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Racial separate schools in Canada existed in some Canadian provinces from the mid-19th century to the mid-20th century. They were established by statute and did not have constitutional status.
The federal government adopted a policy of mandatory education of First Nations children, by amendments to the Indian Act in 1894. [1] This resulted in the system of residential schools.
In 1914, the Vancouver City Council adopted a resolution which required children of Chinese descent to be barred from public schools. [1]
In July 1922, the Victoria School District passed a motion extending the segregation of Chinese students (previously in effect until grade 4) all the way to grade 7. This prompted a year-long school strike by the Chinese community of Victoria. [2]
In 1842 and 1843 in New Brunswick, provincial legislation was enacted to recognise Black schools, as a means to segregate Black and white students. [1]
From 1836 in Nova Scotia, provincial legislation allowed for the establishment of separate schools for "Blacks or People of Colour". [1] In 1870, the Halifax City Council enacted a by-law to exclude students of African descent from the common schools in the city. [1] Black students continued to be barred from attending the public school in Halifax County until the 1960s, and as late as 1959 school buses would not stop to pick up students in Black neighbourhoods. By 1960, there would still be seven formal Black school districts and three additional exclusively Black schools in Nova Scotia. [1] In 1983, the last Black school in Nova Scotia closed at Lincolnville, Guysborough County. [3] [4]
In 1849, Malcolm Cameron, a member of the Legislative Assembly of the Province of Canada, proposed a School Bill allowing for segregated schools. [5] As a result of that bill, from 1850 in Upper Canada in the Province of Canada, provision was made for the establishment of separate schools for the Black community. [6] [7] In 1886, Ontario clarified its law, so that such establishment could only occur after an application had been made by at least five Black families in the community. [8]
Instances of Black children in Canada West being excluded from public education occurred before the 1850 Act. A case in 1843 resulted in a petition signed by the "Coloured People of Hamilton" addressed to Governor-General, Charles T. Metcalfe, detailing their frustrations with the racial prejudice in their new home. The petition explains that the children of community members- many of whom arrived in Canada as freedom seekers, were continuously denied access to the same public schools attended by white children, and that community members sought redress from the Hamilton Board of Police to no avail. As taxpayers, the Black residents of Hamilton wanted confirmation of their rights to access, as their payments assisted in keeping the public schools operating. [9] [10]
After receiving the letter, Rev. Robert Murry from the Department of Education enlisted George S. Tiffany from the Hamilton Board of Police to assess the situation despite their previous involvement. Responding to Murry, Tiffany explained that “there is a strong prejudice existing amongst the lower orders of the whites against the coloured people,” and that people with such prejudice feared that parents of the white children would take them away if Black children were admitted into the schools. Tiffany ultimately advised against admitting Black children into public schools, stating, “it would not be advisable to yield to it, but that the law ought to be enforced without distinction of colour (...) if a firm stand be taken at first, the prejudice will soon give way.” [10] [11]
Alongside the 1850 Act, Ontario’s court system was used to uphold the practice of racial segregation within education, as parents of Black students denied admission to white schools often sued common school trustees. [12] The case of Hill v. School of Trustees of Camden and Zone in the Court of Queen's Bench for Upper Canada is an example of this dynamic.
