For those of us who are too young to remember the event of April 20, 1990, I am pleased to share with you another great Haitian success. Seventeen years ago today, Haitians have once again shown the world that united we are powerful. Fresh out of High School in January 1990, as I was attending Buffalo state College, I was turned away as I attempted to voluntarily donate blood at a “Blood Bank Center” on campus. Reason for not accepting my blood was pointed out to me in a leaflet, “blood from Haitians and sub-Saharan Africans are not to be accepted” to paraphrase it. Needless to say that I was ashamed, the blood that I was about to donate has dried up in my veins for I was ready to fight the scheme of the Food and Drugs Administration (FDA) to use Haitians as scapegoat for the AIDS Virus.

When news came to us on campus that the Haitians are organizing a march to protest against the FDA’s policy towards the Haitians, the Haitians on campus enthusiastically organized load of buses to attend the rally. Haitians all over the world have joined in to make April 20, 1990 the biggest Haitian gathering on a foreign soil. It was believed that as many as 80,000 Haitians have crossed the Brooklyn Bridge and only one isolated incident was registered by the NYPD.

When it was time to leave, it was as if the rally has just begun. The NYPD was helpless, hopeless and unable to control the Haitians. To show respect to the then Mayor, David Dinkins, only he could have handled the situation. The Haitians, instead of following the order of the NYPD, started calling on the Mayor to come and join them in the crowd. I remember vividly when some marchers took the Mayor on top of their necks, literally like a kid, and started chanting “Dinkins, Dinkins, Dinkins”. Only the Mayor could have stopped us and so he spoke to the crowd, thanking them and asked that we please go home as he supported our goal.

To relive the moment and pride of the Haitians, below is an article from the New York Times dated April 21, 1990 about that stunning day of Haitians on foreign soil.

F.D.A. Policy To Limit Blood Is Protested By DONATELLA LORCH Published: April 21, 1990

Tens of thousands of demonstrators swarmed across the Brooklyn Bridge into lower Manhattan yesterday to protest a Federal health policy on blood donations that they said unfairly stigmatized Haitians and Africans.

The protesters - college students, factory workers and families with picnic baskets and umbrellas to protect them from the sun - massed in the morning at Cadman Plaza in Brooklyn and then crossed into Manhattan. The bridge was closed to traffic, hopelessly clogging lower Manhattan for most of the day.

Waving flags and chanting, the marchers, whose numbers surprised the Police Department, were intent on their mission but also festive and orderly.

2 People Are Hurt

The only reported trouble occurred after the demonstration, when a group beat up a motorist and another man who tried to help him in downtown Brooklyn. The police said the motorist had apparently argued with people in the crowd. By early afternoon, the marchers reached Federal Plaza at Broadway between Worth and Chambers Streets, with a crowd that the police estimated at 50,000 and that rally organizers said was nearly 80,000.

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