title: Archie Moore

text: He attended segregated all-Black schools in St. Louis, including Lincoln High School, although he never graduated. His uncle and aunt provided him with a stable upbringing, but after his uncle died in a freak accident around 1928, Moore began running with a street gang. One of his first thefts was a pair of oil lamps from his home, which he sold so that he would have money to buy boxing gloves. He later recalled of his stealing: "It was inevitable that I would be caught. I think I knew this even before I started, but somehow the urge to have a few cents in my pocket made me overlook this eventuality". After he was arrested for attempting to steal change from a motorman's box on a streetcar, he was sentenced to a three-year term at a reform school in Booneville, Missouri. He was released early from the school for good behavior after serving twenty-two months.


title: Archie Moore

text: Around 1933 Moore joined the Civilian Conservation Corps, working for the forestry division at a camp in Poplar Bluff, Missouri. Determined to become a boxer, he decided to make his work at the camp a form of training. He later recalled that the other boys constantly kidded him about one daily exercise—standing upright in the bed of a truck as it drove along primitive forest roads, waiting until the last possible moment before ducking or weaving away from tree branches.


title: Archie Moore

text: The captain of the camp permitted him to organize a boxing team, which competed in Golden Gloves tournaments in southern Missouri and Illinois. Many of his fights occurred in a racially charged atmosphere; he later described one of them, against a white boxer named Bill Richardson in Poplar Bluff:I knocked him down with a volley of head punches about one minute into round one. His brother ... was the referee. He was furious at me and told me to keep my punches up. Since I had been hitting Bill in the head I would have missed him altogether if I threw my punches any higher. But the referee said I had fouled him. ... I got steamed at this and offered to fight [the referee], too. I resolved not to hit Bill any place but his head. ... In the second round I dropped him with a left hook that spun his head like a top. ... I heard a man at ringside say, "For two cents I'd shoot that nigger."


title: Archie Moore

text: Moore had four fights in 1941, during which he went 2–1–1, with the draw against Eddie Booker. By then, however, he had suffered through several stomach ulcers and the resulting operations, and had announced his retirement from boxing.


title: Archie Moore

text: His retirement was brief. By 1942 he was back in the ring. He won his first six bouts that year, including a second-round knockout of Hogue in a rematch, and a ten-round decision over Jack Chase. He met Booker in a rematch, and reached the same conclusion as their first meeting had: another 10-round draw.


title: Archie Moore

text: In 1943, Moore fought seven bouts, winning five and losing two. He won and then lost the California State Middleweight title against Chase, both by 15-round decisions, and beat Chase again in his last bout of that year, in a ten-round decision. He also lost a decision to Aaron Wade that year.


title: Archie Moore

text: In 1944, he had nine bouts, going 7–2. His last bout that year marked his debut on the Atlantic Coast, and the level of his opposition began to improve. He beat Jimmy Hayden by a knockout in five, lost to future Hall of Famer Charlie Burley by a decision, and to Booker by a knockout in eight.


title: Archie Moore

text: He won his first eight bouts of 1945, impressing Atlantic coast boxing experts and earning a fight with light heavyweight Jimmy Bivins, a boxer that was not considered a hard puncher, who defeated Moore by a knockout in six at Cleveland. He returned to the Eastern Seaboard to fight five more times before that year was over. He met, among others, light heavyweight Holman Williams during that span, losing a ten-round decision, and knocking him out in eleven in the rematch.


title: Archie Moore

text: By 1946, Moore had moved to the light heavyweight division and he went 5–2–1 that year, beating contender Curtis Sheppard, but losing to future World Heavyweight Champion and Hall of Famer Ezzard Charles by a decision in ten, and drawing with old nemesis Chase. By then, Moore began complaining publicly that, according to him, none of boxing's world champions would risk their titles fighting him. 1947 was essentially a year of rematches for Moore. He went 7–1 that year, his one loss being to Charles. He beat Chase by a knockout in nine, Sheppard by a decision in ten and Bivins by a knockout in nine. He also defeated Burt Lytell, by a decision in ten.


title: Archie Moore

text: On June 2nd, 1948, Leonard Morrow (12-2) KO’d Archie Moore (92-14-7) in the first round to win the California light heavyweight championship.


title: Archie Moore

text: Years later when asked about the fight with Morrow, Archie would claim he had accidentally fouled Morrow and reached out his hand as a sign of an apology, but this wasn’t what happened. He had also forgotten he had told the newspapers what had really happened while he was in California before his fight with Bob Dunlap, saying, “I never dreamed this kid could hurt me. I thought I’d spar a bit and see what he had. He hit me hard. I got up and he swarmed all over me. Never was I so humiliated.”


title: Archie Moore

text: He fought a solid 14 fights in 1948, losing again to Charles by a knockout in nine, losing to Henry Hall by a decision in ten and to Lloyd Gibson by a disqualification in four. But he also beat Ted Lowry, by a decision in ten, and Hall in a rematch, also by decision.


title: Archie Moore

text: In 1949, he had 13 bouts, going 12–1. He defeated the "Alabama Kid" twice; by knockout in four and by knockout in three, Bob Satterfield by a knockout in three, Bivins by a knockout in eight, future World Light Heavyweight Champion and IBHOF inductee Harold Johnson by a decision, Bob Sikes by a knockout in three and Phil Muscato by a decision. He lost to Clinton Bacon by a disqualification in six. By Moore's standards, 1950 was a vacation year for him: he only had two fights, winning both, including a 10-round decision in a rematch with Lydell.


title: Archie Moore

text: In 1951, Moore boxed 18 times, winning 16, losing one, and drawing one. He went on an Argentinian tour, fighting seven times there, winning six and drawing one. In between those seven fights, he found time for a trip to Montevideo, Uruguay, where he defeated Vicente Quiroz by a knockout in six. He knocked out Bivins in nine and split two decisions with Johnson.


title: Archie Moore

text: 1952 was one of the most important years in Moore's life. After beating Johnson, heavyweight contenders Jimmy Slade, Bob Dunlap, and Clarence Henry and light heavyweight Clinton Bacon (knocked out in four in a rematch), Moore was finally given an opportunity at age 36 (he later learned he was actually nearly 39, his mother confirming he had been born in 1913, not 1916) to fight for the title of World Light Heavyweight Champion against future IBHOF honoree Joey Maxim. Maxim had just defeated the great Sugar Ray Robinson by a technical knockout in 14 rounds, forcing Robinson to quit in his corner due to heat exhaustion. Against Maxim, Moore consistently landed powerful right hands, hurting him several times en route to a fifteen-round decision. After sixteen long years, he had finally achieved his dream. The next year, Moore won all nine of his bouts, including a 10-round, non-title win against then fringe heavyweight contender Nino Valdez of Cuba and a 15-round decision over Maxim in a rematch to retain the belt. He made two more bouts in Argentina before the end of the year.


title: Archie Moore

text: In 1954, he had only four fights, retaining the title in a third fight with Maxim, who once again went the 15 round distance, and versus Johnson, whom he knocked out in 14. He also beat highly ranked heavyweight Bob Baker. In 1955, Moore again beat Valdez, who by that time was the no. 1 heavyweight contender, and defended against Bobo Olson, the World Middleweight Champion and future Hall of Famer who was coming off a decision victory over Joey Maxim, by a knockout in three.


title: Archie Moore

text: "The Mongoose" received two cracks at the heavyweight championship of the world. On September 21, 1955, Moore faced future Hall of Famer Rocky Marciano at New York's Yankee Stadium. It was in this fight Archie came closest to wearing the belt. A Moore surprise right hand in the 2nd round sent Marciano down for the second and final time in his career, setting the stage for a legendary battle, but also creating controversy as far as shared memory. In subsequent years Moore made much of Referee Harry Kessler's handling of the pivotal moment. A half-decade on, in Archie's autobiography, "The Archie Moore Story" (1960), he describes in detail the referee, though Rocky arose at "two", continuing a superfluous mandatory eight-count: "...Kessler went on, three, four. The mandatory count does not apply in championship bouts (1955)...My seconds were screaming for me to finish him and I moved to do so, but Kessler...carefully wiped off Rocky's gloves, giving him another few seconds...he gave him a sort of stiff jerk, which may have helped Rocky clear his head." Moore admits to being angry enough at what he saw as interference, he went recklessly, "blind and stupid with rage", going for the knockout, toe-to-toe. This resentment toward referee Kessler appears only to have grown more entrenched. By the time of a recorded interview with Peter Heller, in October, 1970, Archie had this to say: "(Kessler) had no business refereeing that match because he was too excitable. He didn't know what to do...He grabbed Marciano's gloves and began to wipe Marciano's gloves and look over his shoulder...I'll never forget it. It cost me the heavyweight title."


title: Archie Moore

text: This grudge, however, was not mutual. In his own autobiography, Harry Kessler indeed recounts Marciano-Moore with a great excitement, frequently employing exclamation marks in his punctuation, going so far as a direct comparison to the donnybrook between Jack Dempsey and Luis Firpo. Yet, the third man is evenhanded in his praise, taking time over most of a chapter on the bout, to laud Moore. His praise for Moore include the following quotes:


title: Archie Moore

text: "Archie Moore had more punches in his arsenal than Robin Hood and all his Merry Men had arrows in their quivers..."


title: Archie Moore

text: As for the knockdown, described here also in detail, Kessler offers a perspective directly contradicting Moore's, saying "I didn't bother to wipe Marciano's gloves on my shirt before I waved them back to combat; that early in the drama, there was no resin on the canvas." As opposed to any blind rage, Kessler states that "Archie hesitated a couple of seconds before he came in." With humor and without malice, Kessler even recounts the 38-year-old Moore poo-pooing any talk of retirement at the postfight press conference, then sitting in on bass fiddle at a hotspot in Greenwich Village until 5 A.M.!