In this case, a Black man named Dennis Hill from the Camden Township wrote a letter to the Chief Superintendent for Education, Egerton Ryerson, detailing the racial discrimination his family faced by the trustees of School Section No. 3 in the Township of Camden County of Kent while attempting to admit their eleven-year-old son into a school with white children. According to Mr. Hill, school trustees denied his son entry into a school in his section on account of his race, while offering white children from outside the township and adjoining county attendance. [13] Ryerson replied, stating, “I cannot express any opinion upon the case which you submit,” suggesting that, if there was no separate school for his son to attend, Hill should prosecute for damages. [5]
The 1854 ruling on this case stated that Dennis Hill's children should attend a Black common school in the Dawn settlement near Dresden, called the British American Institute, which was a significant distance from their property. [14] [5]
Further examples of the Court's support for racially separate schools include remarks made by Chief Justice Beverly Robinson in the same 1854 court ruling. Robinson stated that "separate schools for coloured people were authorized, as the defendants have suggested, out of deference to the prejudices of the white population." He continued to describe these prejudices, noting that the language used in legislation, which corresponded with the prejudices of the white population, arose from "an apprehension that the children of the coloured people, many of whom have but lately escaped from a state of slavery, may be, in respect to morals and habits, unfortunately worse trained than the white children are in general, and that their children might suffer from the effects of bad example." [14]
As Black students were frequently excluded from public education, Black community members often established their own schools or took on teaching positions.
As activists, Mary Bibb and her husband, Henry Bibb, initiated various projects to serve and uplift Canada West’s growing Black population, including establishing a school in Sandwich. [15] Mary Bibb established the school in the late winter of 1850, teaching twenty-five day and evening students in her home by January of the following year. [9] Her class, taught in her makeshift classroom, would soon grow while lacking funds and resources. [9] In an issue of The Voice of the Fugitive , Mary Bibb describes the conditions of the school as having started as an “ill ventilated room, uncomfortable seats, want of desks, books and all sorts of school apparatus.” [16] The school was not without community support, with Bibb going on to thank various supporters for their contributions, including enabling the school to get a blackboard and books. [16] Despite all efforts, the school ultimately closed down by 1852. [9]
In Ontario, separate schools for Black students continued until 1891 in Chatham, 1893 in Sandwich, 1907 in Harrow, 1917 in Amherstburg, and 1965 in North Colchester and Essex. [1] The laws in Ontario governing black separate schools were not repealed until the mid-1960s, and the last segregated schools to close were in Merlin, Ontario in 1965. [3] [17]
Racial segregation is the separation of people into racial or other ethnic groups in daily life. Segregation can involve the spatial separation of the races, and mandatory use of different institutions, such as schools and hospitals by people of different races. Specifically, it may be applied to activities such as eating in restaurants, drinking from water fountains, using public toilets, attending schools, going to films, riding buses, renting or purchasing homes or renting hotel rooms. In addition, segregation often allows close contact between members of different racial or ethnic groups in hierarchical situations, such as allowing a person of one race to work as a servant for a member of another race. Racial segregation has generally been outlawed worldwide.
Mary Ann Camberton Shadd Cary was an American-Canadian anti-slavery activist, journalist, publisher, teacher, and lawyer. She was the first black woman publisher in North America and the first woman publisher in Canada. She was also the second black woman to attend law school in the United States. Mary Shadd established the newspaper Provincial Freeman in 1853, which was published weekly in southern Ontario. it advocated equality, integration, and self-education for black people in Canada and the United States.
Desegregation busing was a failed attempt to diversify the racial make-up of schools in the United States by sending students to school districts other than their own. While the 1954 U.S. Supreme Court landmark decision in Brown v. Board of Education declared racial segregation in public schools unconstitutional, many American schools continued to remain largely racially homogeneous. In an effort to address the ongoing de facto segregation in schools, the 1971 Supreme Court decision, Swann v. Charlotte-Mecklenburg Board of Education, ruled that the federal courts could use busing as a further integration tool to achieve racial balance.
Black Canadians, also known as African Canadians or Afro-Canadians, are Canadians of full or partial sub-Saharan African descent. The majority of Black Canadians are of Caribbean and African origin, though the Black Canadian population also consists of African Americans in Canada and their descendants.
Adolphus Egerton Ryerson was a Canadian educator, author, editor, and Methodist minister who was a prominent contributor to the design of the Canadian public school system. Ryerson is considered to be the founder of the Ontario public school system.
