Happy Birthday America from the Haitian-American Community
By Daniel JD Bayard
Author of the Triumph To Tragedy Series of Novels. Learn More.
Taught from an early age to Love This Country
As I was completing the installation of our American Flag in front of the gate yesterday, I paused in awe to contemplate the incredible journey our country has taken over the past 247 years and how my fellow Haitian-American family has stood shoulder to shoulder with their adopted home.
I remember the day, when I was about five years old in the early sixties, that my Godfather Karl gifted me an American sailor's uniform to mimic the one he wore as an enlisted man in the navy alongside his brother Max. Then there was his brother Patrick; the Green Beret in the family routinely dropped behind enemy lines for some secret mission. At the same time, my cousin Guy, always the boisterous one, would chide them about the superiority of his Marine brothers over them, and my cousin Serge later fought in Vietnam and received a Purple Heart for his injury from a grenade and still suffers from the effects of Agent Orange today. And I could name so many other cousins like Hans in the Marines or Patrick in the Air Force.
Standing Shoulder-to-Shoulder from the American Revolution through Today
But fighting alongside our American brothers was not a new thing. Most people are unaware that Haitian soldiers fought alongside the patriots in the American Revolution against the British and lost many lives in the most brutal of battles attempting to dislodge the British in 1779 from Savannah, Georgia. Georgians even erected a statue in Franklyn Square in downtown Savannah as a tribute to remember their sacrifice 245 years ago.
And while remembering those early warriors, we must also pay tribute to the Haitian pilots who were members of the famed Tuskegee Airmen, the Haitian Airforce, and Coastguard who patrolled the Caribbean for German U-Boats during WW-II and the ultimate sacrifice of Haitian-American soldiers in Afghanistan and Iraq while on the subject.
Haitian Tuskegee Airmen
Our family was from the wave who migrated from Haiti during the late fifties to flee the dictatorship of Francois (Papa Doc) Duvalier. Our parents instilled in us the importance of paying our gratitude forward as a tribute to this great country that allowed us the opportunity to live and prosper here. My parents arrived penniless from Haiti due to confiscation of their assets, but within seven years had attained the American dream of moving to the suburbs, a garage with 2 cars, and superior schools for their kids than those found in New York’s city at the time.
Celebrating this Great Country Together with You
My uncle was a Colonel in the Haitian army and the military attache in Washington DC and his wife, my aunt, seamstress to the famed Jacqueline Kennedy. Our family gatherings were a testament to the assimilation that most Haitian-Americans strive for as I listened through my formative years of the progress, aspirations, and accomplishments of my extended family that demanded excellence and achievement in their adopted home of the United States as if they had everything to
Humble, Grateful and Embracing the American Way!
prove to be accepted here. My sisters Marie-Denise, Jacky, and Mica all became small business owners and employers with Mica later becoming an engineer and VP of a phone company.
But this ethic of work, advancement, and contribution is not exclusive to my family or personal experiences. Look around and see how Haitian Americans contribute and strive to enjoy and participate in the American dream. The KATO research institute points out; Haitians are twice more enlisted into the armed forces as a percentage of the population, 94% have attained college or high school degrees, and 82% are currently gainfully employed in the workforce compared to 60% of all citizens born here.
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Your Haitian-American fellow citizens run universities, hospitals, and automotive manufacturing, and are engaged in sports, politics, movies, education, healthcare, and the arts as well as every other sphere of industry and influence in this great country. We Haitian Americans love America and prove our loyalty, respect, and gratitude every day as we strive to assimilate into this great society while always remembering where we come from and the opportunities our new country has provided us.