title: Archie Moore

text: Examination of the original, uncut closed circuit broadcast from 1955, shows no excesses in referee involvement. Marciano arises at "two", but the voice of Al Berl, assigned the counting for knockdowns, continues to "four". In harmony with Archie's further 1960 description, Marciano has moved to the ropes and rests an elbow. Moore is already moving toward him. Kessler flashes onscreen quickly, then away again, as though he had meant to separate the fighters. He is perpendicular to Marciano's chest, and his right hand waves rapidly near Rocky's left glove. Kessler reverses out as fast as he has come into frame, with no wiping of Marciano's gloves, and the action resumes. Marciano recovered, and went on to knock Moore down five times, finally knocking him out in the ninth to retain the belt. It was Marciano's sixth and last title defense, before retiring in 1956.


title: Archie Moore

text: In 1956, Moore fought mostly as a heavyweight but did retain his Light Heavyweight title with a ten-round knockout over Yolande Pompey in London. He won 11 bouts in a row before challenging again for the World Heavyweight Championship. The title was left vacant by Marciano, but Moore lost to Floyd Patterson by a knockout in five (Patterson, yet another future Hall of Famer, himself made history that night, becoming, at the age of 21, the youngest World Heavyweight Champion yet, a record he would hold until 1986).


title: Archie Moore

text: Moore won all six of his bouts during 1957. Among those wins was an easy 10-round decision over heavyweight contender Hans Kalbfell in Germany, a knockout in 7 rounds over highly ranked Tony Anthony to retain the light heavyweight title, a one-sided 10-round decision over light heavyweight contender Eddie Cotton in a non-title bout and a 4th-round knockout of future top ten heavyweight contender Roger Rischer.


title: Archie Moore

text: In 1958, Moore had 10 fights, going 9–0–1 during that span. His fight with Yvon Durelle in particular was of note: defending his world light heavyweight title in Montreal, Quebec, Canada, he was felled three times in round one, and once again in round five, but then dropped Durelle in round 10 and won by a knockout in the 11th. 1959, his last full year as uncontested champion, was another rare low-profile year; in his two fights, he beat Sterling Davis by a knockout in three, and then Durelle again, also by a knockout in three, to once again retain his World Light Heavyweight title.


title: Archie Moore

text: In 1960, Moore was stripped of his World Light Heavyweight title by the National Boxing Association (NBA), but continued to be recognized by most major boxing authorities including the New York State Athletic Commission and The Ring Magazine. Moore won three of his four bouts in 1960, one by decision against Buddy Turman in Dallas, his lone loss coming in a ten-round decision versus Giulio Rinaldi in Rome. In 1961, he defeated Turman again by decision in Manila, Philippines before defending his Lineal World Light Heavyweight Championship for what would be the last time, beating Rinaldi by a 15-round decision to retain the belt. In his last fight that year, he once again ventured into the heavyweights, and met Pete Rademacher, a man who had made history earlier in his career by becoming the first man ever to challenge for a world title in his first professional bout (when he lost to Patterson by a knockout in six). Moore beat Rademacher by a knockout in nine.


title: Archie Moore

text: In 1962, the remaining boxing commissions that had continued to back Moore as the World Light Heavyweight Champion withdrew their recognition. He campaigned exclusively as a heavyweight from then on, and beat Alejandro Lavorante by a knockout in 10 and Howard King by a knockout in one round in Tijuana. He then drew against future World Light Heavyweight Champion Willie Pastrano in a 10-round heavyweight contest. On the posters advertising that fight, Moore was billed as the "World Light Heavyweight Champion." The bout took place in California, which had not yet withdrawn recognition from Moore at the time the Moore-Pastrano fight was signed. By the time the bout took place, the California commission, like New York, Massachusetts, the EBU and Ring Magazine, had recognized Harold Johnson, who had beaten Doug Jones 16 days earlier, as the new Light Heavyweight Champion. Johnson had reigned as the NBA (WBA) Champion since February 7, 1961.


title: Archie Moore

text: Then, in his last fight of note, Moore faced a young heavyweight out of Louisville named Cassius Clay (Muhammad Ali). Moore had been Clay's trainer for a time, but Clay became dissatisfied and left Moore because of Moore's attempts to change his style and his insistence that Clay do dishes and help clean gym floors. In the days before the fight, Clay had rhymed that "Archie Moore...Must fall in four." Moore replied that he had perfected a new punch for the match: The Lip-Buttoner. Nonetheless, as Clay predicted, Moore was beaten by a knockout in four rounds. Moore is the only man to have faced both Rocky Marciano and Muhammad Ali. After one more fight in 1963, a third-round knockout win over Mike DiBiase in Phoenix, Moore announced his retirement from boxing, for good.


title: Archie Moore

text: Despite retiring, Moore couldn't escape the limelight, and received numerous awards and dedications. In 1965, he was given the key to the city of San Diego, California. In 1970, he was named "Man of The Year" by "Listen Magazine", and received the key to the city of Sandpoint, Idaho. He was elected in 1985 to the St. Louis city Boxing Hall of Fame and he received the Rocky Marciano Memorial Award in the city of New York in 1988. In 1990, he became a member of the International Boxing Hall of Fame in Canastota, New York, being one of the original members of that institution.


title: Archie Moore

text: At one point the oldest boxer to win the World's Light Heavyweight Championship, he is believed to have been the only boxer who boxed professionally in the eras of Joe Louis, Rocky Marciano and Muhammad Ali. He is one of only a handful of boxers whose careers spanned four decades, retiring with a final record of 185 wins, 23 losses, 11 draws and 1 no contest, with 131 official knockouts.


title: Archie Moore

text: However, at least three of Moore's 131 knockouts came in less-than-competitive matches against pro wrestlers: "Professor" Roy Shire in 1956, Sterling Davis in 1959 and Mike DiBiase in 1963 (Moore's 131st and final knockout). All three matches are officially listed as third-round TKO stoppages. The second-highest amount of knockouts in boxing history is 128, which belongs to Sam Langford .


title: Archie Moore

text: During the 1960s he founded an organization called Any Boy Can, which taught boxing to underprivileged youth in the San Diego area. In 1974 he helped train heavyweight boxer George Foreman for his famous "Rumble in the Jungle" title bout in Zaire against Muhammad Ali. In 1976 he served as an assistant coach for the Nigerian Olympic boxing team. Actively involved in efforts to teach children about the dangers of drug abuse, he worked during the 1980s as a youth boxing instructor for the federal Department of Housing and Urban Development, assigned largely to ghettos in San Diego and Los Angeles. "I try to pass on the arts I know: self-control, self-reliance, self-defense," he told a reporter. In the early 1990s he again worked as a trainer for George Foreman.


title: Archie Moore

text: In 1960, Moore was chosen to play the role of the runaway slave Jim in Michael Curtiz's "The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn", based on the Mark Twain novel, opposite Eddie Hodges as Huck. Moore garnered positive reviews for his sympathetic portrayal of Jim, which some viewers still consider the best interpretation of this much-filmed role.


title: Archie Moore

text: Moore did not choose to pursue a full-time career as an actor, but he did appear in films such as "The Carpetbaggers" (1964), "The Hanged Man" (1964) and "The Fortune Cookie" (1966), and on television in episodes of "Family Affair", "Perry Mason", "Wagon Train", "The Reporter", "Batman" (episode 35) and the soap opera "One Life to Live". He also appeared in the critically acclaimed TV movie "My Sweet Charlie". His later film appearances included the crime film "The Outfit" (1973), as a chef in "Breakheart Pass" (1975) with Charles Bronson, and a cameo role as himself in the 1982 film "Penitentiary II", along with Leon Isaac Kennedy and Mr. T.


title: Archie Moore

text: Boxing took Moore all over the world as a fighter, a civil rights activist, and a leader in the fight to influence the minds of the nation's youth. He arrived in Argentina in June 1951 for a rematch with the champion Abel Cestac. Moore's victory made headlines and caught the attention of the Argentinian President Juan Perón and his wife Eva for his selfless act helping children, buying them shoes, clothing, and building their confidence. Moore was invited to stay in Argentina and accept an appointment as the Minister of Welfare of Children. He declined the offer to continue his road to winning title fights.


title: Archie Moore

text: In 1957, Moore founded Any Boy Can, a non-profit organization based in San Diego, California. ABC, as it was known, provides services to all who seek help regardless of age, race, creed, religion or national origin. Moore stated that the mission of ABC is to help the youth to "step off in life with their best foot forward." The students were taught good sportsmanship, respect, and confidence. They were instructed to look a person in the eye and give them a firm handshake. They addressed him as Instructor Moore.


title: Archie Moore

text: Word traveled fast about Moore's ABC program. He was invited to Jamaica and sponsored by the Jamaican Boxing Board of Control to train boys for the Olympics. He trained 600 boys using his ABC methods.


title: Archie Moore

text: In 1968, the ABC Foundation received the Freedom Foundation's Patriotism Award, a special citation for providing a challenge for youth to become contributing members of their communities and upholding the ideals and ideas that were present at the founding of our great nation. This recognition is one of many.


title: Archie Moore

text: Based on his work with the youth, in 1981, Moore became the Presidential Appointee of Ronald Reagan to work under Samuel R. Pierce, Secretary of Housing and Urban Development (HUD). Under the national heading, Project Build, Moore taught boxing to underprivileged youth in and around the housing projects in California.


title: Archie Moore

text: Moore applied the philosophy and mechanics of his ABC program and until his death, he believed that "Any Body Can."


title: Archie Moore

text: Archie Moore had three daughters, Reena, J'Marie and Elizabeth Moore-Stump, and four sons, Archie Jr., Hardy, Anthony and D'Angelo. The marriage of Archie Moore and Elizabeth Thorton produced Archie Jr. and Elizabeth. In 1956, he married Joan Hardy and had five children: Reena, J'Marie, Hardy, Anthony and D'Angelo. They were married until his death in 1998.


title: Archie Moore

text: In 1997, J'Marie Moore became the first daughter of a famous boxer to herself become a professional boxer.


title: Archie Moore

text: Archie Moore died of heart failure in 1998. He was cremated and is interred in a niche at Cypress View Mausoleum and Crematory, in San Diego.


