Francois & Jean-Claude Duvalier
By: Dakota Clark
Francois/ Jean-Claude Duvalier
From the 1940's to the 1950's Francois Duvalier known as "Papa Doc" was president in 1957. Papa doc was aided by his son Duvalier who was also known as "Baby Doc". His presidency soon began to turn into a dictatorship. Upon Duvalier's death his son came into power, he declared himself president for life. Duvalier became active in black nationalist causes. He then went into a group called the Le Group de Griots in which this group embraced black nationalism arguing for the national Haiti. Baby doc took his fathers ideas of dictatorship and switched a lot of it into his own ideas. Most of his ideas in the end turned out to be really bad for the people of Haiti.
Jean Claude Duvalier 19 years old 1971-1
More About The Video
This video being displayed really showed how crazy Haiti was. They elected Baby Doc at the age of 19 years old. This early presidency really made some people mad but it also made other people excited. His way of leadership was a dictatorship. The people of Haiti were really not used to this way of dictatorship and Haiti went to trash. He thought to himself without a bloody campaign he could not save his regime in which he wanted to protect. People all around the world are very surprised on why he wasn't fired from his position or why no one spoke up to the things that he was doing wrong all along.
Creative Piece/ Letter To The Leader
Dear, Jean-Claude Duvalier
I am a citizen of Haiti and I am writing to you about how bad of a job you did with your dictatorship. The people of Haiti have been treated very poorly because of you and none of us Haitians are ok with it. You have been the leader of our dictatorship for 15 years and those 15 years were terrible. Let this settle in "Baby Doc" here is a list of things you did to the people. There was corruption, embezzlement, murder, torture, exile, arbitrary detention and destruction of private property. These are all things that a good leader would never do. I hope that this letter reaches you well. Thank you for your time in reading this and hopefully you have learned from your mistakes.
Thanks, Haiti Citizen
Essential Question
Did the legacy of Francois and his son Claude Duvalier of Haiti leave a lasting impact or did he leave off on a bad note?