Dominican Republic and Haiti: Country Studies

Haiti: Historical Setting
in a singular fashion, on behalf of the nation rather than an
individual. Further, it pledged to hold free elections and did.
The Revolution of 1946, as the elections were called, was the
result of incompetent, dishonest, and repressive governance
and exasperation at mulatto domination. The spectacle of
mulattoes everywhere in the administration turned many
blacks into pro-black activists, or noiristes. A contemporary
writer, Roger Dorsainville, described the popular mood, saying,
"I was a noiriste. And I will add that anyone in my social class in
Haiti, after Lescot, under Lescot, whoever was not a noiriste
would have been scum
In May 1946, Haitians elected a National Assembly whose
purpose was to select a president on August 16, 1946. The
three major candidates were black. The leading candidate,
Dumarsais Estime, was from a modest black family in Verrettes.
He had been a school teacher, assembly member, and minister
of education under Vincent. Felix d'Orleans Juste Constant was
leader of the Communist Party of Haiti (Parti Communiste
d'Haiti—PCH). Demosthenes Calixte was a former Garde commander
and a stand-in for Daniel Fignole, head of the progressive
coalition that included the Worker Peasant Movement
(Mouvement Ouvrier Paysan—MOP); Fignole was too young to
run himself.
Dumarsais Estime was anti-elitist and therefore regarded as
anti-mulatto. His base of support came from blacks, particularly
from the emerging middle class and the north. Although
Estime was a civilian, he had the blessings of the Garde d'Haiti
and won easily on the second round of polling.
Dumarsais Estime enjoyed broad support in the early years
of his presidency. Under a new constitution in November 1946,
he launched a series of reforms intended to improve the condition
of life in the cities and countryside. He brought more middle-class
and lower-class blacks into the public sector, increased
the daily minimum wage, raised salaries of civil servants, and
proposed the nation's first social security laws. He expanded
the school system, encouraged rural cooperatives, sent agronomists
to Puerto Rico to study farming techniques, and encouraged
the United States and the Export-Import Bank to invest in
a Haitian Tennessee Valley Authority for the Artibonite River.
However, President Estime made enemies, who finally contributed
to his overthrow. He alienated the elites by purging
mulatto officials from his administration and pursuing an
agenda that encouraged labor unions and forced people to pay
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