1935–1950s: (Historical Accountability and the Oral Archive — In More Than Forty Oral Histories Collected for the Project the Work of the LFAS Repeatedly Sum…

1935–1950s: (Historical Accountability and the Oral Archive — In More Than Forty Oral Histories Collected for the Project the Work of the LFAS Repeatedly Summed Up as “Oh Those Women Who Got Dressed Up to Have Tea — Yes They Won the Right to Vote,” Revealing a Simultaneous Recognition of Political Significance and Disavowal of the LFAS’s Political Praxis, LFAS Women Characterized as Conservative Grandmothers of a More Radical Late Twentieth-Century Women’s Movement, Their Work Routinely Oversimplified as Both Perfunctory and Pioneering, and the Question — How Do We Historically Locate an Opulent Foreign-Educated Self-Interested Burgeoning Professionalized Class of Women Who Understood Themselves as Descendants of 1804 Haitian Revolutionaries Used and Studied Women and Boldly Called Themselves Feminists): In the more than forty oral histories Sanders Johnson collected, the work of the LFAS was repeatedly summed up by responses like the one given by a Haitian community activist and great-niece of an LFAS member: “Oh, those women who got dressed up to have tea. Yes, they won the right the vote.” This response revealed a simultaneous recognition of political significance and disavowal of the LFAS’s political praxis. On the rare occasion when their comportment was not mentioned, LFAS women were characterized as conservative grandmothers of a more radical, late twentieth-century women’s movement. Between the oral and traditional historical records, LFAS women’s work has been routinely oversimplified as both perfunctory and pioneering. On either end of this spectrum, these women’s work and feminist history have not “fit” in the polemic history and historiography of radical or conservative post-US occupation Haitian politics. Given this historical disorientation and silence, Sanders Johnson asks: How do we historically locate an opulent, foreign-educated, self-interested, burgeoning professionalized class of women who understood themselves as the descendants of 1804 Haitian revolutionaries, used and studied women, and boldly called themselves feminists?