Month: November 2018

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How Guelph Aided in Opening the Doors For Young Black Women

By Tia Muma and Soraya Thorne-Smith

During the 1940s, Marisse Scott fought against de facto segregation and racial prejudice in Ontario’s education system and paved the way for future Black nursing students. Across Canada, Black Canadians encountered various forms of segregation in public services (schools, hospitals, orphanages, cemeteries) that affected their everyday lives; additionally, rampant anti-Black sentiment depicted black people as ignorant, backwards, criminal, and immoral. Despite these practices and beliefs that relegated Blacks in Canada to the status of second-class citizens, Marisse Scott became one of the first Black woman to graduate from a nursing school in Ontario. Scott had to go through a lot on her journey to graduate, starting with facing rejection and segregation in her hometown. However, at St. Joseph’s Hospital in Guelph, she was able to complete her schooling and continue her work in healthcare.

Graduation Picture of Marisse Scott: Facebook image

In her hometown of Owen Sound, Scott applied to nursing school, but was quickly rejected. Scott had graduated from Owen Sound Collegiate and Vocational Institute with Honours in 1946, and, as the superintendent of St. Joseph’s Hospital said her “qualifications are high.” So why was she denied? Reasons for an applicant to be denied ranged from bad grades to under qualification and paperwork. The simple answer Scott received was because she was “colored,” and they “don’t accept colored girls.” According to newspapers at the time, she was also denied admission to the nursing school because the hospital “feared that patients would be traumatized by a black nurse at their bedside.” Even though, at St. Joseph’s Hospital, there was a patient that was eager to have her as a nurse: “I hope I’m the first person to whom she brings a breakfast tray” (Toronto Daily Star 1947).

In 1881, St Joseph’s Hospital started off as three nuns that dedicated themselves to taking care of the sick, injured, and homeless. Their area of care was originally called the Gate House because of its nearness to a big gate. A new building was constructed in 1862, in fact the pit of the elevator shaft is a part of the basement of the old building. The building staff grew in numbers as the patients did, and eventually the building became what it is today. In 1947 when Scott trained in the hospital, she would have lived in the hospital itself until a year before her graduation when a separate residence was built. At the time that Scott was training at the hospital a private room cost $5, much different from today.

Image of St. Joseph’s Hospital in the 1940s.

Eventually, after some publicity from surrounding newspapers in Ontario and other areas in Canada, Scott sent in an application to St. Joseph’s Hospital at the suggestion of a priest at her local church in Owen Sound (Toronto Daily Star 1947). She was accepted into the Hospital Nursing School and graduated in 1950, becoming one of the first Black women to graduate from a nursing school in Ontario. Her graduation and the publicity that her case gained also disturbed the notion that Canada was a “racism-free space.”

Graduating class photograph with Marisse Scott: Virtual Museum.

During the 1940s and 50s, many white Canadians viewed Black people as immoral, lazy and criminal. These white supremacist beliefs maintained forms of de jure and de facto segregation in Ontario and beyond, which resulted in Black men and women struggling to find employment in universities, government institutions, and hospitals. Scott’s success in nursing school and the publicity that came with it showed that Black people were “fit” for the kinds of jobs that were exclusively “white positions,” disrupting notions of Black racial inferiority. Scott, and the individuals at St. Joseph’s Hospital who admitted Scott to the nursing programs and taught her, pushed against these racial barriers to open up new opportunities for Black women and girls to be able to achieve their own dreams. 

Scott’s experience of racial discrimination in Owen Sound encouraged her and others to challenge barriers in the education system. Her story was a call for equal access and opportunity to education for all Black Canadians. In admitting Scott to its nursing school, St. Joseph Hospital was a leading institution in lowering the colour bar and standing for equal access for all.  Rejecting the dominant belief that nursing should be a strictly white profession, St. Joseph’s Hospital was the site of an influential turning point for Black Canadian Civil Rights. Guelph was home to a woman, Marisse Scott, who would be a trailblazer for a new generation of Black nurses, and an institution, St. Joseph Hospital, that was a model for integration in nursing.  