title: United States occupation of Haiti

text: The United States of America occupation of Haiti began on July 28, 1915, when 330 United States Marines landed at Port-au-Prince, Haiti, after the National City Bank of New York convinced the President of the United States, Woodrow Wilson, to seize control of Haiti's political and financial interests. The invasion and subsequent occupation was promoted by growing American business interests in Haiti, especially the National City Bank of New York, which withheld funds from Haiti and paid rebels to destabilize the nation through the Bank of the Republic of Haiti in actions planned to promote American intervention. The July 1915 invasion took place following years of socioeconomic instability within Haiti that culminated with the assassination of President of Haiti Vilbrun Guillaume Sam by insurgents angered by his ordered executions of elite opposition. The occupation ended on August 1, 1934, after President Franklin D. Roosevelt reaffirmed an August 1933 disengagement agreement. The last contingent of marines departed on August 15, 1934, after a formal transfer of authority to the American-created Gendarmerie of Haiti.


title: United States occupation of Haiti

text: During the occupation, Haiti had three new presidents, though the United States ruled as a military regime led by Marines and the American-created Haitian "gendarmerie" through martial law. Two major rebellions occurred during this period, resulting in several thousand Haitians killed and numerous human rights violations – including torture and summary executions – by Marines and the gendarmerie. A corvée system of forced labor was used by the United States for massive infrastructure projects that resulted in hundreds to thousands of deaths. Under the occupation, most Haitians continued to live in poverty while American military officers were well-compensated.


title: United States occupation of Haiti

text: In the early 1700s, the relationship with Haitians and the United States began when some Haitians fought beside Americans in the American Revolutionary War. Originally the wealthiest region in the Americas when it was the French colony of Saint-Domingue, a slave revolt at the colony beginning in 1791 that led to the successful Haitian Revolution in 1804 frightened those living in the Southern United States who supported slavery, raising fears that it would inspire other slaves. Such sentiments among wealthy slaveholding Americans strained relations between the United States and Haiti, with the United States initially refusing to recognize Haitian independence while slaveholders advocated for a trade embargo with the newly created Caribbean nation. The Haiti indemnity controversy – which France forced upon Haiti through gunboat diplomacy in 1825 due to France's financial loss following Haiti's independence – resulted with Haiti using much of its revenue to pay debt to foreign nations by the late-1800s.


title: United States occupation of Haiti

text: The United States had been interested in controlling Haiti in the decades following its independence from France. As a way "to secure a U.S. defensive and economic stake in the West Indies", according to the United States Department of State, President Andrew Johnson of the United States began the pursuit of annexing Hispaniola, including Haiti, in 1868. In 1890, the Môle Saint-Nicolas affair occurred when President Benjamin Harrison, on the advice of Secretary of State James G. Blaine, ordered Rear-Admiral Bancroft Gherardi to persuade newly assumed President of Haiti Florvil Hyppolite to lease the port to the United States. Enforcing gunboat diplomacy upon Haiti, Gherardi aboard along with his fleet arrived in the capital city of Port-au-Prince to demand the acquisition of Môle Saint-Nicolas. President Hyppolite refused any agreement as Haitians grew angered by the presence of the fleet, with "The New York Times" writing that the Haitians' "semi-barbaric minds saw in it a threat of violence". Upon returning to the United States in 1891, Gherardi said in an interview with "The New York Times" that in a short time Haiti would experience further instability, suggesting that future governments in Haiti would abide by the demands of the United States.


title: United States occupation of Haiti

text: By the 1890s, Haiti became reliant on importing most of its goods from the United States while it exported the majority of its production to France. The Roosevelt Corollary also affected Haiti's relationship with the United States. By 1910, President William Howard Taft attempted to introduce American businesses to Haiti in order to deter European influence and granted a large loan to Haiti to pay off foreign debts, though this proved to be fruitless due to the size of the debt.


title: United States occupation of Haiti

text: The United States was not concerned by France's influence, though German influence in Haiti raised concern. Germany had intervened in Haiti, including the Lüders affair in 1897, and had been influencing other Caribbean nations during the previous few decades. Germany had also become increasingly hostile to United States domination of the region under the Monroe Doctrine.


title: United States occupation of Haiti

text: The United States' concern over Germany's ambitions was mirrored by apprehension and rivalry between American businessmen and the small German community in Haiti, which although numbering only about 200 in 1910 wielded a disproportionate amount of economic power. German nationals controlled about eighty percent of the country's international commerce. They owned and operated utilities in Cap-Haïten and Port-au-Prince, including the main wharf and a tramway in the capital, and also had built the railway serving the Plain of the Cul-de-Sac.


title: United States occupation of Haiti

text: The German community was more willing to integrate into Haitian society than any other group of Caucasian foreigners, including the more numerous French. Some Germans had married into Haiti's most prominent mixed-race families of African-French descent. This enabled them to bypass the constitutional prohibition against foreigners owning land. The German residents retained strong ties to their homeland and sometimes aided the German military and intelligence networks in Haiti. They also served as the principal financiers of the nation's numerous revolutions, floating loans at high interest rates to the competing political factions.


title: United States occupation of Haiti

text: In the lead-up to World War I, the strategic importance of Haiti, along with the German influence there, worried President Wilson, who feared a German presence near the Panama Canal Zone.


title: United States occupation of Haiti

text: In the first decades of the 20th century, Haiti experienced great political instability and was heavily in debt to France, Germany and the United States. Much of this instability was caused by foreign interference from American, British, French and German interests. The Wilson administration viewed Haiti's instability as a national security threat to the United States. Political tensions were often between two groups; wealthy French-speaking mulatto Haitians who represented the minority of the population and poor Afro-Haitians who spoke Haitian Creole. Various revolutionary armies carried out the coups. Each was formed by "cacos", peasant militias from the mountains of the north, who stayed along the porous Dominican border and were often funded by foreign governments to stage revolts.


title: United States occupation of Haiti

text: In 1902, a civil war was fought between the government of Pierre Théoma Boisrond-Canal and General Pierre Nord Alexis against rebels of Anténor Firmin, which led to Pierre Nord Alexis becoming president. In 1908, he was forced from power and a series of short lived presidencies came and went: his successor François C. Antoine Simon in 1911; President Cincinnatus Leconte (1911–12) was killed in a (possibly deliberate) explosion at the National Palace; Michel Oreste (1913–14) was ousted in a coup, as was his successor Oreste Zamor in 1914. Between 1911 and 1915, Haiti had seven presidents because of political assassinations, coups and forced exiles.


title: United States occupation of Haiti

text: Prior to the intervention of the United States, Haiti's large debt was 80 percent of its annual revenue, though it was able to meet financial obligations, especially when compared to Ecuador, Honduras and Mexico at that time. In the twentieth century, the United States had become Haiti's largest trade partner, replacing France, with American businesses expanding their presence in Haiti. Due to the influence of Germans within Haiti, they were regarded as a threat to American financial interests, with businesses ultimately advocating for policies of invading Haiti. Haitian authorities in 1903 began to accuse the National Bank of Haiti of fraud and by 1908, Haitian Minister of Finance Frédéric Marcelin pushed for the bank to work on the behalf of Haitians, though French officials began to devise plans to reorganize their financial interests. French envoy to Haiti Pierre Carteron wrote following Marcelin's objections that "It is of the highest importance that we study how to set up a new French credit establishment in Port-au-Prince ... Without any close link to the Haitian government."


title: United States occupation of Haiti

text: Businesses from the United States had pursued the control of Haiti for years and in 1909, the new president of National City Bank of New York, Frank A. Vanderlip, began to plan the bank's take over of Haiti's finances as part of his larger role of making the bank grow in international markets. In early 1909, Speyer & Co. promoted a stock to Vanderlip and the bank to invest in the National Railroad of Haiti, which held a monopoly of importing in the Port-au-Prince area. The Haitian government faced conflict with the National City Bank over the railroad regarding payments to creditors, later leading to the bank seeking to control the entirety of Haiti's finances. Vanderlip wrote to Chairman of National City Bank James Stillman in 1910, "In the future, this stock will give us a foothold [in Haiti] and I think we will perhaps later undertake the reorganization of the Government’s currency system, which, I believe, I see my way clear to do with practically no monetary risk". From 1910 to 1911, the United States Department of State backed a consortium of American investors – headed by the National City Bank of New York – to acquire a managing stake of the National Bank of Haiti to create the Bank of the Republic of Haiti (BNRH), with the new bank often holding payments from the Haitian government, leading to unrest. France would also keep a stake in the BNRH. The BNRH was the country's sole commercial bank and served as the Haitian government's treasury.


title: United States occupation of Haiti

text: Officials of the Wilson administration were not knowledgeable of Haiti and often relied on information from American businessmen. United States Secretary of State William Jennings Bryan fired established Latin American experts upon his nomination and instead replaced them with political allies. Bryan initially proposed forgiving the debt of Caribbean nations, though President Wilson viewed this as too radical. With his ideas facing rejection, Bryan, who had little information on Haiti, instead relied on the vice president of National City Bank, Roger Leslie Farnham, for information regarding Haiti. Farnham had an extensive background working as a financial advisor, lobbyist, journalist and purchasing agent between the United States and the Caribbean, with American historian Brenda Gayle Plummer writing "Farnham ... is often portrayed by historians as the deus ex machina single-handedly plotting the American intervention of 1915". Throughout the 1910s, Farnham demanded successive Haitian governments to grant him control of the nation's customs, the only source of revenue, threatening American intervention when Haiti refused citing national sovereignty. John H. Allen, manager of the BNRH, also met with Bryan for consultation in 1912, with Allen later sharing an account of Bryan being surprised about Haitian culture and stating "Dear me, think of it! Niggers speaking French".


title: United States occupation of Haiti

text: In 1914, National City Bank and BNRH began to implement its plan to destabilize Haiti to pressure the United States to intervene. At the same time, France began to lose its ties to Haiti as it was focusing its efforts on World War I and Farnham suggested to the United States Congress that the BNRH's "active management has been from New York". Allen later stated that if the United States permanently occupied Haiti, he supported National City Bank acquiring all shares of BNRH, believing that it would "pay 20% or better". Farnham persuaded Secretary Bryan to have the United States invade Haiti during a telephone call on January 22, 1914. Farnham argued that Haiti was not improving due to continuous internal conflict, that Haitians were not interested in the revolts occurring and that American troops would be welcomed in Haiti. Farnham also exaggerated the role of European influence, even convincing Secretary Bryan that France and Germany – two nations then at war with each other – were plotting in cooperation to obtain the harbor of Môle Saint-Nicholas in northern Haiti. The businessman concluded that Haiti would not improve "until such time as some stronger outside power steps in". American diplomats would ultimately draft plans to take over Haiti's finances, dubbed the "Farnham Plan".


