By Lynn Nagle
Chatham This Week
For decades, African Canadians as well as other minorities have been trying to blend into the 'Canadian Melting Pot' while maintaining their own values and traditions.
The 12th annual John Brown Festival, held May 6 and 7 at the WISH Centre provided an opportunity to pay tribute to the heritage and legacy of some of those who fought against racism, including Rev. James Brown for whom the festival was named.
Guest speaker Tamio Wakayama was born in Japan just months before the Pearl Harbour attack which precipitated the American entry into World War II.
His family, who were living in Canada, were considered enemy aliens even though the Canadian military tried to assure the government that the 22,000 Japanese-Canadians were of no threat to the safety of Canadians.
The government felt differently and forced the Japanese-Canadians to choose between being deported and/or moving east out of BC. Wakayama's family moved east and settled in Chatham but were still considered to be enemy aliens.
He said that he grew up wanting to be John Wayne but eventually regained a sense of self and knew that he had other ways to contribute to society.
In 1963 Wakayama joined the American Civil Rights Movement and became an artist as well as a world renowned photographer. One of his most famous exhibits, A Dream of Riches: The Japanese-Canadians 1877-1977, has travelled across Canada, the U.S. and Japan. It is a visual exploration of the injustices the Japanese endured during this era. He has also added published author to his long list of accomplishments.
Growing up in Chatham, many of Wakayama's friends were African-Canadians who were descendants of the settlers who came into the area as part of the slave movement to Canada via the Underground Railway. These black Canadians were considered aliens as well.
Another guest speaker, Dr. James W. St. G. Walker, professor of history and graduate chair at the University of Waterloo spoke about how during World War II with enlistments well below what had been expected, an entire all-black Battalion was put together. These soldiers were given jobs considered too menial for regular servicemen.
By the time the second world war came around the Canadian Government did not want to accept either blacks or Japanese-Canadians as soldiers and according to Walker they made up excuses not to accept these minorities at the start of the war.
Near the end of the war they changed their policies and accepted African-Canadians and then later needed Japanese-Canadians as translators.
In 1944, Ontario passed a Racial Discrimination Act which prohibited the publication and display of anything considered to be of racial, religious or ethnic discrimination.
In 1948, several local men from Dresden, North Buxton and Chatham formed what is now known as The National Unity Association (NAU).
They met in the home of Marie and Bernard Carter to discuss the discrimination and desegregation they felt in the community.
Percy Carter, president; Fred Robinson, vice president and Hugh Burnett, secretary were the first leaders wanting to break down the barriers so that they could find jobs, and support their families.
Local businessmen, the public and even politicians may have heard the squeaks from the wheels but failed to see the growing momentum of the NAU but they failed to recognize that desegregation was really happening.
Walker explained that in 1954 when two visitors were refused service in two different restaurants in the Dresden area, this treatment could no longer be ignored. When the Toronto Telegram sent two black reporters to Dresden to investigate, they were also refused service. These attitudes and treatment of minorities could no longer be denied.
An Act to promote Fair Employment Practices in Ontario and An Act to promote Fair Accommodations Practices in Ontario were quickly drawn up.
What normally takes months or years for the government to implement was quickly pulled together and promptly became law:
"No person shall deny to any person or class of persons the accommodation, services or facilities available to any place to which the public is customarily admitted because of race, creed, colour, nationality, ancestry or place of origin of such person or class of persons."
About Lynn Nagle
Ms. Nagle has been a prolific freelance writer for major publication across Ontario, and also writes for Corporations, Associations and Magazines.
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