1895 - The 1895 Pan-African Vision of Haitian Lawyer Anténor Firmin

On May 24, 1895, Haitian scholar and diplomat Anténor Firmin published his pioneering work De l’Égalité des Races Humaines (On the Equality of the Human Races), a direct rebuttal to the racist pseudoscience of the era. Firmin, born in Cap-Haïtien, Haiti, was one of the first Black intellectuals to challenge European racial hierarchies using anthropology and philosophy. He argued that intelligence and civilization were not determined by race and that Africa had played a foundational role in global human history. Firmin’s work predated and deeply influenced later Pan-Africanist thinkers like W.E.B. Du Bois and Marcus Garvey. Despite its groundbreaking nature, Firmin’s contributions remain underrecognized outside academic circles. His bold stance on racial equality and cultural pride made him a quiet architect of Black internationalism. May 24 marks a pivotal date in decolonial thought, offering a powerful SEO-friendly historical anchor for exploring early global Black resistance to scientific racism.