title: United States occupation of Haiti

text: After American officials travelled to Haiti to propose the "Farnham Plan", Haitian legislators denounced their minister of foreign affairs, saying he was "endeavoring to sell the country to the United States" according to a telegram of the US State Department. Due to Haitian opposition to the plan, the BNRH withheld funds from the Haitian government and funded rebels to destabilize the Haitian government in order to justify American intervention, generating 12% gains in interest by holding on to the funds. On January 27, 1914, Haitian President Michel Oreste was deposed in a coup. Two generals, Charles and Oreste Zamor, seized control. In response, the USS "Montana" sent a marine detachment on January 29 into Port-au Prince to protect American interests. On February 5, 1914, military forces from the French cruiser "Conde" and British HMS "Lancaster" also landed troops. These units agreed to leave the city and boarded their ships on February 9, 1914.


title: United States occupation of Haiti

text: BNRH's Allen telegrammed the State Department on April 8, 1914, requesting that the U.S. Navy sail to Port-au-Prince to deter possible rebellions. In the summer of 1914, the BNRH began to threaten the Haitian government that it would no longer provide payments. Simultaneously, Secretary Bryan telegrammed the United States consul in Cap-Haïtien, writing that the State Department agreed with invading Haiti, telling the consul that the United States "earnestly desires successfully carrying out of Farnham's plan".


title: United States occupation of Haiti

text: American bankers raised fears that Haiti would default on debt payments despite consistent compliance by Haiti with loan conditions, calling for the seizure of Haiti's national bank. National City Bank officials – acting on behalf of Farnham – demanded the State Department to provide military support to acquire Haiti's national reserves, with the bank arguing that Haiti had become too unstable to safeguard the assets. Urged by the National City Bank and the BNRH, with the latter of the two already under direction of American business interests, eight United States Marines walked into the national bank and took custody of Haiti's gold reserve of about US$500,000 – about the – on December 17, 1914. The Marines packed the gold into wooden boxes, loaded them into a wagon, and transported the gold under protection of un-uniformed clandestine soldiers lining the route to the USS "Machias", which transferred its load to the National City Bank's New York City vault on 55 Wall Street. The confiscation of the gold provided the United States with a large amount of control over the Haitian government, though American businesses demanded further intervention. National City Bank would go on to acquire some of its largest gains in the 1920s due to debt payments from Haiti, according to later filings to the Senate Finance Committee, with debt payments to the bank comprising 25% of Haiti's revenue.


title: United States occupation of Haiti

text: In February 1915, Vilbrun Guillaume Sam, son of a former Haitian president, took power as President of Haiti. The culmination of his repressive measures came on July 27, 1915, when he ordered the execution of 167 political prisoners, including former president Zamor, who was being held in a Port-au-Prince jail. This infuriated the population, which rose up against Sam's government as soon as news of the executions reached them. Sam, who had taken refuge in the French embassy, was lynched by an enraged mob in Port-au-Prince as soon as they learned of the executions. The United States regarded the anti-American revolt against Sam as a threat to American business interests in the country, especially the Haitian American Sugar Company (HASCO). When the "caco"-supported anti-American Rosalvo Bobo emerged as the next president of Haiti, the United States government decided to act quickly to preserve its economic dominance.


title: United States occupation of Haiti

text: In April 1915, Secretary Bryan expressed support for invading Haiti to President Wilson, writing "The American interests are willing to remain there, with a view of purchasing a controlling interest and making the bank a branch of the American bank – they are willing to do this provided this government takes the steps necessary to protect them and their idea seems to be that no protection will be sufficient that does not include control of the Customs House."


title: United States occupation of Haiti

text: On July 28, 1915, United States President Woodrow Wilson ordered 330 United States Marines to occupy Port-au-Prince. The Secretary of the Navy instructed the invasion commander, Rear Admiral William Banks Caperton, to "protect American and foreign" interests. Wilson also wanted to rewrite the Haitian constitution, which banned foreign ownership of land, to replace it with one that guaranteed American financial control. To avoid public criticism, Wilson claimed the occupation was a mission to "re-establish peace and order ... [and] has nothing to do with any diplomatic negotiations of the past or the future," as disclosed by Rear Admiral Caperton. Only one Haitian soldier, Pierre Sully, tried to resist the invasion, and he was shot dead by the Marines.


title: United States occupation of Haiti

text: Haitian presidents were not elected by universal suffrage but rather chosen by the Senate. The American occupying authorities therefore looked to find a presidential candidate ready to cooperate with them. Philippe Sudré Dartiguenave, president of the Senate and among the mulatto Haitian elite who supported the United States, agreed to accept the presidency of Haiti in August 1915 after several other candidates had refused. The United States would later go on to install more wealthy mulatto Haitians in positions of power.


title: United States occupation of Haiti

text: For several decades, the Haitian government had been receiving large loans from both American and French banks, and with the political chaos was growing increasingly incapable of repaying their debts. If the anti-American government of Rosalvo Bobo prevailed, there was no guarantee of debt repayment, and American businesses refused to continue investing there. Within six weeks of the occupation, U.S. government representatives seized control of Haiti's customs houses and administrative institutions, including the banks and the national treasury. Under U.S. government control, 40% of Haiti's national income was designated to repay debts to American and French banks.


title: United States occupation of Haiti

text: In September 1915, the United States Senate ratified the Haitian-American Convention, a treaty granting the United States security and economic oversight of Haiti for a 10-year period. Haiti's legislature initially refused to ratify the treaty, though Admiral Caperton threatened hold payments from Haiti until the treaty was signed. The treaty gave the President of the United States the power to appoint a customs receiver general, economic advisors, public works engineers; and to assign American military officers to oversee a Haitian gendarmerie. Haiti's economic functions were overseen by the United States Department of State, while the United States Navy was tasked with infrastructure and healthcare works, though the Navy ultimately held more authority. Officials from the United States then wielded veto power over all governmental decisions in Haiti, and Marine Corps commanders served as administrators in the departments. The original treaty was to be in effect for ten years, though an additional agreement in 1917 expanded the United States' power for twenty years. For the next nineteen years, U.S. State Department advisers ruled Haiti, their authority enforced by the United States Marine Corps.


title: United States occupation of Haiti

text: The Gendarmerie of Haiti, now known as the "Garde d'Haïti", was also created and controlled by U.S. Marines throughout the occupation, initially led by Major Smedley D. Butler. Rear Admiral Caperton ordered his 2,500 Marines to occupy all of Haiti's districts, equipping them with airplanes, cars and trucks. Five airfields were constructed and at least three airplanes were present in Haiti. Marines were tasked with multiple duties for their districts; law enforcement, tax collection, medicine distribution and overseeing arbitration.


title: United States occupation of Haiti

text: Economically and politically, the Haitian government relied on American approval for most projects. The 1915 treaty with the United States proved expensive; the Government of Haiti had such a limited income that it was difficult to hire public workers and officials. Before utilizing any money, the Haitian government had to obtain approval from an American financial advisor and by 1918, would rely on American officials for approval of any laws due to fears of violating the treaty.


title: United States occupation of Haiti

text: The installation of a president without the consent of Haitians and the forced labor of the corvée system enforced upon Haitians by American forces led to opposition of the U.S. occupation began immediately after the Marines entered Haiti, creating rebel groups of Haitians who felt they were returning to slavery. The rebels (called "cacos," after a local bird sharing their ambush tactics) strongly resisted American control of Haiti. The U.S. and Haitian governments began a vigorous campaign to destroy the rebel armies. Perhaps the best-known account of this skirmishing came from Marine Major Smedley Butler, awarded a Medal of Honor for his exploits. He was appointed to serve as commanding officer of the Haitian Gendarmerie. He later expressed his disapproval of the U.S. intervention in his 1935 book "War Is a Racket".


title: United States occupation of Haiti

text: On November 17, 1915, the Marines captured Fort Rivière, a stronghold of the Cacos rebels, which marked the end of the First Caco War. The United States military issued two Haitian Campaign Medals to U.S. Marine and Naval personnel for service in the country during the periods 1915 and 1919–20.


title: United States occupation of Haiti

text: Shortly after installing Dartiguenave as president of Haiti, President Wilson pursued the rewriting of the Constitution of Haiti. One of the main concerns for the United States was the ban of foreigners from owning Haitian land. Early leader Jean-Jacques Dessalines had forbidden land ownership by foreigners when Haiti became independent to deter foreign influence, and since 1804, some Haitians had viewed foreign ownership as anathema. Fearing impeachment and due to opposition of the legislature, Dartiguenave ordered the dissolution of the senate on April 6, 1916, with Major Butler and Colonel Waller would enforcing new legislative elections. Colonel Eli K. Cole would later assume Waller's position as commander of the Marines.


title: United States occupation of Haiti

text: The newly-elected legislature of Haiti immediately rejected the constitution proposed by the United States. Instead, the legislative body began drafting a new constitution of its own that was in contrast to the interests of the United States. Under orders from the United States, President Dartiguenave dissolved the legislature in 1917 after its members refused to approve the proposed constitution, with Major Butler forcing the closing of the senate at gunpoint.


title: United States occupation of Haiti

text: Haiti's new constitution was drafted under the supervision of Franklin D. Roosevelt, then Assistant Secretary of the Navy. A referendum in Haiti subsequently approved the new constitution in 1918 (by a vote of 98,225 to 768). In Roosevelt's new constitution, Haiti explicitly allowed foreigners to control Haitian land for the first time since Haiti's creation. As a result of opposing the United States' effort of rewriting its constitution, Haiti would remain without a legislative branch until 1929.


title: United States occupation of Haiti

text: The end of the First World War in 1918 deprived the Haitians of their main ally in the guerrilla struggle. Germany's defeat meant its end as a menace to the U.S. in the Caribbean, as it lost control of Tortuga. Nevertheless, the U.S. continued its occupation of Haiti after the war, despite President Woodrow Wilson's claims at the Paris Peace Conference of 1919 that he supported self-determination among other peoples.


