Organized in the early 1900s by a group of radical Blacks unhappy with their lack of political opportunities, the “Independent Color Association” developed into a political party during the second United States intervention. Despite its appeal to the racial consciousness of the Blacks, the party did poorly in the 1908 elections, a fiasco that increased its leaders’ frustrations. When the Morúa law forbade parties organized along racial lines, the Agrupación staged an uprising, the so-called “Race War” of 1912, led by Evaristo Estenóz. This was crushed and the Agrupación collapsed soon afterwards.
