1946, January 12 – August 16: (An Example of Professionalism: The Comité Exécutif Militaire, Sylvio Cator as Mayor, the Mangeurs-Mulâtres, Fignolé’s MOP, and…

1946, January 12 – August 16: (An Example of Professionalism: The Comité Exécutif Militaire, Sylvio Cator as Mayor, the Mangeurs-Mulâtres, Fignolé’s MOP, and Dr. Duvalier as Abderrahman): The Garde junta that had taken hold — the Comité Exécutif Militaire — was headed by Colonel Lavaud of Jérémie, seconded by Major Antoine Levelt of the Artibonite and the compact, decisive commander of the Garde Présidentielle, Major Paul E. Magloire of Quartier Morin. Lavaud and Levelt were mulâtres; Magloire was a noir. The junta dissolved the Lescot legislature and appointed Haiti’s greatest athlete, the legendary Olympic track star and genial owner of the Café Savoy, Sylvio Cator, as mayor of Port-au-Prince. Violence directed by elements calling themselves the proletariat against elite mulâtres mounted steadily — shops including the large Bata department store were looted, and the Comité momentarily offered to transfer power to the Cour de Cassation, an honor the jurists quickly declined. Political parties bloomed like a hundred flowers — among numerous presidential hopefuls were Price-Mars, Perceval Thoby, Senator Marcel Fombrun, Duvigneaud, and Dumarsais Estimé. Strikes popped like firecrackers against SHADA, Plantation Dauphin, the wharf, and at HASCO, where the firebrand noir leader was a former mathematics teacher, Daniel Fignolé, whose every sentence intoxicated Port-au-Prince workers. Fignolé of course had a party, Mouvement Ouvriers Paysans — his secretary general was a taciturn, unsmiling noir M.D., that Dr. Duvalier who had been writing political tracts a decade previously under the pen name Abderrahman. One common thrust was race: on every hand noirs — mangeurs-mulâtres they called themselves — were breathing threats and hatred toward jaunes. Elections for twenty-one Senate seats and ninety-seven deputies were proclaimed for May 12 under the no-nonsense electoral procedures of 1930 — the communists got Max Hudicourt and Dr. Rigaud elected to the Senate, while Fignolé was defeated, his supporters erupting in a fierce riot that the Garde broke up with kokomakak and tear gas. With Comité backing, alarmed moderates resurrected the liberal 1932 constitution on August 12, and elections were scheduled for August 16. The chief candidates were Bignon Pierre-Louis, Edgar Néré Numa, Colonel Calixte, and Dumarsais Estimé.