Anti-Black Racism in WWI-era Nova Scotia (and before)

[breathedout]

From Constance Backhouse's Colour-Coded: A Legal History of Racism in Canada, 1900-1950 (Chapter 7: "'Bitterly Disappointed' at the Spread of 'Colour-Bar Tactics': Viola Desmond's Challenge to Racial Segregation, Nova Scotia, 1946"), a long excerpt that's relevant to my novel-research and which I also thought might be of more general interest as well:

Carrie Best, who was born and educated in New Glasgow [Nova Scotia, where the managers of the Roseland Theatre refused to sell Viola Desmond a ground-floor ticket on the basis of her race], was well acquainted with the egregious forms of white racism practiced there. A woman who defined herself as an 'activist' against racism, she did not mince words when she claimed there were 'just as many racists in New Glasgow as in Alabama.' She was thrown out of the Roseland Theatre herself in 1942, for refusing to sit in the balcony, and tried unsuccessfully to sue the theatre management for damages then.

Nor was she a stranger to the heroism of Black resisters. One of her most vivid childhood memories involved a race riot that erupted in New Glasgow at the close of the First World War. An interracial altercation between two youths inspired 'bands of roving white men armed with clubs' to station themselves at different intersections in the town, barring Blacks from crossing. At dusk that evening, Carrie Best's mother was delivered home from work by the chauffeur of the family who employed her. There she found that her husband, her younger son, and Carrie had made it home safely. Missing was Carrie's older brother, who had not yet returned from his job at the Norfolk House hotel. Carrie described what ensued in her autobiography, That Lonesome Road:

In all the years she lived and until she passed away at the age of eighty-one my mother was never known to utter an unkind, blasphemous or obscene word, nor did I ever see her get angry. This evening was no exception. She told us to get our meal, stating that she was going into town to get my brother. It was a fifteen minute walk.

At the corner of East River Road and Marsh Street the crowd was waiting and as my mother drew near they hurled insults at her and threateningly ordered her to turn back. She continued to walk toward the hotel about a block away when one of the young men recognized her and asked her where she was going. 'I am going to the Norfolk House for my son,' she answered calmly. (My mother was six feet tall and as straight as a ramrod.) The young man ordered the crowd back and my mother continued on her way to the hotel. At that time there was a livery stable at the rear entrance to the hotel and it was there my mother found my frightened older brother and brought him safely home.

This was but one incident in an increasingly widespread pattern of white racism, that exploded with particular virulence across Canada during and immediately following the First World War. White mobs terrorized the Blacks living near New Glasgow, physically destroying their property. White soldiers also attacked the Black settlement in Truro, Nova Scotia, stoning houses and shouting obscenities. Throughout the 1920s, Blacks in Ontario and Saskatchewan withstood increasingly concerted intimidation from the hateful Ku Klux Klan. But race discrimination had a much longer history in Canada.


THE HISTORY OF BLACK SEGREGATION IN CANADA

From the middle of the nineteenth century, Blacks and whites in two provinces could be relegated to separate schools by law. Ontario amended its School Act in 1849 to permit municipal councils 'to authorize the establishing of any number of schools for the education of the children of colored people that they may judge expedient.' The preamble to the statute was quite specific. The legislation was necessary, it admitted, because 'the prejudices and ignorance' of certain Ontario residents had 'prevented' certain Black children from attending the common schools in their district. The statute was amended in 1850, to direct local public school trustees to establish separate schools upon the application of twelve or more 'resident heads of families' in the area. In 1886, the legislature clarified that schools for 'coloured people' were to be set up only after an application had been made by at least five Black families in the community.

Although drafted in permissive language, white officials frequently used coercive tactics to force Blacks into applying for segregated schools. Once separate schools were set up, the courts refused Black children admission to any other schools, despite evidence that this forced many to travel long distances to attend schools they would not have chosen otherwise. Separate schools for Blacks continued until 1891 in Chatham, 1893 in Sandwich, 1907 in Harrow, 1917 in Amherstburg, and 1965 in North Colchester and Essex counties. The Ontario statute authorizing racially segregated education would not be repealed until 1964. As white historian Robin Winks has noted:

The Negro schools lacked competent teachers, and attendance was highly irregular and unenforced. Many schools met for only three months in the year or closed entirely. Most had no library of any kind. In some districts, school taxes were collected from Negro residents to support the [white] common school from which their children were barred... The education received... could hardly have been regarded as equal.

Similar legislation dating from 1865 existed in Nova Scotia, where education authorities were authorized to establish 'separate apartments or buildings' for pupils of 'different colors.' A campaign for racial integration in the schools, organized by leaders of the Black community in 1884, prompted an amendment to the law, stipulating that Black pupils could not be excluded from instruction in the areas in which they lived. The original provisions for segregation within the public school system remained intact until 1950. In 1940, school officials in Lower Sackville, in Halifax County, barred Black children from attending the only public school in the area, and until 1959 school buses would stop only in the white sections of Hammonds Plains. In 1960, there would still be seven formal Black school districts and three additional exclusively Black schools in Nova Scotia.

Beyond the schools, racial segregation riddled the country. The colour bar was less rigidified than in the United States, varying between regions and shifting over time. But Canadian employers commonly selected their workforce by race rather than merit. Access to land grants and residential housing was frequently restricted by race. Attempts were made to bar Blacks from jury service. The military was rigorously segregated. Blacks were denied equal access to some forms of public transportation. Blacks and whites tended to worship in separate churches, sometimes by choice, other times because white congregations refused membership to Blacks. Orphanages and poor-houses could be segregated by race. Some hospitals refused access to facilities to non-white physicians and service to non-white patients. Blacks were even denied burial rights in segregated cemeteries. While no consistent pattern ever emerged, various hotels, restaurants, theatres, athletic facilities, parks, swimming pools, beaches, dance pavilions, skating rinks, pubs and bars were closed to Blacks across the country.

There were as yet no Canadian statutes expressly prohibiting such behaviour. The first statute to prohibit segregation on the basis of race did not appear until [...] Saskatchewan banned race discrimination in 'hotels, victualling houses, theatres or other places to which the public is customarily admitted.' The 1947 Saskatchewan Bill of Rights Act, which also barred discrimination in employment, business ventures, housing, and education, constituted Canada's first comprehensive human rights legislation. The act offered victims of race discrimination the opportunity to prosecute offenders upon summary conviction for fines of up to $200. the Court of King's Bench was also empowered to issue injunctions to restrain the offensive behaviour.

Comments

[alessnox]

Interesting. I never heard this history.

[breathedout]

Glad you found it interesting!