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Black Families and Lives in Guelph: The Bollen Family

By Anja Binkofski, Chloe Utting, Sydney Wildman

In “Nothing Shocking: Black Canada,” Katherine McKittrick writes that the discovery of a Black presence in Canadian history often leads to a sense of surprise, which is “is followed by an experiential curiosity, wonder” (93). This sense of wonder is “inevitably attached to new sensations, new ideas, that were previously unavailable” (93). We applied this notion of “wonder” to our research on the Bollen family in Guelph, which revealed them to be an upper-class, interracial family who has resided in Guelph since the 1800s. This unexpected discovery of the Bollens demonstrates a different narrative of Black life in Guelph from 1860 to 1960 that counters assumptions of Black identity and experience.

We first discovered that Charles Bollen –the oldest known generation of the family to live in Guelph – owned around 5 properties on Toronto Street and owned his own barber shop. An interview with Shirley Heal, a descendant of the Bollen family, in 1997 discussed how Charles himself was Puerto Rican, and therefore the Bollen family was interracial from the 1880s. In the next generation, his daughter Evelyn married John Duncan, a black man, which lead to a generation of Bollens that were visibly interracial rather than passing as white. In the interview, Heal discusses a dispute between Evelyn and her family regarding her marriage with a visibly Black man which led to her exclusion from the family. This discovery of an interracial family in this time period led us to uncover an unexpected narrative of interracial mixing and cooperations shaping Black life in Guelph.

Guelph Census of 1861
Guelph Census of 1871
Guelph Census 1881

Charles’ profession as a business owner, with multiple properties, led us to discover that in addition to being an interracial family, the Bollens had an upper-class status which seems to have continued through generations. This contrasts with the data we found in the Guelph census of 1861, 1871 and 1881 (above) which shows a majority of Black people were working-class, employed as labourers, servants, whitewashers, butchers, and barbers. We can infer that because of the Bollen family’s ability to be business owners, they were economically better off than the rest of the Black community in Guelph.

Bollen sisters in 1906: Gertrude (Gertie), Annie, Eva, Kathleen , Rita, and Ella Bollen. Source: Guelph Civic Museum Archives.

The Bollens’ class status is further shown in the family portraits we found in the Guelph Civic Museum archives. These photographs situate the Black family in a manner that echoes 19th century upper-class, British portraits. These portraits assert the sophistication and luxury of the family, as signified through their formal appearance and the background of the home they were taken in. These photos allow the family to visually assert their Black and upper-class status – two notions that are not typically linked in the 1900s in Guelph and beyond.

Bill Stickland  standing beside the plane that he built in 1930. Source: Guelph Civic Museum Archives.

We discovered a fascinating photo of Bill Stickland, a close family friend to the Bollens and the husband of Rita Bollen. The photo shows Bill in 1930, standing in front of an airplane he built himself. We found this to be an unexpected – and interesting – discovery. For Bill to build this plane he would have had money to purchase the materials, access to a mechanic shop and high technology tools, and knowledge of mechanical engineering. This photo further implies the class privileges and social status of the Bollens and, again, highlights the contrast the life experiences and opportunities between the Bollens and the average Black individual and family in Guelph. A life story like Bill’s challenges the view of a single shared Black experience in Guelph.

Contemporary map showing the areas where known black families lived in Guelph in 1960.

With our collected data from the directories of 1975-1960 we mapped out the addresses of black families in Guelph and found the Bollens’ properties on Toronto street were across the river from the rest of the Black community’s residence. Most of Guelph’s black residents’ homes were on Essex, Durham and Nottingham Street, surrounding the BME church which was a community hub. This special discrepancy leads us to wonder why the Bollens were separate from the Black community. One possibility is that their financial, and interracial, status allowed them to assimilate or integrate with the white Guelph community, while other Black individuals were marginalized or segregated to the same, specific neighbourhood. This visual map helped us to further situate the Bollens’ narrative in relation to the other Black members of Guelph.

We believe that retracing the forgotten histories of Black lives is important to challenge the stereotypical view of Guelph as a predominantly white, rural space. Families such as the Bollens show how blackness has always been present, and integral, to Guelph’s community. In addition, the Bollens offer an unexpected narrative of Black life in Guelph and demonstrate there is no monolithic narrative of black experiences as each family is unique. With our research we have uncovered a potential way of reading one family’s incomplete history. We now ask you to consider what else can be uncovered about this family. What other histories could be discovered if more people engage with the recovery of black history in Guelph? Start wondering!

