Pedro Albizu Campos - Education

Education

Albizu Campos graduated from Ponce High School. In 1912, Albizu was awarded a scholarship to study Engineering, specializing in Chemistry at the University of Vermont. In 1913 he continued his studies at Harvard University.

At the outbreak of World War I, he volunteered in the United States Infantry. Albizu was commissioned a Second Lieutenant in the Army Reserves and sent to the City of Ponce where he organized the town's Home Guard. He was called to serve in the regular Army and sent to Camp Las Casas for further training. Upon completing the training, he was assigned to the 375th Infantry Regiment. Puerto Ricans of African descent were assigned to the all black units such as the 375th Regiment, in accordance with U.S. military segregation policies.

Albizu was honorably discharged from the Army in 1919, with the rank of First Lieutenant. During his military service he was exposed to the racism of the day. This deepened his perspective on U.S.- Puerto Rican relations, and led him toward becoming the leading advocate for Puerto Rican independence.

In 1919, Albizu returned to Harvard University and was elected president of the Harvard Cosmopolitan Club. He met with foreign students and world leaders, such as Subhas Chandra Bose (Indian Nationalist leader with Mahatma Gandhi) and the Hindu poet Rabindranath Tagore. He became interested in the cause of Indian independence, and also helped to establish several centers in Boston for Irish independence. Through this work, Albizu met Éamon de Valera and later became a consultant in the drafting of the constitution of the Irish Free State.

Albizu Campos graduated from Harvard Law School while simultaneously studying Literature, Philosophy, Chemical Engineering and Military Science at Harvard College. He was fluent in six modern and two classical languages: English, Spanish, French, German, Portuguese, Italian, Latin and Greek.

Upon graduation from law school, Albizu was heavily recruited - with a law clerkship to the U.S. Supreme Court, a diplomatic post with the U.S. State Department, the regional vice-presidency (Caribbean region) of a U.S. agricultural syndicate, and a tenured faculty appointment to the University of Puerto Rico. He rejected all these offers and returned to his hometown of Ponce, where he opened a one-man law office. It was located in a particularly underprivileged neighborhood called La Cantera, and he accepted payment in-kind (food, water, clothing) if the client did not have any money.