Senate: Right Historical Wrong With Rothschild Francis Pardon

Few names shine as brightly in U.S. Virgin Islands history as Rothschild Francis. While a bust of the early-20th century civil rights activist stands in Educators Park with Edith Williams and J. Antonio Jarvis, so too do his convictions remain on the books.

The Senate’s Committee on Rules and Judiciary approved a bill Thursday asking President Joe Biden to posthumously pardon Francis. The bill now goes before the full V.I. legislature.

Sen. Alma Francis Heyliger (no known relation) introduced the bill that framed a 1924 libel conviction and a 1926 embezzlement conviction as “suspicious.”

With public speeches in his native St. Thomas and bold editorials in his publication, The Emancipator, Francis was both an impassioned booster of the United States and fierce critic of a colonial system that disenfranchised Virgin Islanders.

Rules at the time prioritized strong administration over civil rights and democracy, Heylinger wrote in her bill.

“When you really heard about how he was personally persecuted for trying to correct some of the wrongs in the territory and how it was done, it made you pause. It’s like, wait a minute. This is how they shut people down whenever they tried to be a change agent within any society,” Heyliger said. “For me, this is about correcting a wrong.”

Testifiers Thursday said colonial rulers on the mainland were out to squash any dissent in the newly-American territory.

Edward L. Browne, author of “The Wrongful Imprisonment of Rothschild Francis,” said Francis tried to work within U.S. law to change the application of that law. His advocacy resulted in the Organic Act.

“Rothschild Francis advocated for the removal of the Naval administration and the establishment of a permanent civil government. Mr. Francis believed that racial tension in the Virgin Islands could be eradicated through the application of civil rights and self-governance,” Browne said. “The unjust conviction of Rothschild Francis must be overturned.”

Historian and culture-keeper Glenn “Kwabena” Davis testified Francis was targeted by local police and racist mainland forces.

“This was a man who heard the wailing and lamentations of his people, witnessed the conflagration of assaults, brutal acts of intimidation and violence upon his people, and who swore before the altar of God to give every drop of his blood in the struggle against the perpetuation of naval rule over our Virgin Islands. He pressed forward, undaunted, valiant and focused on civilian government being in the territory,” Davis said. “If ever there was legislation that brought me to euphoric heights, it was this one. By this, a horrible wrong will be rectified.”

Contemporary reports and historical studies paint Rothschild “Polly” Francis, a shoemaker and avid student of American civics, as bucking against injustice from the start of American rule. He’d been an anti-white supremacy activist before that.