April 20, 2019 recalls the 29th anniversary of the largest demonstration of the Haitian Diaspora (April 20, 1990) in the United States on the Brooklyn Bridge in downtown Manhattan, which brought together more than 100,000 Haitians came to denounce the recommendation of the Federal Drug Administration (FDA) of February 1990, which forbade Haitians to donate blood, because they were supposed to be a group at high risk of AIDS...

A recommendation based on a 1983 amalgamation of the Center for Disease Control (CDC) that included in a non-scientific way Haitians with homosexuals, hemophiliacs and users of hypodermic needles to create the risk group "4H".

Recall that on April 20, 1990, supported by many doctors and scientists, the Haitian community of the diaspora mobilized to ask the CDC to cancel this designation. This impressive mobilization, which surrounded the federal building at the bottom of Broadway, completely overwhelmed New York City police, forcing the closure of Wall Street and most businesses in lower Manhattan. The size of the mobilization, the motivation of the protesters and the excesses... had caused a shock wave in the American political establishment.

Following this massive demonstration, a month later the US Government finally yielded to pressure from the Haitian community and revised the ban.

On this special anniversary day, Mamatha Irene Ternier, the Minister of Haitians Living Abroad, invites all Haitian communities in the Diaspora to reflect on their participation in the country's development process, stressing that it is "an opportunity for our compatriots of the Diaspora who have represented Haiti in their host countries with dignity to celebrate this unforgettable day."

TB/ HaitiLibre