The U.S. Rewrites the Haitian Constitution (1915) w/ Jelani Cobb

This Day in Esoteric Political History

Jody Avirgan & Radiotopia

History

4.6 • 982 Ratings

🗓️ 29 July 2021

⏱️ 19 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

It’s July 29th. This day in 1915, U.S. troops arrived in Haiti as the country’s political leadership is thrown into chaos by assassinations and violence. The U.S. would quickly rewrite the Haitian constitution and establish an occupying presence that lasted for decades.

Jody, NIki, and Kellie are joined by Jelani Cobb of the New Yorker to discuss the political and economic justification for this intervention, and how you can’t understand Haitian history without understanding the history of U.S. meddling.

Jelani Cobb is the author of an updated version, “The Essential Kerner Commission Report,” out now.

Find a transcript of this episode at: https://tinyurl.com/esoterichistory

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Transcript

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0:00.0	Hello and welcome to this day an esoteric political history from Radiotopia.
0:07.6	My name is Jody Avergan.
0:11.2	This day July 29, 1915, July 28th to be precise, an incredibly dramatic and swift turn of events on the island nation of Haiti.
0:21.0	For one, the day before, the president of Haiti, President Jean-Vilbrun Gieu-Sam, had been assassinated and this was just
0:28.7	after he'd ordered the execution of a number of his political opponents and prisoners including the former president
0:34.5	Sam had been president for just a few months but now he had been killed and there was
0:38.9	Chaos and a power vacuum in Haiti. I promise I am not reading headlines from last week. This is from
0:44.8	1915. But into this chaos and this power vacuum arrive US troops. On this day
0:52.0	330 United States Marines who had been stationed on Navy ships just off the coast
0:57.2	landed in Port of Prince on the authority of U.S. President Woodrow Wilson.
1:02.4	They established control of Haiti.S. President Woodrow Wilson. They establish control of Haiti's political
1:04.9	and financial interests.
1:06.1	From there, they retain control.
1:08.4	The U.S. basically rewrites the Haitian Constitution
1:11.2	and what was framed at first as an emergency intervention turns into a
1:15.3	shocker decades-long occupation essentially so here to discuss this moment and its
1:21.4	roots and its legacy are as always
1:24.0	Nicole Hammer of Columbia and Kelly Carter Jackson of Wellesley.
1:27.1	Hello there.
1:28.1	Hello Jody.
1:29.1	Hey there.
1:29.9	And we are joined once again back for another episode by Jalilani Kabb of the New Yorker and Columbia Journalism School.
	...

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