| Ernest Deproge | |
| Office: | Deputy of the National Assembly |
| Office1: | Deputy of the National Assembly |
| Office2: | Deputy of the National Assembly |
| Office3: | Deputy of the National Assembly |
| Birth Date: | 15 August 1850 |
| Birth Place: | Fort-de-France, Martinique |
| Constituency: | Martinique |
| Party: | Republican Union (France) (1885-89); Gauche radicale (1889-98) |
| Birth Name: | Louis-Joseph Ernest Deproge |
Louis-Joseph Ernest Deproge, (15 August 1850 - December 1921) was a lawyer and deputy of Martinique from 1882 to 1898.
Ernest Deproge completed his primary education in Fort-de-France. He left for France, obtaining his baccalaureate in Rouen; he then began studying law in Paris. The Franco-Prussian War forced him to abandon his studies for a while to take part in the fighting. When the war ended, he resumed his university studies and obtained his law degree. Ernest Deproge returned to Martinique to practise law.[1]
In 1878, Deprogue and César Lainé assisted Marius Hurard in the publication of French: Les Colonies. It was the first newspaper founded and run by republican free men of color in Martinique.[2] [3] In 1880, he held the post of president of the General Council of Martinique for a year.[4] In 1885, a rivalry between Deproge and Hurard caused the break-up of the Republican party.[5] Ernest Deproge's assimilationist camp accused Marius Hurard of collusion with the autonomist Béké group. They each created their own political party. Deproge founded the French: Parti Radical Socialiste Martiniquais, or French: Union Républicaine. Hurard created the French: Parti Républicain Progressiste.[6] At the age of 48, Ernest Deproge left political life and Martinique. He became director of the French: Banque de la Réunion and then of various institutions in France. After a long illness, he died on the 19th December in Sanvic (Seine-Maritime), at the age of 71.[7]
A street by the sea, near his family home in Fort-de-France, was named after him. In 1925, bust was unveiled at Place Fabien, a plaza between rue Isambert and rue Victor Sévère in Fort-de-France, Martinique.[4] He is now considered a controversial figure of French colonialism in Martinique's history; in 2021, protesters pushed his bust off its plinth.[8] The Martinique Heritage Database, a project of the General Council of Martinique, writes the following about how he is remembered: