Hays Commission (ACLU) Report on the Ponce Massacre (1937)

In 1937, the American Civil Liberties Union commissioned an independent investigation into the Ponce Massacre of March 21, 1937. The Hays Commission, chaired by ACLU co-founder Arthur Garfield Hays, conducted extensive interviews and reviewed evidence.

Background: On Palm Sunday, March 21, 1937, police opened fire on a peaceful Nationalist Party march in Ponce, killing 19 people (17 Nationalists and 2 bystanders) and wounding over 200. The march had been authorized and then revoked by the colonial governor, Blanton Winship.

Key Findings of the Hays Commission:

1. "The facts show that the weights of the evidence is that the affair of II March 21, 1937 in Ponce, Puerto Rico, should properly be described as a massacre."

2. The police action was not justified by any threat from the marchers: "The marchers were unarmed and had made no aggressive moves."

3. Responsibility lay with the colonial authorities: "Governor Winship and the police bear sole responsibility for the massacre."

4. The revocation of the march permit was an act of political suppression: "The real purpose of the police action was to suppress the Nationalist movement."

5. The police fired without provocation and continued firing on fleeing civilians.

6. Wounded people attempting to crawl to safety were shot again.

Context: Governor Blanton Winship, appointed by President Franklin Roosevelt, had been conducting an aggressive campaign against the Nationalist movement. The Ponce Massacre was the most extreme act of violence in that campaign.

Aftermath: Despite the ACLU's findings, no police officer or official was ever prosecuted for the killings. Governor Winship remained in office until 1939. The U.S. Congress did not conduct an investigation.

The Ponce Massacre and the subsequent impunity demonstrate the fundamental lawlessness of colonial power: the colonizer can kill the colonized with impunity because the colonized have no political power to demand accountability.