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Blackface Minstrelsy in Guelph

By Laila El Mugammar, Maggie Lehman, and Maxime Tam 

WHAT IS BLACKFACE MINSTRELSY? 

Blackface minstrelsy is an attempt to impersonate another race and present it as a form of entertainment. It involves individuals (most often people who identify as white) who paint their faces black and perform a series of musical and dance numbers that “ventriloquize” blackness. These performances are comic theatricalization of degrading and demeaning stereotypes invented by white people that is meant to denigrate and erase the history and experiences of Black people. 

Developed during the early nineteenth century and gaining immense popularity all the way through the mid-twentieth century, blackface minstrelsy in North America emerged as a “conduit of white assertion and a buffer against black protest” (Douglas 27). On the one hand, early minstrel shows allowed white people a platform to express their dissatisfaction with a rapidly changing economy that further alienated and disenfranchised the working class working in industrial factories, but on the other, it also gave whites, of all classes, an opportunity to suppress abolitionist movements attempts to end chattel slavery in the US South (31). The rise and success of blackface minstrelsy suggests that white Americans were afraid of what would happen to their white privilege and power should Black people achieve equal opportunity and fair treatment. Blackface minstrelsy ultimately fueled pro-slavery politics and anti-Black sentiments that ridiculed the idea of Black freedom and citizenship.  

It is important to understand that while blackface minstrelsy is commonly associated with the United States and the US South, Canada has a long history of promoting and performing, engaging and watching blackface minstrelsy. Calixa Lavallée, the composer of our Canadian national anthem, spent many years of his career as a composer and musical director for a travelling minstrel performance group, the New Orleans Minstrels (Thompson 23). Consider what it means to have Lavallée as a representative figure of/for Canada with his participation and contribution in minstrel shows, especially as we delve deeper into the history and current relevance of blackface minstrelsy not only in Canada on a broader scale, but also in the City of Guelph. 

BLACKFACE MINSTREL SHOWS IN GUELPH AND WELLINGTON COUNTY

Blackface minstrelsy served an important social function in the lives of Guelphites: it was a form of entertainment, and like most media, it reaffirmed existing disparities and systems of oppression. The Ontario Agricultural College hosted a number of minstrel shows. One, which took place in March of 1912, is described in the OAC Review as taking the audience back to the “Dear Old South.” It boasted “Southern jokes and songs […] rendered in first class style” and a sketch entitled “Befo’ de War” (Miller 321). The December 1943 OAC Review delineates a minstrel show in which the chorus sang “Old Black Joe” and “Darktown Strutters Ball.” They also sang “Dixie,” the unofficial anthem of the Confederacy and perhaps the most famous song born of blackface minstrelsy. The Kiwanis Club of Guelph, which was founded in 1921 and professes to be “working for the betterment of our community and our world,” held annual minstrel shows in the auditorium of Guelph Collegiate and Vocational School. An advert for the 1961 minstrel is shown below: 

Pictured above is the Guelph Jazz Band (circa 1927) standing on the steps of City Hall in blackface. Blackness was and is an absented presence in Guelph, and the mythology of Canada as an egalitarian refuge for Black people escaping the horrors of slavery is an obstacle to confronting a legacy of anti-Black racism. The erasure of Canada’s involvement in slavery and the slave trade allowed us to shamelessly indulge in this form of anti-Black entertainment and deny its relevance to our own relationship with blacks in Canada, past and present. Minstrelsy was a cultural import, and this lack of responsibility for its origins ensured no Canadian individual or group needed to be accountable for enjoying it. Blackness and Black people being “always elsewhere” created fertile soil for blackface minstrelsy to flourish in Guelph. 

