African Canadian Anti-Discrimination Activism and the Transnational Civil Rights Movement, 1945–1965

Abstract

Several recent historical works have challenged interpretations of the civil rights movement in the United States as a strictly domestic story by considering its connections to anti-racist struggles around the world. Adding a Canadian dimension to this approach, this article considers linkages between African Canadian anti-discrimination activism in the 1950s and early 1960s and African American civil rights organizing. It argues that Canadian anti-discrimination activists were interested in and influenced by the American movement. They followed American civil rights campaigns, adapted relevant ideas, and leveraged the prominent American example when pressing for change in their own country. African Canadian activists and organizations also impacted the American movement through financial and moral support. This article contributes to the study of African Canadian history, Canadian human rights history, and the American civil rights movement by emphasizing the local origins of anti-discrimination activism in Canada, while also arguing that such efforts are best understood when contextualized within a broader period of intensive global anti-racist activism that transcended national borders.

Les métèques grondent dans la cité

“…Les thèmes de l'international et des circulations étudiantes ont pourtant donné lieu à diverses recherches chez les historiens, notamment sur les rapports entre les associations étudiantes québécoises et françaises (Lamarre, 2012), sur les congrès internationaux pendant la guerre froide (Neatby, 1997), sur l'action internationale d'organisations chrétiennes comme Pax Romana (Savard, 1992;Bienvenue, 2003), sur l'influence culturelle d'autres pays (Warren, 2008), sur les relations entre anglophones et francophones (Godard, 2009), ou sur la militance autour de problèmes spécifiques tels que la ségrégation raciale (Waters, 2014). Compte tenu de cet intérêt, il est étonnant que les étudiants étrangers soient demeurés absents de l'historiographie.…”

No Indians allowed: Challenging aboriginal segregation in Northern British Columbia, 1945-1969

“…Racism, as Audrey Smedley contends, "does not require the presence of empirically determinable cultural differences," as it readily employs narrative and mythos to describe human behaviour and cultural peculiarities. 19 Furthermore, a key component of racial ideologies is the ethnocentric belief within White society that cultural determinants stymied the assimilation of their Native neighbours into mainstream Canadian public life -a conviction which moulded the public's view on Indian drinking for example. 20 In turn, these racialized constructions of Indians influenced the manner in which non-Native business owners, as well as the public, interacted with their Native neighbours.…”

“…Waters similarly identified the parallels between homegrown protests and activist organizations to the intensifying news coverage afforded to the American Civil Rights Movement. 19 However, it is crucial to remember that correlation did not equate to causation:…”

“…Rapped," Native Voice, February 1958, 3. 19 Ibid. Dick Patrick was arrested after he shot a cow moose to "feed his starving family" and served time in Oakalla Prison before a "lawyer friend of the Native Voice gave the publisher two hundred dollars to pay Patrick's fine as well as his fare home."…”

“…The reaction of Stoney Creek villagers to the December 15 decision to allow Indians into beer parlours, as Mary John remembered, was one of exaltation as some remarked that they were "as good as White people now. "19 However, despite the opportunities this method of regulation provided Native drinkers to assert their equality with White patrons, racial prejudices often hindered their efforts. For example, the LCB's Director of Licensing chastised the manager of a Smithers hotel beer parlour after one of his bartenders served an Indian who had previously been evicted for misbehaviour.…”