1926: (Thoby’s Letter to Du Bois and the Silencing of the Press — Several Months After Hunton’s Trip Perçeval Thoby Writing to Du Bois with Clippings from l’…

1926: (Thoby’s Letter to Du Bois and the Silencing of the Press — Several Months After Hunton’s Trip Perçeval Thoby Writing to Du Bois with Clippings from l’Essor and Le Courrier Haitien Reporting the Rape of an Unnamed Eleven-Year-Old Girl, Imploring the Editor of The Crisis to Publish That “the American Occupation Is Trying to Hide the Facts,” Thoby Knowing the Risk — the Editor of l’Essor Luc Dorsainvil Had Been Dismissed from His Government Position as Punishment for Sharing the Details, Thoby Wanting to Honor the Reality That in Numerous Cases of Rapes by Marines Families Either by Shame or Fear of Reprisals Had Always Avoided Making Complaint — Yet Many Women Had Reported and Thoby Assumed There Were Many More Unaccounted For): Several months after Hunton’s trip, Perçeval Thoby wrote a letter to W. E. B. Du Bois stuffed with clippings from the Haitian newspapers l’Essor and Le Courrier Haitien reporting on the rape of an unnamed eleven-year-old girl. In his letter, Thoby implored the editor of the African American newspaper The Crisis to publish the news that the American occupation was trying to hide the facts. Thoby knew there was risk in sharing the information — the editor of l’Essor, Luc Dorsainvil, had been dismissed from his position as head of the passport service in the Department of the Interior as punishment for sharing the details of the attack. The occupation punished not the perpetrators of rape but the journalists who reported it — the machinery of censorship protecting not children but the reputation of the occupying force. But Thoby also knew the facts were true, and he wanted to honor the reality that in the numerous cases of rapes by marines, families, either by shame or fear of reprisals, had always avoided making complaint or publishing the facts. Of course, many women had reported this violence, but Thoby assumed there were many more unaccounted for. The unnamed eleven-year-old girl joined the unnamed femme du peuple, the unnamed hundreds of marchers — the archive of the occupation was populated by women whose suffering was documented but whose names were not deemed worthy of preservation.