By Drew Gover, Noelle Wakeman, and Amia Khosla
During the 1940s, the culture of “[n]ursing in Canada … represented the Victorian ideal of white femininity and respectability. The profession [therefore] was exclusively reserved for middle-class white women” (Reynolds 165). In Ontario and Nova Scotia, Civil Rights activists fought hard to remove barriers of discrimination restricting education and employment opportunities for Blacks. In 1947, Black activists, such as Pearleen Oliver, crusaded successfully for admission of Black women to nursing schools in Canada. Guelph’s St. Joseph’s Hospital played a pivotal role in ending systemic racism in the nursing profession by admitting Marisse Scott to its nursing school. However, Scott’s journey to becoming one of Canada’s first Black nurses was not an easy one: she experienced multiple incidents of racism and her successes were invalidated time and time again. Despite these injustices, Marisse Scott’s success at St. Joseph Hospital disrupted the exclusionary ideal of the nurse as a middle-class white woman.
After graduating from High School with Honours, Marisse Scott applied to nursing school in her hometown, Owen Sound. Scott was told by Owen Sound General & Marine Nursing School that while she was an “excellent” student, who was well loved and garnered much academic distinction, the sight of a Black nurse at the bedside would “kill the patients” and that “there would be no employment for her after graduation, so it would be a waste of resources to admit her” (Owen Sound Times). Scott’s unfair treatment based on race challenged white Canadians’ perceptions of themselves as a “racism-free society.” Scott’s “story of injustice spread to friends, church members, government authorities in Toronto and Ottawa, and most importantly, to the press” (McLean-Wilson). As reports on Scott’s denial of admission to nursing school appeared in the press, public sentiment against racial discrimination and sympathy for Scott’s plight grew. The pastor of the Church of Our Lady in Guelph, J. A. O’Reilly, reviewed Scott’s case and convinced St. Joseph’s Hospital to accept her as a student. In August 1947, Scott moved to Guelph and began her studies at St. Joseph’s Hospital (McLean-Wilson).
During her three years of training at St. Joseph Hospital, Scott was one of the most “popular” and academically successful students. Her instructors termed her “one of the most willing and able student nurses in the history of the institution” (qtd. in McLean-Wilson). In 1950, Scott graduated with an Honours Distinction. In the above image of the graduation at St. Joseph Hospital, Scott is prominently positioned at the very front of her class. By foregrounding her accomplishment as well as her acceptance by her peers, the image depicts the successful integration of the nursing profession. Scott had a long career of nursing in Guelph; later, Scott and her husband moved to St. Lucia, where she worked at the Ministry of Health as a Nutrition Specialist.
Scott showed many young Black girls that they too could pursue their dreams. “By 1949, Owen Sound was among the growing number of communities whose hospitals had abolished prejudice from their enrolment system,” writes McLean-Wilson. Scott’s experience of racial discrimination was raised in the House of Commons. MP Alistair Stewart raised awareness of Scott’s story, but dismissed her personal accomplishment, saying “all credit to the authorities. She turned out to be a most excellent nurse.” Stewart switched the narrative from the struggle of a young Black woman and her fight against racial barriers to gain equal access to the nursing profession to a story of a “fair” educational and employment system that worked hard to turn Scott into an “excellent nurse.” Stewart’s erasure of the systemic racism that led to Scott’s case re-focuses the government’s attention not on the obstacles to black access to education and employment opportunities but on the good white “authorities” that make Black education and employment possible.
Yet, it was the courage, resilience, determination, and strength of Black women, like Marisse Scott and Pearleen Oliver, who drew Canadians’ attention to racial discrimination and fought hard to break the colour barrier in Canada. Marisse Scott’s legacy outlives her nursing career and continues to inspire and influence others in the present-day. For example, the article “Jamaicans helped make Canada’s health care system more inclusive” highlights how current nurses “pa[y] tribute to nursing pioneers Mary Seacole and Marisse Scott,” and websites, such as the emancipation festival, an Owen Sound based-initiative, continue to shed light on how Scott changed our view of what being a Canadian is. Her story being shared helps us remap the “white space(s) of Canada” into one women and men of all colours have every opportunity to succeed.