Monday, September 19, in Cap Haitien be held a commemoration ceremony to mark the 100th anniversary of the disappearance of Joseph Anténor Firmin [October 18, 1850 to 1911], politician and haitian author "De l'égalité des races humaines" (the equality of human races) and of the essay "M. Roosevelt, Président des États-Unis et la République d'Haïti" (Mr. Roosevelt, President of the United States and the Republic of Haiti).

A Mass will be celebrated at the Cathedral of Cap Haitien and a bust, made by Ludovic Booz will be unveiled to the public. Daniel Elie, Director of the National Institute for Heritage Preservation (ISPAN), will take advantage of the circumstances to announce the restoration project of the house of Anténor Firmin.

Learn more about Anténor Firmin :

Born into a modest family of Cap-Haitien, Joseph Anténor Firmin makes his secondary education at the Lycee of his native town and began teaching at the age of 17. He works as an employee of a commercial house, teacher, and then school inspectors; passionate about policy, he founded in Cap Haitien the newspaper "Le messager du Nord" (The messenger of North).

Unsuccessful candidate for deputy in 1879, he was sent in 1883 to represent his country at the centenary celebrations of Bolivar. Refusing the position of Minister under the presidency of Lysius Félicité Salomon, he took exile in St. Thomas and then to Paris (1885) where he met Louis-Joseph Janvier and became a member of the Anthropological Society of Paris.

In 1885 he published "De l’égalité des races humaines", rehabilitation of the historic grandeur of the black race from Egypt to Haiti in reaction to the Essay on the Inequality of Human Races, of Gobineau (1854).

Anténor Firmin is a candidate for the presidency in the late of the nineteenth century. Minister of Florvil Hippolyte in 1891, he resists to the pressure of the United States, who wanted to install a military base in Haiti, to the Môle Saint-Nicolas. In 1905, his essay, "M. Roosevelt, président des États-Unis et la République d'Haïti" had a great impact, which predicted a U.S. military intervention, which in fact took place.

HL/ HaitiLibre