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1929-12-00

1929-12-00: (The Les Cayes Massacre, U.S.

Haitian

1929-12-00: (The Les Cayes Massacre, U.S. Marines Firing on Unarmed Haitian Civilians Protesting the Great Depression, Killing Twelve and Triggering a Presidential Investigation That Would Lead to the End of the Occupation): In December 1929, over 1,500 Haitians armed with stones and clubs in the southern coastal town of Les Cayes staged a protest march against the economic devastation of the Great Depression. The twenty U.S. Marines stationed in the town opened fire on the unarmed civilians, killing twelve Haitians. The Les Cayes Massacre was a miniature echo of every colonial atrocity in Haitian history: armed Europeans firing on unarmed Black people who had the audacity to protest their own suffering. Concerned about the impact of the massacre on American foreign relations, President Herbert Hoover authorized the Forbes Commission to investigate the U.S. military occupation. The commission arrived in Haiti in February 1930 and recommended that Borno end his rule and turn over power to a provisional government. The massacre that killed twelve people accomplished what nineteen years of occupation had not: it forced the United States to begin planning its withdrawal.