In Canada, a separate school is a type of school that has constitutional status in three provinces and statutory status in the three territories. In these Canadian jurisdictions, a separate school is one operated by a civil authority—a separate school board—with a mandate enshrined in the Canadian Constitution or in federal statutes. In these six jurisdictions a civil electorate, composed of the members of the minority faith, elects separate school trustees according to the province's or territory's local authorities election legislation. These trustees are legally accountable to their electorate and to the provincial or territorial government. No church has a constitutional, legal, or proprietary interest in a separate school.
The No. 2 Construction Battalion, Canadian Expeditionary Force (CEF), was raised in Nova Scotia and was one of two predominantly Black battalions in Canadian military history and the only Canadian battalion composed of Black soldiers to serve in World War I. Commanded by Lieutenant Colonel Daniel Hugh Sutherland, formerly of the 193rd Battalion, CEF.
Viola Irene Desmond was a Canadian civil and women's rights activist and businesswoman of Black Nova Scotian descent. In 1946, she challenged racial segregation at a cinema in New Glasgow, Nova Scotia, by refusing to leave a whites-only area of the Roseland Theatre. For this, she was convicted of a minor tax violation for the one-cent tax difference between the seat that she had paid for and the seat that she used, which was more expensive. Desmond's case is one of the most publicized incidents of racial discrimination in Canadian history and helped start the modern civil rights movement in Canada.
Facilities and services such as housing, healthcare, education, employment, and transportation have been systematically separated in the United States based on racial categorizations. Segregation was the legally or socially enforced separation of African Americans from whites, as well as the separation of other ethnic minorities from majority and mainstream communities. While mainly referring to the physical separation and provision of separate facilities, it can also refer to other manifestations such as prohibitions against interracial marriage, and the separation of roles within an institution. The U.S. Armed Forces were formally segregated until 1948, as black units were separated from white units but were still typically led by white officers.
The Canadian Chamber Choir 's mission is to build community through choral singing. The CCC is a national ensemble that provides a professional choral environment for Canadian singers, conductors and composers, and travels across Canada promoting Canadian choral music. Under the artistic direction of Julia Davids, the CCC convenes in different regions of Canada twice a year, offering concerts and mentoring choral practitioners of all ages and stages.
Black Nova Scotians are Black Canadians whose ancestors primarily date back to the Colonial United States as slaves or freemen, later arriving in Nova Scotia, Canada, during the 18th and early 19th centuries. As of the 2021 Census of Canada, 28,220 Black people live in Nova Scotia, most in Halifax. Since the 1950s, numerous Black Nova Scotians have migrated to Toronto for its larger range of opportunities. The first recorded free African person in Nova Scotia, Mathieu da Costa, a Mikmaq interpreter, was recorded among the founders of Port Royal in 1604. West Africans escaped slavery by coming to Nova Scotia in early British and French Colonies in the 17th and 18th centuries. Many came as enslaved people, primarily from the French West Indies to Nova Scotia during the founding of Louisbourg. The second major migration of people to Nova Scotia happened following the American Revolution, when the British evacuated thousands of slaves who had fled to their lines during the war. They were given freedom by the Crown if they joined British lines, and some 3,000 African Americans were resettled in Nova Scotia after the war, where they were known as Black Loyalists. There was also the forced migration of the Jamaican Maroons in 1796, although the British supported the desire of a third of the Loyalists and nearly all of the Maroons to establish Freetown in Sierra Leone four years later, where they formed the Sierra Leone Creole ethnic identity.
Education in Ontario comprises public and private primary schools, secondary schools and post-secondary institutions. Publicly funded elementary and secondary schools are administered by the Ontario Ministry of Education, while colleges and universities are administered by the Ontario Ministry of Training, Colleges and Universities. The current respective Ministers for each are Stephen Lecce and Ross Romano. The province's public education system is primarily funded by the Government of Ontario, with education in Canada falling almost entirely under provincial jurisdiction. There is no federal government department or agency involved in the formation or analysis of policy regarding education for most Canadians. Schools for Indigenous people in Canada with Indian status are the only schools that are funded federally, and although the schools receive more money per individual student than certain provinces, the amount also includes the operation and maintenance of school facilities, instructional services, students supports and staff. Most provincial allocations per students do not include the maintenance and operation of buildings, as most provincial governments offer additional grants.
