'Navassa Island Riot' pamplet
*The 'Navassa Island Riot' is affirmed on this date in 1889. Navassa Island is a small uninhabited island northeast of Jamaica, south of Cuba.
In September 1875, the fierce 1875 Indianola hurricane swept over the island, destroying much of the company's infrastructure, including the rail line and workers' homes. The storm caused an estimated $25,000 (equivalent to $690,000 in 2023) damage to the island. Business lured Black men to the island to gather guano as fertilizer and gunpowder. Hauling guano by human muscle power in the fierce tropical heat, combined with general disgruntlement with conditions on the island, eventually contributed to a riot in 1889, in which five supervisors died.
A U.S. warship returned 18 of the workers to Baltimore for three separate trials on murder charges. A Black fraternal society, the Order of Galilean Fishermen, raised money to defend the miners in federal court. The defense tried to build a case on the contention that the men acted in self-defense or the heat of passion and even claimed that the United States did not have jurisdiction over the island. E. J. Waring, the first Black lawyer called to the Maryland bar, was a part of the defense's legal team.
The cases, including Jones v. United States, went to the U.S. Supreme Court in October 1890, which ruled the Guano Act constitutional. Three of the miners were to be executed in the spring of 1891. A grass-roots petition driven by Black churches nationwide, also signed by white jurors from the three trials, reached President Benjamin Harrison, who mentioned the case in that year's State of the Union Address.