THE RELEVANCE OF BLACKFACE MINSTRELSY TODAY

Guelph is like many other cities within southwestern Ontario that have erased or forgotten their long tradition of hosting and performing blackface minstrel shows. However, the legacies of blackface minstrelsy in Ontario are constantly rupturing our present-day amnesia. In recent years, there have been many examples that shed light on how this popular form of entertainment continues to influence (and damage) understandings of race and race relations today. For example, a CBC News report from January 4, 2018, entitled “London police officer apologizes for blackface incident,” describes an apology letter written by a London police officer, who was photographed in neck coils, tribal clothing and brown face makeup for a Halloween event.  While not a police officer at the time the photographs were taken, the London Police understood the implications of the officer’s participation in degrading and demeaning representations of black people as affirming a widely held belief of racial bias in police shootings and crime rates.


To further emphasize the relevance of minstrelsy in contemporary society, Philip S.S. Howard argues in “Blackface in Canada” that although “there appears, in some ways, to have been a resurgence of these [minstrel] acts in the last 10-15 years, it cannot trill be said that blackface ever entirely lost popularity here in the interim.” In his conclusion, Howard argues that while contemporary incidents of blackface “spark intense debate,” there are many attempts “to justify it as harmless fun, and in some cases suggesting that those who are offended by it are ‘too sensitive’ or bound by unwarranted ‘political correctness.'” However, contemporary blackface continues to draw on the tropes and traditions of the minstrel show, reiterating stereotypes of Black inferiority and ideas of white racial supremacy that are more ingrained — and dangerous — than we realize.

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Revelation: The Story of the British Methodist Episcopal Church

Emilie Gauthier Black, Andrew Scrofano, Charlotte Edwards, Loraine Weir

Introduction 

The British Methodist Episcopal Church. A building. A community. A forgotten relic of the past. A monument to a history of blackness in a city that is unaware it exists. A site where bishops, female ministers, and settlers established a symbol of black identity. This place, known familiarly as the BME church, embodies the spirit of Guelph’s black community. 

History and Formation of the BME Church 

The story of the BME church did not begin from a unified community. Fragmented by racial segregation, black settlers came to Guelph in the mid-19th century as a result of limited employment and housing opportunities throughout Ontario. Driven to establish a sense of community, these early settlers aimed to create a new identity for black individuals that had been racially oppressed. John S. Brooks, an early settler of the Queen’s Bush Settlement, contributed to the cultivation of black identity in Guelph through his efforts to organize populations and churches scattered throughout the province. Brooks realized that organization of donations was necessary in order to sustain the funding for black churches throughout Ontario. His piecing together of various black populations in the province illustrates a unification of a black community that had been fragmented by racial segregation. Through their efforts to oppose racial division, these early settlers contributed to an identity of black presence that allowed for the development of the BME church.

Overcoming racially-imposed hardship was a challenge the early Guelph settlers were well familiar with.  Members of the Queen’s Bush Settlement – the community from which the church was established – had previously experienced difficulties in obtaining property ownership in predominantly white Ontarian cities. Despite their limited resources and restricted ownership opportunities, however, the Guelph settlers succeeded in obtaining a legal land claim. This claim, lot 383, would become the home of the BME church when it was formed on 83 Essex St in 1880.  The group’s achievement represents not only the success of a unified black Guelph community, but also a legally recognized claim to the BME church. The congregation’s influence within the city of Guelph embodied the church’s objective, which aimed to overcome racial barriers and assert black presence. 

The BME Church and the Guelph Community 

A photograph of Mabel Adeline (Addie) Aylestock, who became the first female minister to be ordained at the British Methodist Episcopal Church in 1951, as well as the first black woman to be ordained in Canada. Retreived from The Canadian Encyclopedia.
A photograph of Mabel Adeline (Addie) Aylestock, who became the first female minister to be ordained at the British Methodist Episcopal Church in 1951, as well as the first black woman to be ordained in Canada. Retreived from The Canadian Encyclopedia.
In the unifying process cultivated by the BME church, several iconic leaders emerged that would further demonstrate the group’s ability to thrive within Guelph. Just as the church overcame racial obstacles to land ownership, individuals such as Addie Aylestock and Walter Hawkins overcame racist attitudes to achieve significant process for black development in Canada. Aylestock and Hawkins exemplified models of excellence by challenging racist conventions that posited peoples of black culture as incapable of achievements. Hawkins, a preacher who rose to the rank of bishop in the late-19th century, dedicated himself to furthering his status within the BME church. Similarly, Aylestock dedicated her life in servitude to the church, becoming the first black woman ordained in Canada as well as a deaconess in 1959. In achieving their positions, Hawkins and Aylestock demonstrated that black individuals living in Ontario could pursue achievements despite racist attitudes that attempted to deprive them of opportunities. Together, their body of work championed the liberation of black people, united the black community, and gave shape to the BME church.  

