Pierre-Eustache Daniel Fignolé (1913–1986) was a Haitian politician who became Haiti's provisional head of state for three weeks in 1957. He was one of the most influential leaders in the pre-Duvalier era, a liberal labor organizer in Port-au-Prince so popular among urban workers that he could call upon them at a moment's notice to hold mass protests, known as "woulo konpresè" — Haitian Creole for "streamroller."
Fignolé was born in the coastal ...
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Pierre-Eustache Daniel Fignolé (1913–1986) was a Haitian politician who became Haiti's provisional head of state for three weeks in 1957. He was one of the most influential leaders in the pre-Duvalier era, a liberal labor organizer in Port-au-Prince so popular among urban workers that he could call upon them at a moment's notice to hold mass protests, known as "woulo konpresè" — Haitian Creole for "streamroller."
Fignolé was born in the coastal town of Pestel to an impoverished family and moved to Port-au-Prince in 1927 at age 14 to seek education and work. Despite constant ill health because of chronic malnutrition, he excelled in school and was accepted to one of the city's most prestigious institutions. He made a living tutoring the children of Haiti's wealthy elite.
Fignolé co-founded in 1942 a newspaper called Chantiers with a liberal noiriste political slant. In it he lambasted Haïtï's mulatto elite for their selfishness and argued for broad social programs to uplift the...
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