Here is a fascinating article linking Haiti with Black History Month:

Published Wednesday, February 14, 2007
Haitians celebrate cultural legacy during Black History Month

By JENNIFER KAY
Associated Press Writer
MIAMI
Abolitionist Frederick Douglass and writers Langston Hughes and Zora Neale Hurston are among the heroes celebrated every February during Black History Month. Shadowed in history, however, are their ties to Haiti, the first free black republic.

That relationship is being examined this year by the founders of Black History Month. The Association for the Study of African American Life and History designated this year's theme as "From Slavery to Freedom: Africans in the Americas," encouraging people to explore the emancipation of slaves and their struggles for equality in the 19th century in Jamaica, Brazil, Haiti and the United States.

It's about time, say Haitian-Americans who want the Caribbean country to be recognized as a foundation of U.S. civil rights history, instead of only as the poorest country in the Western Hemisphere.

Douglass, who had been appointed the first U.S. minister to Haiti, tried more than a century ago to educate Americans about Haiti's influence on their struggle for independence.

"We should not forget that the freedom you and I enjoy today ... is largely due to the brave stand taken by the black sons of Haiti 90 years ago," he said, addressing the 1893 World's Fair in Chicago - a city that traces its birth to a Haitian, Jean Baptiste Pointe du Sable.

Douglass was referring to a slave rebellion led by Toussaint L'Ouverture that led to Haiti's break from France.

"Toussaint L'Ouverture was not just the father of Haitian independence," said Eveline Pierre, president of the planned Haitian Heritage Museum in Miami.

"He was the father of freedom from slavery," Pierre said this week. "When you think of African-American history, there is no possibility of Black History Month without connecting the dots between Haitian culture and black history."

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