Georges Gratiant

[1][2] Georges Gratiant was born on 6 January, 1907 in the commune of Saint-Esprit in Martinique, part of a well-to-do family.

He founded the "Common Front" group in the early 1930s with René Ménil, Victor Lamon and Thélus Léro.

[3] From 1941 to 1943 Gratiant participated with René Ménil, Aristide Maugée, Aimé and Suzanne Césaire in editing the journal Tropiques, which worked “To affirm the uniqueness of the culture of the Caribbean and its African roots” and “to say no to the shadows”.

[4][5] The arrival of a large contingent from France to enforce the Vichy regime made the subordination of the new department clear; and its Chief of Information Services for Martinique, Lt de Vaisseau Bayle, also took a dim view of the journal, inderdicting it as “a revolutionary review that is racial and sectarian”.

On Liberation in 1945, Gratiant supported assimilation with France, a view common to communists of the time, and took an active part in making it succeed.

"[9][10] This speech provoked the anger of the Minister of the Armed Forces, Pierre Messmer, who took Gratiant to court.

[11] The loss of life is memorialised on a plaque at rue Hardy de Saint-Omer near the place that it occurred, in Le Lamentin.

[13][14] In 1989 Gratiant, after having been mayor of Le Lamentin for thirty years, the commune having become the second largest city in Martinique, announced that he would not stand for re-election and supports the candidacy of his first deputy Pierre Samot.