not tell them where he was. He had gone. Nineteen days after he vaulted to power as Provisional President, the silver-tongued mathematics professor, who boasted he could unleash a “steam roller” of black supporters, fell without a shot fired. He went meekly into exile, and was replaced by a military junta.
“Haiti: Fignolé Falls,” Time (June 24, 1957)
The fall of Professor Daniel Fignolé was a tragedy.
Prosper Avril, From Glory to Disgrace: The Haitian Army, 1804-1994 (1999)
4 Comments
Thanks for posting this. From a timeline of US policy towards Haiti that I published last December:
Really love seeing these lovely throwback photos of Haiti. Great and telling pieces of history in the making.
Good, Haiti: Daniel Fignolé.
I am Daniel Fignole’s great grandson. My name is Jaiden Pierre Fignole and my fathers name is Pierre Daniel Fignole.
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[…] Change, 1934-1957. Chapel Hill: University of North Carolina Press, 2009. Further reading Daniel Fignole – The Public Archive Preceded byExecutive Government […]