1920-05-15: (Growing Refusal — The Lives of Estrea Adirenng Eleanor Charles Elizabeth Saint-Bernard Louise Ismael Marilia Lindor Claircia Delva and Claircili…

1920-05-15: (Growing Refusal — The Lives of Estrea Adirenng Eleanor Charles Elizabeth Saint-Bernard Louise Ismael Marilia Lindor Claircia Delva and Claircilia Telisma Not Acknowledged or Distorted by US Military Reporting, Antioccupation Supporters Including Marie Louise the Garoute Family and the Sylvains Sharing and Spreading Girls’ and Women’s Stories Across the Region, on May 15 1920 the Chicago Defender Headlining “U.S. Troops Attack Haitian Girls,” Reverend S. E. Churchstone-Lord an African American AME Pastor in Port-au-Prince Reporting That White Soldiers Were Sending a Reign of Terror and That Nine Little Haitian Girls Ranging in Ages from 8 to 12 Died as a Result of Being Criminally Assaulted — Members of the Native Constabulary Compelled to Procure Native Women as Concubines): The lives and thoughts of Estrea, Adirenng, Eleanor Charles, Elizabeth Saint-Bernard, Louise Ismael, Marilia Lindor, Claircia Delva, and Claircilia Telisma were not acknowledged or they were distorted by US military reporting. But antioccupation supporters — including Marie Louise, the Garoute family, the Sylvains, and many others — were sharing and spreading girls’ and women’s stories across the region. On May 15, 1920, nine months after the attack on Eleanor and almost five years into the US occupation, the headline of the African American newspaper the Chicago Defender projected a story of rape and murder into the African American consciousness: US Troops Attack Haitian Girls. Reverend S. E. Churchstone-Lord, an African American pastor of the African Methodist Episcopal Church in Port-au-Prince, reported the alleged attacks to the paper. He described white soldiers of the American army sending a reign of terror throughout the republic and attempting to beat Haitians into submission. The most serious charge was that on one night nine little Haitian girls, ranging in ages from eight to twelve, had died as a result of being criminally assaulted. Furthermore, members of the native constabulary were compelled by white officers to procure native women for use as concubines. When girls escaped death or sexual assault, some were forced into sexual servitude brokered by Haitian members of the gendarmerie at the behest of white US soldiers. The occupation’s violence was not a series of isolated incidents but a system — the gendarmerie serving as intermediary in a structure of sexual exploitation that mirrored the plantation economies the Haitian Revolution had supposedly destroyed.