1915–1946: The Post-Occupation Political Renaissance

1915–1946: (The Post-Occupation Political Renaissance — The 1946 Constitutional Assembly Being the Third Assembly Free of Foreign Intervention Since the End of the US Occupation 1915–1934 During Which the US Government Had Dissolved the National Assembly Taken Over the National Banking System and Rewritten Haiti’s Historic 1805 Constitution That Prohibited Slavery and Declared the Nation’s People Black and Sovereign from French Colonial Rule, the End of US Military Rule Seeing the Emergence of New Political Parties Organizations and Cultural and Intellectual Institutions Including a Literature and Journalism Boom, Historian Matthew Smith Characterizing the Twenty-Year Postoccupation Period as Haiti’s Greatest Moment of Political Promise): The 1946 constitutional assembly was the third assembly free of foreign intervention since the end of the US occupation of Haiti, which lasted from 1915 to 1934. During the occupation, the US government dissolved the national assembly, took over the national banking system, and rewrote Haiti’s historic 1805 Constitution — the revolutionary document that prohibited slavery and declared the nation’s people Black and sovereign from French colonial rule. The end of US military rule saw the emergence of new political parties, organizations, and cultural and intellectual institutions, including a literature and journalism boom. As historian Matthew Smith has argued, the twenty-year postoccupation period was Haiti’s greatest moment of political promise. The LFAS was born within this ferment: formally educated teachers and financially affluent women came together in 1935 to establish a women’s movement for social improvement and to advocate for Haitian women of all social classes. After a decade of petitioning the government for equal citizenship rights — including the right to purchase property, hold their own professional wages, and vote in all local and national elections — these women presumed that the political energy of the 1946 revolution would also see the merit of gender inclusion.