1950-12-06: (Paul Magloire Inaugurated as President, a Black Military Officer Co-opted by the Mulatto Elite Who Presided Over a Brief Tourism Boom Before Bei…

1950-12-06: (Paul Magloire Inaugurated as President, a Black Military Officer Co-opted by the Mulatto Elite Who Presided Over a Brief Tourism Boom Before Being Overthrown by the Forces That Would Bring Duvalier to Power): On December 6, 1950, Paul Magloire was inaugurated as president. Born on July 19, 1907, in Cap-Haïtien, the son of a Black peasant, Magloire had risen through the National Guard and participated in the coup that brought Estimé to power. The mulatto elite then convinced Magloire to overthrow Estimé when the Black president’s reforms threatened their economic interests. A new constitution was promulgated that granted women the right to vote with their husband’s permission. During Magloire’s presidency, Haiti became a popular tourist destination for Americans, and high coffee prices temporarily boosted the economy. But the prosperity was shallow: the tourism served a thin elite, the coffee boom was cyclical, and when Hurricane Hazel hit Haiti in October 1954, the devastation exposed the fragility of Magloire’s economic achievements. Magloire resigned on December 12, 1956, and went into exile, leaving behind a power vacuum that five different men would claim over the next eleven months before François Duvalier won the presidency.