SHAWN KNIGHTS
<Contributor>
Since its inception, there has been an ongoing debate about whether or not Black History Month should exist. Some argue that the annual celebration only serves to create divisions and others argue that it is an important part of nurturing a sense of pride within the Black community.
This debate stems from the fact that many people don’t think about or care about the legacy that their ancestors provided for them. However, as a Black male, I have come to learn first-hand the importance of personally knowing your history. My personal journey of learning my history began shortly after I was racially profiled for the first time.
This experience was preceded by a long history of dealing with racism at my school, at my job, in my volunteer activities and in what I had begun to accept as my life. Being the victim of discrimination and unjust treatment tipped me over the edge. I was angry, hurt, and I wanted answers. Why bother trying to be a good person when I was just going to end up being treated like a criminal anyway?
In my search for answers, I began reading historical accounts of the Civil Rights Movement in the United States and the political writings of people like Frantz Fanon. However, this was unsatisfying because, although I related to many of the experiences in these writings, I was going through something different. I was going through the Canadian edition of racism. Then it hit me… I didn’t know my personal history.
In our personal lives, history gives us a head start to overcome challenges and to reach higher than our ancestors did. As future lawyers, our children will never doubt whether or not they can go to university or become a lawyer – because they know that it has been done. Our children will enjoy the privilege of knowing that all things are possible if they just believe.
There is power in knowing your history and wherever I go, I make an effort to know the history of that place in order to ensure that I have the right outlook. For example, as future members of the Law Society of Upper Canada and as future Osgoode alumni, we have a very inspiring history.
Former Chief Justice William Osgoode (sound familiar?) was an important abolitionist and was instrumental with others like Lieutenant Governor John Simcoe Graves in an assault against slavery laws in British North America. Their efforts stemmed the spread of slavery in Canada in preparation for its abolition in the mid-1830s. This is, of course, included in most official Canadian historical accounts. However, people of African descent have also been an integral part of Canada’s legal history and their contribution should not be forgotten.
Robert Sutherland was born in Jamaica in 1830, and later became the first known Black person to become a lawyer and graduate from a university in Canada. Sutherland graduated from Queen’s University in 1852 with honours in Classics and Mathematics. He had an extraordinarily successful academic career during which he won 14 academic prizes; he was elected Treasurer of the student government, and was known as an excellent debater.
To understand the significance of Sutherland’s contribution, it is important to remember that slavery did not legally end in Canada until 1834 (only 4 years after Sutherland was born) and the institution of slavery was still thriving in the United States, which were still more than two decades away from entering the Civil War.
Sutherland became British North America’s first Black lawyer in 1855 and practiced law in what is now Walkerton, Ontario for more than 20 years. During this time he served as the Town Reeve and was connected to the Underground Railroad.
Sutherland died unmarried and without children, but left a lasting philanthropic legacy after his death in 1878. At the time, Queen’s University was in serious financial trouble and was about to be annexed to the University of Toronto. However, just before his death, Sutherland saved the university from being annexed by leaving Queen’s University his entire estate, which was equivalent to the university’s annual budget.
There are many others, such as Delos Davis, who was born into slavery in Maryland, but later escaped with his family through the Underground Railroad and grew up in what is now Windsor, Ontario. He became a teacher and a notary public, and he studied law. However, he was unable to become a lawyer because there were no lawyers in Ontario that were willing to let him article due to prevailing racist attitudes. So Davis convinced his MPP, William Balfour, to introduce a special Private Bill that allowed him to become a lawyer with the Law Society of Upper Canada if he passed the bar. He did pass and became a solicitor in 1885 and a barrister in 1886 after years of fighting to have the law changed. He was likely the first Black person to be appointed as a King’s Counsel in Canada as well.
However, that is not the end of Davis’ story. If you look closely at the Osgoode graduation pictures hanging up near Gowlings Hall, you will see in the top right hand corner of the year 1900 graduation collage, a picture of Delos Davis’ son Fred H.A. Davis, who was one of Osgoode’s earliest graduates and who became a prominent lawyer along with his father.
There are many others, such as Ethelbert Lionel Cross, the first Black lawyer to practice in Toronto, who acted as a spokesman for those who normally had no access to justice, such as Blacks, Jewish people and the trade union communities in the 1930s. He spoke out against attempts to expand the Ku Klux Klan in places like Oakville, Ontario, and successfully pressured the Attorney General of Ontario to prosecute local KKK leaders.
Myrtle Blackwood Smith, who graduated from Osgoode in 1959, was the first known Black female lawyer in Ontario.
Leonard Braithwaite graduated from Osgoode Hall in 1958 at the top of his class and was the first Black president of Osgoode’s Legal and Literary Society. In addition to becoming a lawyer, he also became Ontario’s first black MPP. As an MPP, he successfully lobbied the Ontario Government of the day to end segregated schools in Ontario and introduce female pages into the legislature.
Black Canadian history is not something that belongs to a certain segment of society. It is an often forgotten legacy that is integral to Canadian history and the foundations of how the law has developed in Canada. Our notions of fundamental freedoms such as equality are inextricably linked to the experiences and contributions of many African-Canadians.
For me, Black History Month is an opportunity to celebrate the unyielding nature of hope. The legacy of African peoples in North America says that you can be born into slavery and end up as a lawyer, a Reeve, and an inspiration. This legacy says that even if an unjust state law is against you, that you can change it, because nothing is impossible for those who maintain their faith and hope.
Black History Month is a celebration of people that have overcome obstacles and it is about reconnecting and learning about a history that goes back to the beginning of humanity.
I’m not trying to romanticize the experiences and history of people of African descent in Canada. However, I don’t want to minimize what the legacy of African-Canadians represents. It changed my life when I came to understand that I am the descendant of ancestors who endured one of the most horrific and evil experiences ever unleashed upon our earth – and yet I am still here, and thriving. It is a testimony of hope for the world.
So for every African society that thrived from the beginning of humanity and produced a rich and unique culture that continues to exist today, for every person that made it across the great divide, for every enslaved person in the United States who escaped the evils of slavery, for every pastor that led their congregation across the border to freedom, for every African person that endured slavery in Canada, for every person who took a stand for their Civil Rights and for every Black person who, in spite of racism, unfair circumstances, and the odds, made it, I wish you a very happy Black History Month and hope that you will take the time to learn more – not about “my” history, but about “our” history.