"A Flame Superior to Lightning, a Sound Superior to Thunder": Human Rights and Haitian Exiles in New York City, 1958–71

June and July of 1958 seemed to be particularly demanding months for Frances R. Grant, Secretary-General of the Inter-American Association for Democracy and Freedom (IADF).   Mounting reports and a surfeit of calls from Haitian exiles in New York City, Havana and Nassau, Bahamas flooded her Manhattan office in response to an intensification of state violence and a “gross violation of civil and political liberties,” specifically against women, within François Duvalier’s new political regime in Haiti.  As a part-time journalist who was known by many political dissidents as the “guardian of Latin American exiles,” Grant proved to be a central figure within inter-war and postwar era human rights circles as a translator of a rights discourse for a network of Caribbean and Latin American exiles suffering under a wave of despotism in the region. The experiences of exiles and NGO leadership illuminate a critical moment when human rights discourses were appropriated to defend individual rights through international law.

Through the story of Grant and other key Haitian actors who sought to protect and implement international human rights law during the middle 20^th century A Better Destiny examines the circulation, appropriation and translation of a rights discourse, particularly through New York-based Haitian newspapers, pamphlets and organizational correspondence. Was the appropriation of a rights discourse by exiles a way to gain influence and power from Washington officials or did it serve as an emancipatory tool for marginalized Haitians to address authoritarianism? Additionally, as readers contemplate post-earthquake reconstruction efforts and the role of the Haitian diaspora in nation formation, a critical examination of the initial stages of mass Haitian migration and the resources (i.e. textual production and radio programming) that were used in order to build a broad radical and political consciousness amongst Haitians in the U.S. and the Caribbean remain significant.