James Robinson Johnston was a Canadian lawyer and community leader.
Sylvia D. Hamilton is a Canadian filmmaker, writer, poet, and artist. Based in Grand Pre, Nova Scotia, her work explores the lives and experiences of people of African descent. Her special focus is on African Nova Scotians, and especially women. In particular, her work takes the form of documentary films, writing, public presentations, teaching, mentoring, extensive volunteer work and community involvement. She has uncovered stories of struggles and contributions of African Canadians and introduced them to mainstream audiences. Through her work, she exposes the roots and the presence of systemic racism in Canada. She aims to provide opportunities for Black and Indigenous youth through education and empowerment.
School segregation in the United States was the segregation of students based on their ethnicity. While not prohibited from having schools, various minorities were barred from most schools, schools for whites. Segregation was enforced by formal legal systems in U.S. states primarily in the Southern United States, although elsewhere segregation could be informal or customary. Segregation laws were dismantled in 1954 by the U.S. Supreme Court because of the successes being attained during the Civil Rights Movement. Segregation continued longstanding exclusionary policies in much of the Southern United States after the Civil War. Jim Crow laws codified segregation. These laws were influenced by the history of slavery and discrimination in the US. Secondary schools for African Americans in the South were called training schools instead of high schools in order to appease racist whites and focused on vocational education. School integration in the United States took place at different times in different areas and often met resistance. After the ruling of Brown v. Board of Education, which banned segregated school laws, school segregation took de facto form. School segregation declined rapidly during the late 1960s and early 1970s as the government became strict on schools' plans to combat segregation more effectively as a result of Green v. County School Board of New Kent County. Voluntary segregation by income appears to have increased since 1990. Racial segregation has either increased or stayed constant since 1990, depending on which definition of segregation is used. In general, definitions based on the amount of interaction between black and white students show increased racial segregation, while definitions based on the proportion of black and white students in different schools show racial segregation remaining approximately constant.
William Pearly Oliver worked at the Cornwallis Street Baptist Church for twenty-five years (1937–1962) and was instrumental in developing the four leading organizations to support Black Nova Scotians in the 20th century: Nova Scotia Association for the Advancement of Colored People (1945), the Nova Scotia Human Rights Commission (1967), the Black United Front (1969) and the Black Cultural Centre for Nova Scotia (1983). He was instrumental in supporting the case of Viola Desmond. Oliver was awarded the Order of Canada in 1984.
Wilson A. Head was an American/Canadian sociologist and community planner known for his work in race relations, human rights and peace in the United States, Canada and other parts of the world.
Black Canadians migrated north in the 18th and 19th centuries from the United States, many of them through the Underground Railroad, into Southwestern Ontario, Toronto, and Owen Sound. Black Canadians fought in the War of 1812 and Rebellions of 1837–1838 for the British. Some returned to the United States during the American Civil War or during the Reconstruction era.
Until 1965, racial segregation in schools, stores and most aspects of public life existed legally in Ontario, Quebec and Nova Scotia, and informally in other provinces such as British Columbia. Unlike in the United States, racial segregation in Canada applied to all non-whites and was historically enforced through laws, court decisions and social norms with a closed immigration system that barred virtually all non-whites from immigrating until 1962. Section 38 of the 1910 Immigration Act permitted the government to prohibit the entry of immigrants "belonging to any race deemed unsuited to the climate or requirements of Canada, or of immigrants of any specified class, occupation or character."
Pearleen Oliver (1917–2008), sometimes Pearleen Borden Oliver, was a Black Canadian church leader, an anti Black-racism activist, writer, historian and educator.