Max Hudicourt
| Max Hudicourt | |
|---|---|
Portrait of Max Hudicourt
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| Personal details | |
| Born |
June 25, 1907 Port-au-Prince, Haiti |
| Died | May 4, 1947 (aged 39) Port-au-Prince, Haiti |
| Nationality | Haitian |
| Political party | Parti Socialiste Populaire |
| Spouse(s) | 1) Marie Bellegarde 2) Julie Bartoli |
| Occupation | Politician, journalist, activist |
| Profession | Lawyer |
| Religion | Methodist |
Max Lélio Hudicourt (June 25, 1907 – May 4, 1947) was a Haitian lawyer, journalist and leading socialist politician.
Hudicourt was born in Port-au-Prince to an elite light-skinned family, but spent his childhood in Jérémie, his mother's hometown. He moved to Port-au-Prince at to pursue a higher education and attend Law School. He was strongly influenced during those years by his uncle and mentor Pierre Hudicourt, with whom he lived, and who was a lawyer and Senator. He became politically active during the 1920s, becoming known as a gifted orator and contributor to leftist publications. When he graduated from law school, he worked in his uncle's law firm.
In 1933 occupying US Marines sought to rid Haiti of Marxist influence, launching a campaign for "The Suppression of Bolshevist Activities". Hudicourt was arrested, tried, and sentenced to three months in prison for purportedly being a communist along with Jacques Roumain. After his trial, Hudicourt made clear that while he identified the ideology's principles he was not personally a communist. A hunger strike and international attention won him and Roumain early releases from prison.
He continued to be an outspoken dissident against President Sténio Vincent, who he felt betrayed Haiti's nationalist movement by allying with the United States after the Marines withdrew. When Vincent declared his regime a dictatorship in 1938, Hudicourt helped organize a large demonstrations to which the authorities responded with severe repression. As protest leaders were rounded up and jailed, Hudicourt narrowly escaped arrest by fleeing to New York.
When he returned two years later after Élie Lescot succeeded Vincent in the presidency, he was immediately put under police surveillance. In 1941 he criticized a police chief while campaigning for a congressional seat. The police attacked him, beating him up, and Hudicourt was again exiled to the Dominican Republic and then New York.
He returned in 1942 after negotiations and was allowed to print a daily socialist newspaper called La Nation. He financed the paper from his own funds, raised from a small Pétion-Ville moviehouse he co-owned. It became the longest running Marxist daily in Haitian history and was widely circulated among literate urban workers.
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