title: United States occupation of Haiti

text: At one time, at least twenty percent of Haitians had been involved in the rebellion against occupation according to africanologist Patrick Bellegarde-Smith. The strongest period of unrest culminated in a 1918 rebellion by up to 40,000 former cacos and other members of the opposition led by Charlemagne Péralte, a former officer of the dissolved Haitian army. The scale of the uprising overwhelmed the Gendarmerie, but U.S. Marine reinforcements helped put down the revolt. For their part, the Haitians resorted to non-conventional tactics, being severely outmatched by their occupiers. Prior to his death,Péralte launched an attack on Port-au-Prince. The assassination of Péralte in 1919 solidified US Marine power over the Cacos. The Second Caco War ended with the death of Benoît Batraville in 1920, who had commanded an assault on the Haitian capital that year. An estimated 2,004 cacos were killed in the fighting, as well as several dozens of American marines and Haitian gendarmes.


title: United States occupation of Haiti

text: The educated elite in Haiti was "L'Union Patriotique," which established ties with opponents of the occupation in the U.S. They found allies in the NAACP and among both white and African-American leaders. The NAACP sent civil rights activist James Weldon Johnson, its field secretary, to investigate conditions in Haiti. He published his account in 1920, decrying "the economic corruption, forced labor, press censorship, racial segregation, and wanton violence introduced to Haiti by the U.S. occupation encouraged numerous African Americans to flood the State Department and the offices of Republican Party officials with letters" calling for an end to the abuses and to remove troops. Academic W. E. B. Du Bois, who had Haitian ancestry, demanded a response for the Wilson administration's actions and wrote that U.S. troops "have no designs on the political independence of the island and no desire to exploit it ruthlessly for the take of selfish business interests".


title: United States occupation of Haiti

text: Based on Johnson's investigation, NAACP executive secretary Herbert J. Seligman wrote in the July 10, 1920, "The Nation":


title: United States occupation of Haiti

text: "Military camps have been built throughout the island. The property of natives has been taken for military use. Haitians carrying a gun were for a time shot on sight. Machine guns have been turned on crowds of unarmed natives, and United States Marines have, by accounts which several of them gave me in casual conversation, not troubled to investigate how many were killed or wounded."According to Johnson, there was only one reason why the United States occupied Haiti:


title: United States occupation of Haiti

text: Two years after Johnson published his findings, a congressional investigation began in the United States in 1922. The report from Congress did not include testimony from Haitians and ignored allegations involving National City Bank of New York and U.S. Marines. Congress concluded the report by defending a continued occupation of Haiti, arguing that "chronic revolution, anarchy, barbarism, and ruin" would befall upon Haiti if the United States withdrew. Johnson described the congressional investigation as "on the whole, a whitewash".


title: United States occupation of Haiti

text: In 1922, Dartiguenave was replaced by Louis Borno, with the US-appointed General John H. Russell, Jr. serving as High Commissioner. General Russell worked on the behalf of the United States Department of State and was authorized as the representative to carry out treaty works.


title: United States occupation of Haiti

text: On August 17, 1922, BNRH was completely acquired by National City Bank, its headquarters was moved to New York City and Haiti's debt to France was moved to be paid to American investors. Following the acquisition of BNRH, the November 1922 titled of National City Bank's employee journal "No. 8" exclaimed "Bank of Haiti is Ours!" According to professor Peter James Hudson, "such control represented the end of independence and, as the BNRH and the republic's gold reserve became mere entries on the ledgers of the City Bank, a sign of a return to colonial servitude".


title: United States occupation of Haiti

text: The Borno-Russell government oversaw the use of forced labor to expand the economy and to complete infrastructure projects. Sisal was introduced to Haiti as a commodity crop, and sugar and cotton became significant exports. However, efforts to develop commercial agriculture met with limited success, in part because much of Haiti's labor force was employed as seasonal workers in the more-established sugar industries of Cuba and the Dominican Republic. An estimated 30,000–40,000 Haitian laborers, known in Cuba as "braceros," went annually to the Oriente Province between 1913 and 1931. The Great Depression disastrously affected the prices of Haiti's exports and destroyed the tenuous gains of the previous decade. Under press laws, Borno frequently imprisoned newspaper press that criticized his government.


title: United States occupation of Haiti

text: President Herbert Hoover had become increasingly pressured about the effects of occupying Haiti at the time and began inquiring about a withdrawal strategy. By 1929, Haitians had grown angered with the Borno-Russell government and American occupation, with demands for direct elections increasing. In early December 1929, protests against the American occupation began at the Service Technique de l’Agriculture et de l’Enseignement Professionnel's main school. On December 6, 1929, about 1,500 Haitians peacefully protesting local economic conditions in Les Cayes were fired upon by U.S. Marines, with the massacre resulting in 12 to 22 Haitians dead and 51 injured. The massacre resulted in international outrage, with President Hoover calling on Congress to investigate conditions in Haiti the following day.


title: United States occupation of Haiti

text: President Hoover would later appoint two commissions, including one headed by a former U.S. governor of the Philippines William Cameron Forbes"." The commission arrived in Haiti on February 28, 1930, with President Hoover demanding the commission to determine "when and how we are to withdraw from Haiti" and "what we shall do in the meantime". The Forbes Commission praised the material improvements that the U.S. administration had achieved, but it criticized the continued exclusion of Haitian nationals from positions of real authority in the government and the gendarmerie. In more general terms, the commission asserted that "the social forces that created [instability] still remain – poverty, ignorance, and the lack of a tradition or desire for orderly free government." The commission concluded that occupation of Haiti was a failure and that the United States did not "understand the social problems of Haiti".


title: United States occupation of Haiti

text: With increased calls for direct elections, American officials feared violence if demands were not met. An agreement was made that resulted with President Borno's resignation and the establishment of Haitian banker Louis Eugène Roy as an interim president. In the agreement proposed by the Forbes Commission, Roy would be elected by Congress to serve as president until a direct election for Congress was held, which is when Roy would resign. American officials said that if Congress were to refuse, Roy would be installed as president forcibly.


title: United States occupation of Haiti

text: Under orders to not interfere with elections, the United States observed elections on October 14, 1930, that resulted with Haitian nationalist candidates being elected. Sténio Vincent was elected President of Haiti by the Congress of Haiti in November 1930. The new nationalist government had a tense relationship with American officials. By the end of 1930, Haitians were being trained by Americans for administration roles of their own nation. When additional American commissions began to arrive in Haiti, popular unrest broke out and President Vincent reached a secret agreement to ease tensions with the United States in exchange to grant more power to American officials to enact their "Haitianization" policies.


title: United States occupation of Haiti

text: Franklin D. Roosevelt, who as Assistant Secretary of the Navy said he was responsible for drafting the 1918 constitution, was a proponent of the "Good Neighbor policy" for the US role in the Caribbean and Latin America. The United States and Haiti agreed on August 7, 1933, to end the occupation. On a visit to Cap-Haïtien in July 1934, Roosevelt reaffirmed the August 1933 disengagement agreement. The last contingent of US Marines departed on August 15, 1934, after a formal transfer of authority to the Garde. The U.S. retained influence on Haiti's external finances until 1947, as per the 1919 treaty that required an American financial advisor through the life of Haiti's acquired loan.


title: United States occupation of Haiti

text: The occupation was costly for the Haitian government; American advisors collected about 5% of Haiti's revenue while the 1915 treaty with the United States limited Haiti's income, resulting with fewer jobs for the government to assign. Numerous agricultural changes included the introduction of sisal. Sugarcane and cotton became significant exports, boosting prosperity. However, efforts to develop commercial agriculture produced limited results while American agricultural businesses removed the property from thousands of Haitians peasants to produce bananas, sisal and rubber for export, resulting with lower domestic food production.


title: United States occupation of Haiti

text: Haitian traditionalists, based in rural areas, were highly resistant to U.S.-backed changes, while the urban elites, typically mixed-race, welcomed the growing economy, but wanted more political control. Following the end of the occupation in 1934, under the Presidency of Sténio Vincent (1930–41), debts were still outstanding and the U.S. financial advisor-general receiver handled the budget until 1941 when three American and three Haitian directors headed by an American manager assumed the role. Haiti's loan debt to the United States was about twenty percent of the nation's annual revenue.


title: United States occupation of Haiti

text: Formal American influence on Haiti's economy would conclude in 1947. The United Nations and the United States Department of State would report at the time that Haitian rural peasants, who comprised 90% of the nation's population, lived "close to starvation level".


title: United States occupation of Haiti

text: The occupation improved some of Haiti's infrastructure and centralized power in Port-au-Prince, though much of the funds collected by the United States was not used to modernize Haiti. Corvée forced labor of Haitians, that was enforced by the US-operated gendarmerie, was used for infrastructure projects, particularly for road building. Forced labor would ultimately result in the deaths of hundreds to thousands of Haitians. Infrastructure improvements included of roads being made usable, 189 bridges built, the rehabilitation of irrigation canals, the construction of hospitals, schools, and public buildings, and drinking water was brought to the main cities. Port-au-Prince became the first Caribbean city to have a phone service with automatic dialing. Agricultural education was organized, with a central school of agriculture and 69 farms in the country.


title: United States occupation of Haiti

text: The majority of Haitians believed that the public works projects enforced by the US Marines were unsatisfactory. American officers who controlled Haiti at the time spent more on their own salaries than on the public health budget for two million Haitians. A 1949 report by the United States Department of State wrote that irrigation systems that were recently constructed were "not in good condition".


title: United States occupation of Haiti

text: The United States redesigned the education system. It dismantled the liberal arts education which the Haitians had inherited (and adapted) from the French system. With the Service Technique de l’Agriculture et de l’Enseignement Professionnel, Americans emphasized agricultural and vocational training, similar to its industrial education for minorities and immigrants in the United States. Dr. Robert Russa Moton was tasked with assessing the Service Technique, concluding that though the objectives were admirable, performance was not satisfactory and criticized the large amount of funding it received compared to average Haitian public schools, which were in poor condition.


