The Palm Sunday Massacre: Police Shooting of Nationalists in Ponce (1937)

The Ponce Massacre of March 21, 1937 — Palm Sunday — was one of the most violent acts of colonial repression in 20th-century Puerto Rican history.

Context: The Nationalist Party, led by Pedro Albizu Campos, had organized a peaceful march in Ponce to commemorate the abolition of slavery and to protest the imprisonment of Albizu Campos (arrested in 1936 on sedition charges). Governor Blanton Winship — an appointed American military governor — ordered the march suppressed.

The March: At approximately 3:15 PM, a group of about 80 Nationalists, including women and children, began marching through downtown Ponce. They carried Puerto Rican flags and sang 'La Borinqueña.' Police had surrounded the marchers on all sides.

The Shooting: As the march began, a shot was fired (its origin disputed). Police immediately opened fire on the marchers from multiple positions. The shooting lasted approximately 13 minutes. Marchers who tried to flee were shot in the back. Bystanders were killed.

Casualties:
- 19 killed (17 Nationalists and bystanders, 2 police officers)
- Over 200 wounded
- Many shot in the back while fleeing

The ACLU Investigation: The American Civil Liberties Union sent attorney Arthur Garfield Hays to investigate. His report, known as the 'Hays Report,' concluded:
- The police were solely responsible for the massacre
- The march was peaceful and legal
- Governor Winship bore ultimate responsibility for ordering the suppression
- The shooting was unprovoked
- It constituted a 'massacre' by any definition

Aftermath:
- No police officer was ever charged or disciplined
- Governor Winship was eventually recalled to Washington (in 1939), partly due to the massacre's negative publicity
- The massacre deepened Puerto Rican radicalization against colonial rule
- Albizu Campos, already imprisoned, saw the massacre as confirmation that colonialism could only be opposed by force

Legacy: The Ponce Massacre is commemorated annually. It remains one of the defining events in Puerto Rican collective memory — a moment when the colonial state showed its true face: armed police shooting unarmed civilians carrying flags and singing their national anthem.