leaders to the party. The party was met with heavy backlash. Many white Cubans claimed that the establishment of a party based on race was itself racist. In 1910, Senator Martín Morúa Delgado, mulatto himself, presented and helped pass a law to ban race-based political parties, effectively outlawing the PIC. The members of the PIC were not happy about this news. In 1912, many Afro-Cubans took to the streets in armed protest against this law. Sources vary on the original organizers of the protest that occurred as a result of this ban. In response, President Machado ordered the military to end the rebellion, violently if necessary. Joined by private white militias, the national guard proceeded to kill between 3000 and 7000 Afro-Cubans, some of whom were not involved in the uprising at all. This massacre, often called the Little Race War or War of 1912, cloaked the tone of race conversation for decades to come. Cuban Revolution The 1959 Cuban Revolution changed race relations drastically. Institutionally speaking, Cubans of color benefited disproportionately from revolutionary reform. After the overthrow of the Batista regime, Fidel Castro established racism as one of the central battles of the revolution. Though Cuba never had formal, state sanctioned segregation, privatization disenfranchised Cubans of color specifically. Previously white only private pools, beaches, and schools were made public, free, and opened up to Cubans of all races and classes. Because much of the Afro-Cuban population on the island was impoverished before the revolution, they benefited widely from the policies for affordable housing, the literacy program, universal free education in general, and healthcare. But above all, Castro insisted that the greatest obstacle for Cubans of color was access to employment. By the mid 1980s, racial inequality on paper was virtually nonexistent. Cubans of color graduated at the same (or higher) rate as white Cubans. The races had an equal life expectancy and were equally represented in the professional arena. When Fidel Castro seized power of Cuba in 1959, his administration quickly got to work. They passed more than 1500 legislative pieces during the first 30 months. These laws included priorities such as education, poverty, land distribution, and race. However, Castro's approach to race and eliminating racial divides was to make Cuba a raceless nation, rather focusing on people's Cuban identity and eliminating the perception of race all together. It was an anti-discrimination campaign in its purest form, there could