title: United States occupation of Haiti

text: Elite Haitians despised the system believing it was discriminatory against their people. The mulatto elite also feared the creation of an educated middle class that would potentially lead to the loss of their influence.


title: United States occupation of Haiti

text: Finally, the political, military, and economic power of both the German-Haitian community and the Imperial German government were utterly broken by the long years of hostile occupation. Germans had been censured for association with anti-American mobilization. German intelligence cells operating on the island were purged or forced to surrender. The US had entered the war against the German Empire in 1917, and in 1918 the latter was defeated in the war and almost immediately collapsed. The remaining German-Haitians were largely left isolated, with many opting to emigrate (usually back to Germany) or to stay on and try to claw their way back.


title: United States occupation of Haiti

text: The United States Marines ruled Haiti as a military regime using a constant state of martial law, operating the newly created Haitian gendarmerie to suppress Haitians who opposed occupation. Between 1915 and 1930, Haitians represented only about 35–40% of officers in the gendarmes. During the occupation of Haiti by the United States, human rights abuses were committed against the native Haitian population. Such actions involved censorship, concentration camps, forced labor, racial segregation, religious persecution of Haitian Vodou practitioners and torture.


title: United States occupation of Haiti

text: Overall, American troops and the Haitian gendarmerie killed several thousands of Haitian civilians during the rebellions between 1915 and 1920, though the exact death toll is unknown. During Senate hearings in 1921, the commandant of the Marine Corps reported that, in the 20 months of active unrest, 2,250 Haitian rebels had been killed. However, in a report to the Secretary of the Navy, he reported the death toll as being 3,250. According to Haitian American academic Michel-Rolph Trouillot, about 5,500 Haitians died in labor camps alone. Haitian historian Roger Gaillard, estimated that in total, including rebel combatants and civilians, at least 15,000 Haitians were killed throughout the occupation. According to Paul Farmer, the higher estimates are not supported by most historians outside Haiti.


title: United States occupation of Haiti

text: American troops also performed union-busting actions, often for American businesses like the Haitian American Sugar Company, the Haitian American Development Corporation and National City Bank of New York.


title: United States occupation of Haiti

text: Under American occupation, extrajudicial executions were committed against Haitians. During the second Caco war of 1918–1919, many Caco prisoners were summarily executed by Marines and the gendarmerie on orders from their superiors. On June 4, 1916, Marines executed caco General Mizrael Codio and ten others captured in Fonds-Verrettes. In Hinche in January 1919, Captain Ernest Lavoie of the gendarmerie, a former United States Marine, allegedly ordered the killing of nineteen caco rebels according to American officers, though no charges were placed due to no physical evidence being presented. During the investigation of two Marines accused of illegally executing Haitians, the attorney of the soldiers minimized their actions saying that such killings were common, prompting larger investigations into the matter.


title: United States occupation of Haiti

text: One controversial event occurred when in an attempt to discourage rebel support from the Haitian population, the US troops took a photograph of Charlemagne Péralte's body tied to a door following his assassination in 1919, and distributed it in the country. However, it had the opposite effect, with the image's resemblance to a crucifixion making it an icon of the resistance and establishing Péralte as a martyr.


title: United States occupation of Haiti

text: Beginning in 1919, American troops began attacking rural villages. In November 1919, villagers in Thomazeau hiding in a nearby forest sent a letter – the only surviving testament of the event – to a French priest asking for protection. In the letter, survivors wrote that at least two American planes bombed and shot at two villages, killing half of the population including men, women, children and the elderly. On December 5, 1919, American planes bombed Les Cayes in a possible act of intimidation. American pilots were investigated for their actions, though none were condemned. These actions were described by anthropologist Jean-Philippe Belleau as possibly "the first ever carried out by air on civilian populations".


title: United States occupation of Haiti

text: A corvée policy of forced labor was enacted upon Haitians, enforced by the U.S.-operated Haitian gendarmerie in the interest of improving economic conditions to fulfill foreign debts – including payments to the United States – and to improve the nation's infrastructure. The corvée system was found in Haiti's rural code by Major Smedley D. Butler, who testified that forced labor cut the cost of of road construction from $51,000 per mile to $205 per mile.


title: United States occupation of Haiti

text: The corvée resulted in the deaths of hundreds to thousands of Haitians. Haitians were tied together in rope and those fleeing labor projects were often shot. According to Haitian American academic Michel-Rolph Trouillot, about 5,500 Haitians died in labor camps. In addition, Roger Gaillard writes that some Haitians were killed fleeing the camps or if they did not work satisfactorily. Many of the deaths and killings attributed to forced labor occurred during the extensive construction of roads in Haiti. In some instances, Haitians were forced to work on projects without pay and while shackled to chains. The corvée system's treatment of Haitians has been compared to the system of bondage labor enforced upon black Americans during the Reconstruction era following the American Civil War.


title: United States occupation of Haiti

text: Many of those tasked with the occupation of Haiti espoused racist beliefs. The first Marine commander ashore assigned was Colonel Littleton Waller, who had a history of racism against mulattos, describing them as "real nigger ... real nigs beneath the surface". Wilson's Secretary of State Robert Lansing also held racist beliefs, writing at the time that "the African race are devoid of any capacity for political organization". The United States introduced Jim Crow laws to Haiti with racist attitudes towards the Haitian people by the American occupation forces that were blatant and widespread. Many of the Marines chosen to occupy Haiti were from the Southern United States, specifically Alabama and Louisiana, resulting in increased racial tensions. Racism has been recognized as a factor leading to increased violence by American troops against Haitians. One general described Haitians as "niggers who pretend to speak French".


title: United States occupation of Haiti

text: Initially, officers and the elites intermingled at social gatherings and clubs. Such gatherings were minimized when families of American forces began arriving. Relations degraded rapidly upon departure of officers for World War I. The Haitian elite found the American junior and non-commissioned officers to be ignorant and uneducated. There were numerous reports of remaining Marines drinking to excess, fighting, and sexually assaulting women. The situation was so bad that Marine General John A. Lejeune, based in Washington, D.C., banned the sale of alcohol to any military personnel.


title: United States occupation of Haiti

text: The Americans inhabited neighborhoods of Port-au-Prince in high quality housing. This neighborhood was called the "millionaires' row". Hans Schmidt recounted a navy officer's opinion on the matter of segregation: "I can't see why they wouldn't have a better time with their crowd, just as I do with mine." American racial intolerance provoked indignation and resentment – and eventually a racial pride that was reflected in the work of a new generation of Haitian historians, ethnologists, writers, artists, and others. Many of these later became active in politics and government. The elite Haitians, mostly mixed race with higher levels of education and capital, continued to dominate the country's bureaucracy and to strengthen its role in national affairs.


title: United States occupation of Haiti

text: Colorism, which had existed since French colonization, had also become prevalent once more under American occupation and racial segregation became common . All three rulers during the occupation came from the country's mixed-race elite. At the same time, many in the growing black professional classes departed from the traditional veneration of Haiti's French cultural heritage and emphasized the nation's African roots. Among these were ethnologist Jean Price-Mars and the journal "Les Griots" (the title referred to traditional African oral historians, the storytellers) edited by Dr. François Duvalier, a future totalitarian president of Haiti. The racism and violence that occurred during the United States occupation of Haiti, inspired black nationalism among Haitians and left a powerful impression on the young Duvalier.


title: United States occupation of Haiti

text: The torture of Haitian rebels or those suspected of rebelling against the United States was common among occupying Marines. Some methods of torture included the use of water cure, hanging prisoners by their genitals and "ceps", which involved pushing both sides of the tibia with the butts of two guns.


title: United States occupation of Haiti

text: Haitian writers and public figures also responded to the occupation. For example, a minister of public education, Dantès Bellegarde raised issues with the events in his book, "La Résistance Haïtienne (l'Occupation Américaine d'Haïti)". Bellegarde outlines the contradictions of the occupation with the realities. He accused President Wilson of writing the new Haitian Constitution to benefit the Americans, and wrote that Wilson's main purpose was to remove the previous Haitian clause that stated foreigners could not own land in the country. The original clause was designed to protect Haiti's independence from foreign powers. With the clause removed, Americans (including whites and other foreigners) could now own land. Furthermore, Bellegarde discusses the powerlessness of Haitian officials in the eyes of the Occupation because nothing could be done without the consent of the Americans. However, the main issue that Bellegarde articulates is that the Americans tried to change the education system of Haiti from one that was French based to that of the Americans. Even though Bellegarde was resistant he had a plan to build a university in Haiti that was based on the American system. He wanted a university with various schools of science, business, art, medicine, law, agriculture, and languages all connected by a common area and library. However, that dream was never realized because of the new direction the Haitian government was forced to take.


title: United States occupation of Haiti

text: Jean Price-Mars associated the reasons behind the Occupation to the division between the Haitian elite and the poorer people of the country. He noted that the groups were divided over the practice of Haitian Vodou, with the implication that the elites did not recognize Vodou because they connected it to an evil practice.


title: United States occupation of Haiti

text: Pezullo writes in his 2006 book "Plunging Into Haiti: Clinton, Aristide, and the Defeat of Diplomacy" that the racism similar to Jim Crow laws in the United States inspired black nationalism within Haiti and ignited future support for Haitian dictator François Duvalier.


title: United States occupation of Haiti

text: Hudson further stated that the motives of American businessmen to become involved in Haiti were due to racial capitalism motivated by white supremacy.


title: United States occupation of Haiti

text: According to a 2020 study which contrasts the American occupations of both Haiti and the Dominican Republic, the United States had a longer and more domineering occupation of Haiti because of perceived racial differences between the two populations. Dominican elites articulated a European–Spanish identity – in contrast to Haitian blackness – which led U.S. policymakers to accept leaving the territory in the population's hands.


title: Medium (TV series)

text: Medium is an American supernatural drama television series created by Glenn Gordon Caron that originally aired on NBC for five seasons from January 3, 2005 to June 1, 2009, and on CBS for two more seasons from September 25, 2009 to January 21, 2011.


