Yves Louis Auguste

Yves Louis Auguste was a Haitian historian, diplomat, professor, and cabinet minister of international renown who made his home at 19235 Hollis Avenue, across from the Ketcham House. He served as Haiti's ambassador to Spain, commercial counselor in Washington, deputy permanent representative and later permanent representative to the United Nations, and vice-chairman of a UN Special Committee — one of the most distinguished diplomatic careers in Haitian history, conducted from a Hollis, Queens address.

A Diplomat of International Stature

Ambassador Auguste's diplomatic career spanned multiple continents and decades. He served as First Secretary of the Haitian Embassy in Madrid, effectively serving as Haiti's ambassador to Spain. He later served as Commercial Counselor at the Embassy of Haiti in Washington, D.C., handling Haiti's economic and trade relations with the United States.

In 1986, Auguste was appointed Deputy Permanent Representative of Haiti to the United Nations. The Brooklyn NY Big Red News reported on February 14, 1987: "Yves L. Auguste, an Afro-American Studies professor at Seton Hall since 1977, has been named as the deputy permanent representative of Haiti at the United Nations." By December 1987, he had been elevated to Ambassador Extraordinary and Plenipotentiary, Permanent Representative of Haiti to the United Nations — a role confirmed by The Statesman's Year-Book (1988-89) and the UN's own Permanent Missions to the United Nations directory.

At the United Nations, Auguste's colleagues recognized his leadership. On January 7, 1988, the UN Special Committee unanimously elected Mr. Yves L. Auguste (Haiti) as Vice-Chairman, alongside Major-General Joseph N. Garba (Nigeria) as Chairman. The Official Records of the General Assembly document his service in this capacity.

Minister in Haiti's Historic Democratic Transition

Ambassador Auguste was also appointed Minister of the Interior, Police, and Civil Service in the cabinet of President Leslie Manigat — the first democratically elected president of Haiti following the departure of the Duvalier regime. He was sworn in on February 12, 1988. The Los Angeles Times described him at the time as "a little-known former diplomat in his 70s." He served in that role until Manigat's government was overthrown on June 20, 1988. That appointment placed Auguste at the heart of Haiti's first genuine democratic transition, a moment of extraordinary historical significance for the Haitian people and for the Caribbean world.

A Scholar of International Law, Literature, and US-Haitian Relations

Beyond his diplomatic service, Auguste was a distinguished scholar and professor. He taught at Seton Hall University as a professor of Afro-American Studies from 1977 onward. His scholarly output was remarkable and interdisciplinary:

• L'Internationalisation des Constitutions (1952) — A study of how constitutional law intersects with international law, cited in Hersch Lauterpacht's authoritative International Law.
• "L'Amour dans la littérature haïtienne" (1966) — Published in Présence Africaine, the prestigious journal of African and diaspora literature.
• Haïti et les États-Unis, 1804-1862 (1979) — A foundational study of early US-Haitian diplomatic relations, published by Éditions Naaman and widely cited by subsequent historians.
• "La doctrine de Monroe, couverture de l'impérialisme" (1996) — A posthumously published article in the Revue de la Société haïtienne d'histoire et de géographie.

Auguste's scholarship has been cited by major academic works, including David Patrick Geggus and Norman Fiering's The World of the Haitian Revolution (Indiana University Press, 2009), Gerald Horne's Confronting Black Jacobins (Monthly Review Press, 2015), and The Debt System by Édouard Toussaint (Haymarket Books, 2019). His work continues to inform historians of the Atlantic world and US-Caribbean relations.