A photograph of Walter Hawkins,a bishop who preached at the British Methodist Episcopal Church in Guelph during the 19th century. Source: From Slavery to a Bishopric, Or, The Life of Bishop Walter Hawkins of the British Methodist Episcopal Church, Canada by S. J. Celestine Edwards, 1891
A photograph of Walter Hawkins,a bishop who preached at the British Methodist Episcopal Church in Guelph during the 19th century. Source: From Slavery to a Bishopric, Or, The Life of Bishop Walter Hawkins of the British Methodist Episcopal Church, Canada by S. J. Celestine Edwards, 1891

The developing black identity modeled by the BME church led to its increasing role within the Guelph community. Because individuals such as Hawkins and Aylestock forged a stronger black presence within the city of Guelph, the church was able to engage in citywide events such as Tag Day.

A letter from the city of Guelph, dated April 18, 1961, granting permission to the British Methodist Episcopal Church to host a Tag Day. It is archived at the Guelph Civic Museum.
A letter from the city of Guelph, dated April 18, 1961, granting permission to the British Methodist Episcopal Church to host a Tag Day. It is archived at the Guelph Civic Museum.
Tag Day, an event where citizens would provide the church with a donation in exchange for a tag to wear, allowed the organization to sustain itself through funding. The event integrated the BME church with the greater population of Guelph, and was officially recognized by city officials. As an occasion where the church utilized its influence to obtain a larger community outreach, Tag Day illustrates the growing significance of the church. The city of Guelph’s official acknowledgment of the church not only signifies its importance to the history of Ontario, but also situates the BME church as a monument unique to the municipality of Guelph.  

A document from the Ontario Land Registry, which documents proof of ownership of land for the British Methodist Church in 1880. It is archived at the Guelph Civic Museum.
A document from the Ontario Land Registry, which documents proof of ownership of land for the British Methodist Church in 1880. It is archived at the Guelph Civic Museum.

Conclusion 

The British Methodist Episcopal Church did not achieve its position without struggle. Its members came from communities fragmented by segregation and oppressed by racial discrimination. It is out of this separation, however, that a unified black identity was formed. Leaders such as Aylestock and Hawkins surfaced, challenging racial stereotypes that had existed in Ontario for years. Settlers like John S. Brooks obtained legally-recognized land ownership, an accomplishment that was previously unimaginable for black Canadians. Moreover, an integration with the city was achieved when segregation of black cultures had made such a feat impossible. These achievements undeniably position the BME church as one of the most important historical sites in the city of Guelph. 

Works Cited

“Addie Aylestock.” The Canadian Encyclopedia, October 4, 2016.            www.thecanadianencyclopedia.ca/en/article/addie-aylestock. Accessed 8 November         2018.

Brown-Kubisch, Linda. The Queen’s Bush Settlement. Dundurn, 2004. Print.

“History – Local.” Guelph Black Heritage Society. www.guelphblackheritage.ca/in-the-news/.     Accessed 8 November 2018. 

Montgomery, Marc. “Underground Railroad church in Ontario named heritage site.” Radio Canada International, 13 Aug. 2013, http://www.rcinet.ca/en/2013/08/13/underground-railroad-church-in-ontario-named-heritage-site/. Accessed 7 November 2018.

“Underground Railroad church becomes Guelph heritage site.” CBC News, 9 Aug. 2013,            https://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/kitchener-waterloo/underground-railroad-church becomes-guelph-heritage-site-1.1370700. Accessed 8 November 2018.

Williams, Dawn. Who’s Who in Black Canada 2: Black Success and Black Excellence in Canada. University of Toronto Press Inc., 2006. Print.