title: Medium (TV series)

text: The series stars Patricia Arquette as Allison DuBois, a medium employed as a consultant for the Phoenix, Arizona, district attorney's office, in fictional "Mariposa County" (Phoenix is actually in Maricopa County). Allison and her husband Joe (Jake Weber) are the parents of three daughters (Sofia Vassilieva, Feodor Lark, and Madison and Miranda Carabello), all of whom inherited Allison's gift. The show was initially based on the experiences of medium Allison DuBois, who claims she has worked with law enforcement agencies across the country in criminal investigations.


title: Medium (TV series)

text: "Medium" was created by Glenn Gordon Caron and was produced by his company Picturemaker Productions and Kelsey Grammer's Grammnet Productions in association with Paramount Network Television from 2005 to 2006, CBS Paramount Network Television from 2006 to 2009 (after the split of Viacom and CBS Corporation), and finally CBS Television Studios from 2009 until the series ended.


title: Medium (TV series)

text: The production division of CBS had assumed production of "Medium" in 2006 after absorbing the television arm of the Paramount Pictures film studio. Paramount's home entertainment arm still held DVD distribution rights in conjunction with CBS DVD. On November 18, 2010, CBS announced that the show had been canceled after seven seasons. The series finale aired on January 21, 2011.


title: Medium (TV series)

text: Allison DuBois (Patricia Arquette), a mother of three, has the gift of being able to talk to dead people, as well as foresee events and witness past events in her dreams. When she begins working for Phoenix District Attorney Manuel Devalos (Miguel Sandoval) as an intern, she has a dream related to a murder in Texas, the successful solving of which convinces Devalos and others working in the D.A.'s office – as well as herself and her husband Joe (Jake Weber) – that her gift is real.


title: Medium (TV series)

text: One challenge is convincing Devalos — and other doubters in the criminal justice system — that her psychic abilities can give them the upper hand when it comes to solving crimes. Information comes to her in dreams or in cryptic visions that sometimes do not mean what they initially suggest. The other is convincing Joe that her nightmares are visions based in reality and that she's not simply neurotic.


title: Medium (TV series)

text: In police investigations, Allison often accompanies Det. Lee Scanlon (David Cubitt), who initially did not believe in her gift. Allison sometimes bends the rules when she is determined to stop a crime about which she has had a vision. Additionally, Allison has helped and been helped by crochety, phlegmatic Captain Kenneth Push of the Texas Rangers (Arliss Howard), the first law-enforcement person to whom Allison revealed her gift, and, later, Cynthia Keener (Anjelica Huston) of AmeriTips, a nationwide private detective agency. In season four, it was revealed that Cynthia had a missing daughter. Allison's dreams showed that Cynthia's daughter was dead. Cynthia made a choice to kill the murderer of her daughter and go to prison. Cynthia later appeared in season five to help Allison on a case. Also during this season, it was revealed that Lynn DiNovi (Tina DiJoseph), Lee's live-in lover and an assistant to the Mayor of Phoenix, had become pregnant with Lee's child. In the season five finale, Allison discovers that she has a tumor on her brainstem. To prevent the brutal murders of her family in the future, Allison risked her life as she postponed the critical surgery fearing it would prevent her from solving the case. During her operation the tumor was successfully removed, except for a small piece deeply embedded in her brainstem, Joe is told that Allison is in a coma and may not survive.


title: Medium (TV series)

text: In the sixth-season premiere episode, Allison awoke from the coma and was suffering the consequences of postponing the surgery. Allison's psychic abilities slowly begin to resurface as a form of déjà vu. At the end of the episode, Allison slowly recovers her abilities.


title: Medium (TV series)

text: Since the season six premiere, eldest daughter Ariel (Sofia Vassilieva) has taken the role of nurturing her siblings Bridgette and Marie. Ariel falls victim to a body possession by a vengeance-seeking spirit but is rescued, with her mother's help. After her surgery, Allison gets back to her normal routine working alongside Devalos and Lee, with possible side effects of her surgery affecting her dreams. Also, Lee proposes to Lynn.


title: Medium (TV series)

text: As the season progresses, Ariel's transformation from a young girl into a mature woman was shown in the episode "Time Keeps on Slippin'", where she solves a crime in the future. In the season finale, Allison receives a letter from her neurologist that she needs to be seen about her brain tumor. Meanwhile, Ariel also receives an acceptance letter from a university away from home. The episode begins when Joe awakens to Allison dead in their bed, having died from her tumor during the night. As the family mourns her death, Allison contacts Ariel from the other side, asking her to do one last thing for her before she passes on. However, Ariel decides to follow her own path. She turns to alcohol and leaves Phoenix without telling anyone. Suddenly, Allison awakens in her bed alive, the same morning Joe found her dead. At the end of the episode, Allison, Joe, Ariel, and Devalos and his wife Lily, are seen celebrating Lynn and Lee's wedding, toasting the engaged couples' bright futures.


title: Medium (TV series)

text: In the seventh and final season, a division is created between Allison and Joe because of their desired career paths. At work, Manuel wants to run for Mayor but fears the publicity of his daughter's suicide will be used against his family; however, Lily agrees to help him campaign. Allison wishes to go back to law school because she may lose her job if Manuel is elected. Meanwhile, Joe wants to obtain an MBA, but they cannot afford for both of them to attend school. Despite Allison's wishes, Joe enrolls in school, not knowing that Allison has done the same.


title: Medium (TV series)

text: In the episode, "Native Tongue" Allison cannot understand any word said to her, testing Joe's patience. At the end of the episode, the two reconcile, but Joe's unhappiness is still evident. Ariel leaves for college. Scanlon's brother's ghost comes to entice him into doing wrong. Scanlon's actions nearly end his relationship with Allison. In the episode "Blood on the Tracks", Joe's mother Marjorie has been diagnosed with brain cancer.


title: Medium (TV series)

text: When Joe sees his mother in the hospital, she tells him she knows nothing will happen because Allison, in season four's "Burn Baby Burn", had, to comfort the older woman, lied about Marjorie being around at her granddaughter's wedding. Marjorie then accepts her fate and dies. That same night, Marjorie dies and Allison and the kids join Joe in Michigan, who is staying at his mother's home. In the early morning hours, Allison is visited by Marjorie's ghost who warns her of upcoming "darkness" in her life, but before she can elaborate, Joe enters the room and Marjorie disappears, leaving Allison very concerned.


title: Medium (TV series)

text: In the series finale, Allison receives a phone call from Joe in the midst of a plane crash that leaves no survivors. The episode cuts to seven years later, at which time Allison is an attorney building a case against a Mexican drug dealer. Allison and Marie, now a teenager, live alone. Marie cannot forgive her father for never visiting them as a ghost, something that has plagued Allison all these years. Through her dreams, Allison sees that Joe never died, but washed up on the coast of Mexico with amnesia. A crooked cop had concealed Joe's past and was using him as an unsuspecting drug mule to transport narcotics. Against Devalos' orders, Allison strikes a deal with the drug dealer to learn Joe's location. The two are reunited, but at this point Allison wakes up in the present to see Joe's ghost. He informs her that his plane's engine failed after it departed Hawaii and that no one survived the crash. Joe sent Allison a dream of her life seven years in the future to show her that she could live an enriching, independent life.


title: Medium (TV series)

text: However, Allison's love for Joe overpowered the original vision and crafted an alternate reality in which she found Joe alive. Joe's ghost leaves as Allison cries, unable to accept her husband's death. The episode cuts to 41 years later, showcasing photos of the life that Allison has had. As Allison listens to a voice mail from her great-granddaughter, she slumps in her chair. In death, she is reunited with Joe, who has waited for her, and they kiss.


title: Medium (TV series)

text: All of Allison's daughters appear to have inherited her gift. Ariel and Bridgette have visions or dreams, which usually occur when their mother is searching for answers to her own dreams.


title: Medium (TV series)

text: In season one, Bridgette plays with a boy on her school playground who no one else sees. He is the ghost of a child who died several years earlier. Several years later she is coached to be a soccer goalie by a deceased school coach.


title: Medium (TV series)

text: In the third season, Marie also begins to exhibit paranormal abilities. She has been shown viewing a premium TV channel that the family does not subscribe to, reading the mind of her optometrist to pass her eye exam, and unknowingly using paper dolls to predict the future of her father's company. In the fifth season, Marie has her first psychic dream, where she sees herself on stage with stage fright during a school play. In earlier seasons, Bridgette appears not to be bothered by her abilities, but during the fourth season she has moments of frustration when trying to understand her visions or communicate them to her parents. Ariel has a harder time coping with her developing gifts.


title: Medium (TV series)

text: The second-season episode, "Sweet Child O'Mine", reveals that Allison and Joe lost their first child, a boy they planned to name Brian (played by Noel Fisher). Around the anniversary of his loss each year, Allison has dreams of a life where Brian had grown up as a part of the family, though often in these dreams he dies in front of her.


title: Medium (TV series)

text: Allison's younger half-brother, Michael (nicknamed "Lucky"), has the family gift, too, but does not like to acknowledge it.


title: Medium (TV series)

text: Initially, Allison believed the gift had skipped a generation and her mother had had no psychic abilities. However, she later discovers that her mother had always possessed the gift but had repressed it.


title: Medium (TV series)

text: The series premiere received 16.13 million viewers and a 6.3 rating in the 18–49 demo against ""'s 18.17 million and 6.6 rating. "Medium" was a consistent performer throughout its first season and landed in the Nielsen Top 20 with an average of 13.9 million viewers. The series remained in its original time slot for the second season when the network announced its Fall 2005 schedule. Throughout the season, the series experienced a decline in viewership, pulling an average of 11 million viewers. "Medium" was renewed for a third season in April 2006, but was missing from NBC's Fall 2006 schedule. The series was slated to return in early 2007; however, in October it was announced that production would resume immediately for a third season start-up on November 15, 2006, replacing the time slot vacated by "Kidnapped". Its move to the Wednesday time slot opposite CBS' "" and ABC's "Lost" led to some ratings erosion, in comparison to the ratings success of the first two seasons, with year-end ratings for the third season dipping into single-digit millions of viewers. Despite the ratings decline on Wednesdays, the series was seen by the network as a reliable self-starter, building on its then lead-in "Crossing Jordan". The ratings decline put the series on the bubble for renewal, but the series showed signs of life when NBC requested six additional scripts in April 2007.


