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Felix Jean-Louis, Grace Sanders Johnson. White Gloves, Black Nation: Women, Citizenship, and Political Wayfaring in Haiti., The American Historical Review, Volume 130, Issue 1, March 2025, Pages 362–363, https://doi.org/10.1093/ahr/rhae502
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Grace Sanders Johnson’s White Gloves, Black Nation: Women, Citizenship, and Political Wayfaring in Haiti is a much-needed addition to the canon of Haitian history and the history of women’s activism. Spanning some twenty odd years, Sanders Johnson reveals the modes of activism of elite Haitian women and their efforts to secure full citizenship through political rights and ameliorate the conditions of women in the Black Republic. Deeply researched and persuasively argued, the work nuances and elaborates on the practices of the activists and intellectuals in a time of possibilities. The work ebbs between an analysis of the efforts of the Ligue Féminine d’Action Sociale (LFAS) to improve the conditions and secure citizenship rights for all Haitian women, and the inherent tensions of a society that was as classist as it was sexist. It follows the efforts of highly educated, professional, and well-connected women who used their privileges to launch a movement that sought to be representative of all Haitian women and their needs. Sanders Johnson argues that the women of the LFAS’s leadership—those “who got dressed up for tea”—developed a praxis that ultimately garnered “the right to vote” (6–7).
