Daniel Fignolé
Encyclopedia
Daniel Fignolé was a Haiti
Haiti
Haiti , officially the Republic of Haiti , is a Caribbean country. It occupies the western, smaller portion of the island of Hispaniola, in the Greater Antillean archipelago, which it shares with the Dominican Republic. Ayiti was the indigenous Taíno or Amerindian name for the island...

an politician who became Haiti's provisional head of state for three weeks in 1957. He was one of the most influential leaders in the pre-Duvalier era, a liberal labor organizer in Port-au-Prince
Port-au-Prince
Port-au-Prince is the capital and largest city of the Caribbean nation of Haiti. The city's population was 704,776 as of the 2003 census, and was officially estimated to have reached 897,859 in 2009....

 so popular among urban workers that he could call upon them at a moment's notice to hold mass protests, known as "woulo konpresè" Haitian Creole
Haitian Creole language
Haitian Creole language , often called simply Creole or Kreyòl, is a language spoken in Haiti by about twelve million people, which includes all Haitians in Haiti and via emigration, by about two to three million speakers residing in the Bahamas, Cuba, Canada, France, Cayman Islands, French...

 for "streamroller."

Early life

Fignolé was born in the coastal town of Pestel
Pestel, Grand'Anse
Pestel is a municipality in the Corail Arrondissement, in the Grand'Anse Department of Haiti.It has 36,138 inhabitants....

 to an impoverished family and moved to Port-au-Prince
Port-au-Prince
Port-au-Prince is the capital and largest city of the Caribbean nation of Haiti. The city's population was 704,776 as of the 2003 census, and was officially estimated to have reached 897,859 in 2009....

 in 1927 at age 14 to seek education and work. Despite constant ill health because of chronic malnutrition, he excelled in school and was accepted to one of the city's most prestigious institutions. He made a living tutoring the children of Haiti's wealthy elite.

Political rise

Fignolé co-founded in 1942 a newspaper called Chantiers with a liberal noiriste political slant. In it he lambasted Haïtï's mulatto elite for their selfishness and argued for broad social programs to uplift the majority black-skinned poor. Then president Elie Lescot
Élie Lescot
Louis Élie Lescot was the President of Haiti from May 15, 1941 to January 11, 1946. He was a member of the country's light-skinned elite and used the political climate of World War II to sustain his power and ties to the United States, Haiti's powerful northern neighbor...

 responded to harsh critiques by closing the paper, firing Fignolé from his government teaching position, and placing him under police surveillance.
He was president of Haïtï for 19 days.

He continued his political activity, quickly becoming known among Port-au-Prince's poor working class as 'le professeur' or as in English, 'the professor' for his impassioned orations, writing, and leadership of labor strikes. By 1946, he was known for having the power to instantly flood the streets with the urban poor in demonstrations. These flash mobs were called "woulos", or steamrollers.

The following year he agreed to lead Mouvement Ouvrier Paysan (MOP), which would become most organized labor party in Haitian history and largest mass organization in the pre-Duvalier era. It included factory workers, dockworkers, hydraulic workers, gas station workers, barbers, dessert chefs, and laborers from other sectors. He wanted to run for the Haitian presidency, but at age 33 he was barred by the Haitian constitution.

Fignolé was at various points spied on, beaten, and imprisoned by authorities for his labor activism. Fignolé and François Duvalier
François Duvalier
François Duvalier was the President of Haiti from 1957 until his death in 1971. Duvalier first won acclaim in fighting diseases, earning him the nickname "Papa Doc" . He opposed a military coup d'état in 1950, and was elected President in 1957 on a populist and black nationalist platform...

 shared in common a noirist politics of black empowerment, and collaborated at times in political dissent against ruling regimes. Under the government of Dumarsais Estime
Dumarsais Estimé
Dumarsais Estimé served as the President of Haïti from 16 August 1946 until 10 May 1950. He was the first black head of state since the US occupation of Haiti ended in 1934.-Early life:...

, Fignolé briefly held the post of minister of education. He refused to tone down his attacks on the mulatto elite, saying, "If anyone thinks they can stop what I am doing for my people, I will be forced to use my woulo to destroy them!" But unlike Duvalier, Fignolé had little political support in the countryside beyond the capital city.