title: Medium (TV series)

text: Renewal for a fourth season of "Medium" was announced on May 7, 2007, with an undetermined premiere date and number of episodes. It was the seventh series to be renewed by the network, behind solid performers "Heroes" and "". One week later, the network announced that "Medium" would move to the Sunday 9 p.m. time slot upon its return in January 2008. News on the series' return did not come until December 2007 when NBC announced that the fourth season would begin in January in its original Monday 10 p.m. time slot, despite the WGA Strike of 2007, which forced the show to cease production, allowing for only nine segments/episodes to be filmed. Scheduling returning mid-season shows in timeslots where they were previously successful was a pattern for NBC during the strike: "Law & Order" returned to Wednesdays at 10 and "The Apprentice" was back on Thursdays at 9:00 p.m.


title: Medium (TV series)

text: With the ratings improvement "Medium" demonstrated in its fourth season after returning to Mondays, it was one of the first series to be renewed in an early announcement in April 2008 from NBC regarding its 2008–09 season. Similar to the previous season, "Medium" was initially scheduled to move to the Sunday night line-up; however, a December 2008 press release revealed that the fifth season would air in the series' original Monday night 10 p.m. time slot.


title: Medium (TV series)

text: After some ratings erosion during its fifth season, NBC renewed "Medium" for an abridged sixth season in early May 2009. However, within a week negotiations stalled over episode count and subsequently NBC decided not to renew the series despite the fact that it outperformed some of the network's renewed shows. Within 24 hours of NBC's cancellation, CBS, whose production arm produces the series, renewed the show for a full, 22-episode, sixth season, placing it in the Friday at 9:00 p.m. slot between fellow CBS in-house productions "Ghost Whisperer" (which had a similar theme to "Medium") and "Numb3rs". CBS first aired this series with a rerun episode on July 21, 2009. The sixth season premiered on Friday, September 25, 2009 at 9pm. Throughout its sixth season, "Medium" and its lead-in "Ghost Whisperer" won their respective time slots on most Fridays, and each show took turns being the most-watched show of the night. As the season drew to a close, "Ghost Whisperer" was considered a definite renewal, whereas "Medium" was once again on the bubble for renewal. However, in a dramatic move from CBS, the network announced on May 18, 2010, that "Medium" was renewed for a seventh season, while seven other series, including "Ghost Whisperer", were canceled by the network. TVbytheNumbers.com speculated that the decision was made because "Medium" is fully owned by CBS, while "Ghost Whisperer" was split between CBS and ABC. Upon its return in September 2010, "Medium" took over the Friday 8 p.m. slot vacated by "Ghost Whisperer".


title: Medium (TV series)

text: On October 26, 2010, CBS ordered the seventh and final season cut from 22 to 13 episodes. On November 15, 2010, Patricia Arquette told "Entertainment Weekly" that the show "got canceled" and had only two more episodes to shoot. She also said the writers were excited that they would be able to end the show properly. On November 18, 2010, series creator Glenn Gordon Caron posted to both the "Medium" Facebook page and the CBS forums, stating that the show had been canceled and that the series finale would be broadcast on January 21, 2011. CBS confirmed the cancellation with a press release on December 21, 2010, which also confirmed the series finale date of January 21.


title: Medium (TV series)

text: Each U.S. network television season generally starts in late September and ends in late May (except for the fifth season), which coincides with the completion of May sweeps. Times mentioned in this section are in Eastern Time.


title: Medium (TV series)

text: CBS DVD (distributed by Paramount) has released all 7 seasons of "Medium" on DVD in Regions 1, 2 & 4.


title: The Sopranos (season 4)

text: The fourth season of the American crime drama series "The Sopranos" began airing on HBO on September 15, 2002, and concluded on December 8, 2002, consisting of thirteen episodes. The fourth season was released on DVD in region 1 on October 28, 2003.


title: The Sopranos (season 4)

text: The story of season four focuses on the marriage between Tony and Carmela, as Tony engages in an affair with his uncle's nurse Svetlana and Carmela finds herself infatuated with Furio. The increasing tension between Tony and Ralph Cifaretto comes to a violent head and Uncle Junior is again put on trial for his crimes. Adriana is forced into becoming an FBI informant, while Christopher plunges deeper into heroin addiction.


title: The Sopranos (season 4)

text: Rotten Tomatoes reports a 92% approval rating with an average score of 9.00/10 based on 12 reviews for the show's fourth season, with the following critical consensus: "The war seeps into the Sopranos household in a season of discontent, with each of these artfully rendered devils stewing in a divine comedy of their own making."


title: Fisher information

text: In mathematical statistics, the Fisher information (sometimes simply called information) is a way of measuring the amount of information that an observable random variable "X" carries about an unknown parameter "θ" of a distribution that models "X". Formally, it is the variance of the score, or the expected value of the observed information.


title: Fisher information

text: In Bayesian statistics, the asymptotic distribution of the posterior mode depends on the Fisher information and not on the prior (according to the Bernstein–von Mises theorem, which was anticipated by Laplace for exponential families). The role of the Fisher information in the asymptotic theory of maximum-likelihood estimation was emphasized by the statistician Ronald Fisher (following some initial results by Francis Ysidro Edgeworth). The Fisher information is also used in the calculation of the Jeffreys prior, which is used in Bayesian statistics.


title: Fisher information

text: The Fisher information matrix is used to calculate the covariance matrices associated with maximum-likelihood estimates. It can also be used in the formulation of test statistics, such as the Wald test.


title: Fisher information

text: Statistical systems of a scientific nature (physical, biological, etc.) whose likelihood functions obey shift invariance have been shown to obey maximum Fisher information. The level of the maximum depends upon the nature of the system constraints.


title: Fisher information

text: The Fisher information is a way of measuring the amount of information that an observable random variable formula_1 carries about an unknown parameter formula_2 upon which the probability of formula_1 depends. Let formula_4 be the probability density function (or probability mass function) for formula_1 conditioned on the value of formula_2. It describes the probability that we observe a given outcome of formula_1, "given" a known value of formula_2. If formula_9 is sharply peaked with respect to changes in formula_2, it is easy to indicate the "correct" value of formula_2 from the data, or equivalently, that the data formula_1 provides a lot of information about the parameter formula_2. If formula_9 is flat and spread-out, then it would take many samples of formula_1 to estimate the actual "true" value of formula_2 that "would" be obtained using the entire population being sampled. This suggests studying some kind of variance with respect to formula_2.


title: Fisher information

text: Formally, the partial derivative with respect to formula_2 of the natural logarithm of the likelihood function is called the "score". Under certain regularity conditions, if formula_2 is the true parameter (i.e. formula_1 is actually distributed as formula_4), it can be shown that the expected value (the first moment) of the score, evaluated at the true parameter value formula_2, is 0:


title: Fisher information

text: Note that formula_25. A random variable carrying high Fisher information implies that the absolute value of the score is often high. The Fisher information is not a function of a particular observation, as the random variable "X" has been averaged out.


title: Fisher information

text: If is twice differentiable with respect to "θ", and under certain regularity conditions, then the Fisher information may also be written as


title: Fisher information

text: Thus, the Fisher information may be seen as the curvature of the support curve (the graph of the log-likelihood). Near the maximum likelihood estimate, low Fisher information therefore indicates that the maximum appears "blunt", that is, the maximum is shallow and there are many nearby values with a similar log-likelihood. Conversely, high Fisher information indicates that the maximum is sharp.


title: Fisher information

text: If "θ" is a vector then the regularity conditions must hold for every component of "θ". It is easy to find an example of a density that does not satisfy the regularity conditions: The density of a Uniform(0, "θ") variable fails to satisfy conditions 1 and 3. In this case, even though the Fisher information can be computed from the definition, it will not have the properties it is typically assumed to have.


title: Fisher information

text: Because the likelihood of "θ" given "X" is always proportional to the probability "f"("X"; "θ"), their logarithms necessarily differ by a constant that is independent of "θ", and the derivatives of these logarithms with respect to "θ" are necessarily equal. Thus one can substitute in a log-likelihood "l"("θ"; "X") instead of in the definitions of Fisher Information.


title: Fisher information

text: The value "X" can represent a single sample drawn from a single distribution or can represent a collection of samples drawn from a collection of distributions. If there are "n" samples and the corresponding "n" distributions are statistically independent then the Fisher information will necessarily be the sum of the single-sample Fisher information values, one for each single sample from its distribution. In particular, if the "n" distributions are independent and identically distributed then the Fisher information will necessarily be "n" times the Fisher information of a single sample from the common distribution.


title: Fisher information

text: The Cramér–Rao bound states that the inverse of the Fisher information is a lower bound on the variance of any unbiased estimator of "θ". H.L. Van Trees (1968) and B. Roy Frieden (2004) provide the following method of deriving the Cramér–Rao bound, a result which describes use of the Fisher information.


title: Fisher information

text: Informally, we begin by considering an unbiased estimator formula_29. Mathematically, "unbiased" means that


title: Fisher information

text: This expression is zero independent of "θ", so its partial derivative with respect to "θ" must also be zero. By the product rule, this partial derivative is also equal to


title: Fisher information

text: For each "θ", the likelihood function is a probability density function, and therefore formula_32. By using the chain rule on the partial derivative of formula_33 and then dividing and multiplying by formula_34, one can verify that


title: Fisher information

text: The second bracketed factor is defined to be the Fisher Information, while the first bracketed factor is the expected mean-squared error of the estimator formula_39. By rearranging, the inequality tells us that


title: Fisher information

text: In other words, the precision to which we can estimate "θ" is fundamentally limited by the Fisher information of the likelihood function.


title: Fisher information

text: A Bernoulli trial is a random variable with two possible outcomes, "success" and "failure", with success having a probability of "θ". The outcome can be thought of as determined by a coin toss, with the probability of heads being "θ" and the probability of tails being .


title: Fisher information

text: Because Fisher information is additive, the Fisher information contained in "n" independent Bernoulli trials is therefore


title: Fisher information

text: This is the reciprocal of the variance of the mean number of successes in "n" Bernoulli trials, so in this case, the Cramér–Rao bound is an equality.