This past week 225 years ago, on August 21, 1791, Haiti began a decades-long process to become what would be the first and only successful slave revolt in the New World, creating the first black republic in the Western Hemisphere. Why is this important, you may ask? What is #BlackAugust? These are questions not actively put forth by the media in the public sphere and it is far easier for mass media outlets to cover the White, nationalist antics of Trump or harass Jill Stein for trying to move political discourse to the left. #BlackAugust is celebrated among activists - particularly black radicals - as a month full of history of black resistance against colonialism, white supremacy, slavery, capitalism and other systems of marginalization. It is a curious coincidence that George Jackson, a young member of the Black Panthers, was executed in prison by the state in 1971 on the same date. The radical organization Critical Resistance states, “The month of August bursts at the seams with histories of Black resistance – from the Haitian Revolution to the Nat Turner Rebellion, from the Fugitive Slave Law Convention and the foundation of the Underground Railroad to the Brotherhood of Sleeping Car Porters." CR lists many more moments of black resistance, but their concluding statement is most indicative of the spirit of #BlackAugust: “We celebrate Black August, commemorating the anniversary of George Jackson’s death while understanding his life as a revolutionary in a long and unbroken line of resistance and sacrifice of Black people throughout history.”

While #BlackAugust is celebrated with George Jackson’s all too short revolutionary life in mind, the happenstance of his death lining up with the Haitian Revolution is particularly noteworthy for what the revolution represented – black people freeing themselves from their oppressors. Most think of Haiti and think an earthquake-prone, debt-ridden country is lesser in contrast to its glamorous sister to the East (the Dominican Republic). Haiti constituted one of the hugest financial losses to France, and its independence directly contributed to the rise of Jacobins over the aristocracy in 1793. Toussaint L’Overture was the primary leader of the slave revolt, and his success over the planter class allowed him to ascend to Governorship over the island. Notably, two of his main accomplishments were the abolition of slavery and the expulsion of all whites from Hispaniola, as even non-landowning whites were allies of the planters.

In the contemporary period, #BlackLivesMatter and other agitators against police brutality are all too aware of their history, of the example of Haiti, of what is possible against globalist colonization. It is through this tradition of black revolution that protesters declare #NoJusticeNoPeace, and demand that white Americans choose the side of the oppressed. I believe that if we fail to listen, a worse fate than that of the white planters of Haiti may await us... not out of vengeance, but out of justice.