Hosted by the LSBA Committee on Diversity in the Legal Profession’s
Pipeline to Diversity and Outreach Subcommittee
in partnership with Adams and Reese, LLP
This CLE seminar has reached maximum capacity.
African Americans and Haiti: An International Perspective on Racial Justice and the Law - Black History Month CLE webinar
In
The Black Republic, Brandon R. Byrd explores the ambivalent attitudes that African American leaders in the post-Civil War era held toward Haiti, the first and only black republic in the Western Hemisphere. Following emancipation, African American leaders of all kinds—politicians, journalists, ministers, writers, educators, artists, and diplomats—identified new and urgent connections with Haiti, a nation long understood as an example of black self-determination. They celebrated not only its diplomatic recognition by the United States but also the renewed relevance of the Haitian Revolution.
While a number of African American leaders defended the sovereignty of a black republic whose fate they saw as intertwined with their own, others expressed concern over Haiti's fitness as a model black republic, scrutinizing whether the nation truly reflected the "civilized" progress of the black race. Influenced by the imperialist rhetoric of their day, many African Americans across the political spectrum espoused a politics of racial uplift, taking responsibility for the "improvement" of Haitian education, politics, culture, and society. They considered Haiti an uncertain experiment in black self-governance: it might succeed and vindicate the capabilities of African Americans demanding their own right to self-determination or it might fail and condemn the black diasporic population to second-class status for the foreseeable future.
When the United States military occupied Haiti in 1915, it created a crisis for W. E. B. Du Bois and other black activists and intellectuals who had long grappled with the meaning of Haitian independence. The resulting demand for and idea of a liberated Haiti became a cornerstone of the anticapitalist, anticolonial, and antiracist radical black internationalism that flourished between World War I and World War II. Spanning the Reconstruction, post-Reconstruction, and Jim Crow eras,
The Black Republic recovers a crucial and overlooked chapter of African American internationalism and political thought.
Registered attendees: On the morning of the event, an email will be sent to your email account registered with the LSBA. The email will provide a link with detailed instructions for how to join the webinar. The confirmation email will come from no-reply@zoom.us.
You can manage your LSBA membership account by clicking here.
Date: February 26, 2021
Location: WEBINAR
Registration Fee: FREE
Schedule: 12:00 p.m. - 1:15 p.m.
CLE Credit hour: 1.25 CLE credit hours (General)
Cancellation Policy: If you must cancel your registration, kindly contact the Member Outreach and Diversity team at diversity@lsba.org by
February 19, 2021 so we can cancel your registration.
Please note that space is limited.
If you prefer not to register online,
please click here for the Attorney Registration Form. Submission instructions are on the form. If you are a out-of-state attorney,
please click here for the Out-Of-State Attorney registration form. If you are not an attorney,
please click here for the Non-Attorney Registration Form. If you are a law student,
please click here for the student registration form. Students should submit this form to diversity@lsba.org.
For more information, contact the Member Outreach and Diversity team by email at diversity@lsba.org.
Event Schedule
12:00 p.m. - 1:15 p.m. - "
African Americans and Haiti: An International Perspective on Racial Justice and the Law"