Short-lived presidency

On 25 May 1957, amidst a chaotic election process and spiraling civil strife, Fignolé was designated as provisional President because of his unsurpassed popularity in Port-au-Prince. As Fignolé descended the steps of the National Palace on the day of his inauguration, crowds of ecstatic supporters waving MOP flags streamed into the streets and converged on the palace grounds. He pledged to raise the daily wage and expressed determination to remain in office, angering his opponents.

Although Fignolé promised a Franklin D. Roosevelt
Franklin D. Roosevelt
Franklin Delano Roosevelt , also known by his initials, FDR, was the 32nd President of the United States and a central figure in world events during the mid-20th century, leading the United States during a time of worldwide economic crisis and world war...

-style New Deal
New Deal
The New Deal was a series of economic programs implemented in the United States between 1933 and 1936. They were passed by the U.S. Congress during the first term of President Franklin D. Roosevelt. The programs were Roosevelt's responses to the Great Depression, and focused on what historians call...

  and was explicitly anti-communist, his politics had long made him suspicious in the eyes of the Cold War
Cold War
The Cold War was the continuing state from roughly 1946 to 1991 of political conflict, military tension, proxy wars, and economic competition between the Communist World—primarily the Soviet Union and its satellite states and allies—and the powers of the Western world, primarily the United States...

 era American administrations. U.S. Central Intelligence Agency
Central Intelligence Agency
The Central Intelligence Agency is a civilian intelligence agency of the United States government. It is an executive agency and reports directly to the Director of National Intelligence, responsible for providing national security intelligence assessment to senior United States policymakers...

 (CIA) director Allen Dulles warned President Dwight D. Eisenhower
Dwight D. Eisenhower
Dwight David "Ike" Eisenhower was the 34th President of the United States, from 1953 until 1961. He was a five-star general in the United States Army...

 that Fignolé had "a strong leftist orientation." The administration refused to recognize the Fignolé government, whose political program was seen as "comparable with the Soviets." Eisenhower told the French Embassy in Washington that he was worried Fignolé "might eventually become another Arbenz
Jacobo Arbenz Guzmán
Colonel Jacobo Árbenz Guzmán was a Guatemalan military officer and politician who served as Defense Minister of Guatemala from 1944–1951, and as President of Guatemala from 1951 to 1954....

", referring to the social-democratic President of Guatemala overthrown three years earlier in a CIA-backed coup d'état.

With foreign governments and most elements of Haiti's traditional power structure arrayed against him, Fignolé could not hold onto power. After just 19 days, the Haitian armed forces, with U.S. foreknowledge, broke into the presidential chambers. They seized Fignolé, forced him at gunpoint to sign a resignation letter, and bundled him into a waiting car.

From exile in New York Fignolé blamed Duvalier, a rival candidate for President, for his overthrow. But his demands for reinstatement fell on deaf ears. For days, rioting Fignolé supporters in poor districts were gunned down by soldiers under Antonio Kebreau
Antonio Thrasybule Kebreau
Antonio Thrasybule Kebreau was Chairman of the Military Council and President of the Republic of Haiti from 14 June - 22 October 1957. His short reign followed that of Daniel Fignolé and preceded that of Dr. François "Papa Doc" Duvalier....

's military regime. The morgues filled with thousands of bodies, according to media reports.

With ties to the army, Duvalier won a sham election and became head of state. His family's brutal dictatorship would last over thirty years.

Return from exile

In 1986 after the fall of Jean-Claude Duvalier
Jean-Claude Duvalier
Jean-Claude Duvalier, nicknamed "Bébé Doc" or "Baby Doc" was the President of Haiti from 1971 until his overthrow by a popular uprising in 1986. He succeeded his father, François "Papa Doc" Duvalier, as the ruler of Haiti upon his father's death in 1971...

, who succeeded his father, an ailing 73-year-old Fignolé returned from a long exile to Port-au-Prince. Scores of supporters welcomed him at the airport. He died a few months later.

Further reading

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