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Lincoln M. Alexander - Canada's First Black Lieutenant Governor

Known as a man of many firsts, Lincoln MacCauley Alexander is a name synonymous with the word Legend. To simply say he lived an extraordinary life does not encapsulate his long list of accomplishments and achievements. Born in a time when being black was seen as a nothing short of a life set to be filled with misgivings, he broke those race barriers and brought attention to Black Canadians. He over-achieved but was never under-estimated which only makes his story more compelling. Yes, Lincoln Alexander was truly a Legend. To be in the presence of such greatness would have been an immense honour but instead we write about him in memoriam.

 Born to West Indian immigrants – his mother was from Jamaica and his father, also named Lincoln Alexander, was from St Vincent – in Toronto in 1922, he grew up by simple means. His father, though a carpenter by trade, worked as a railway porter and his mother a maid. In 1937 at the age of 15, he moved to New York to live with his mother, but didn’t stay away from home for very long. He returned in 1942 to serve his country in the RCAF (Royal Canadian Air Force) for World War II until 1945.

 Lincoln married Yvonne Harrison in 1948 and a year later their only child, Keith, was born. As the first person in his family to pursue higher learning, he attended McMaster University and graduated with a BA in History and Political Economy in 1949. This only marks the beginning of his accomplishments; he went on to attend Osgoode Hall Law School where he was called to the bar in 1953. In 1955, he went on to achieve another first by becoming partner at Canada’s first interracial law firm, Duncan and Alexander. He remained there until he became partner at a Hamilton law firm Miller, Alexander, Towika & Isaacs in 1962.

In 1965, Mr Alexander was done the honour of being appointed Queen’s Counsel. In keeping with adding to his list of firsts, he then became the first Black Canadian to be elected as a Member of Parliament to the Canadian House of Commons on the Progressive Conservative Party in 1968, a seat he retained for four consecutive Federal elections. He was elected as Minister of Labour in 1979, then went on to head the Workers’ Compensation Board from 1980-1985.

We have now reached what can only be described as the highest honour in Mr Alexander’s career and indeed a proud moment in Canadian Black History; he was elected to serve as the 24th Lieutenant Governor of Ontario. As the first Black Canadian to receive this prestigious honour, he maintained the role from 1985-1991, 

and focused on youth-related issues. As that term ended, he then went on to accept a position as Chancellor at the University of Guelph until 2007. During this time and already an avid member in Toronto’s multicultural movement, he was also appointed Chair of the Canadian Race Relations Foundation in 1996.

 There are a few schools in Ontario that proudly carry his name: Lincoln M. Alexander Secondary School founded in 1968 in Mississauga, Lincoln Alexander Elementary School founded in 1990 in Hamilton, Lincoln Alexander Public School founded in 1992 in Ajax and Lincoln Alexander Public School founded in 2004 in Markham. An award was also established in his name to annually recognize two youth between the ages 16-25 who display leadership in eliminating racial discrimination. This award was created to commemorate his term as Lieutenant Governor of Canada. Mr Alexander was known as an activist for visible minorities and promoting education among the youth. Other landmarks to carry his name include the Ontario Provincial Police Headquarters in Orillia and a Parkway in his hometown, Hamilton.

 In 2006, he tried his hand at writing and published an autobiography: “Go to school, You’re a Little Black Boy: The Honourable Lincoln M. Alexander: A Memoir”. He was known to explain that the book’s title is something his mother often said to him as he grew up. Discovering that she was right, he has always used his education as his empowerment. The book chronicles his life from growing up with immigrants parents to his accomplishments (notably becoming Lieutenant Governor) throughout his adulthood.

His first wife passed away in 1999 after 51 years of marriage, and proving there is no limitation on when one finds love again, he announced his engagement to second wife Marni Beal in 2011 at age 89. Lincoln M. Alexander indeed lived a full life and with his recent passing, Canada is only reminded of how admirably he took on each new opportunity. Through all his accomplishments and with every award he received, he never forgot where he came from. He humbly made moves in the direction of eliminating racial discrimination, keeping the welfare of the youth on the forefront of his goals. He will always be remembered for all he has done, this modest man who simply wanted to be called “Linc”. In true form of how he lived his life and represented his country, he will always be remembered as: The Honourable Lincoln MacCaule Alexander.

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Delos Davis Canada's First Black Lawyer

Born to James Davis and Anne Davis on August 4th 1896 in Maryland.

An escaped slave, James Davis came to Upper Canada via the Underground Railroad in 1850; later, with his wife and children, he took up a farm in the black settlement of New Canaan in northern Colchester Township. Delos R. Davis’s early education was directed by Theodosia Lyon at the American Missionary Association school in New Canaan. It closed in 1859 but Davis continued his schooling in the public system until 1863. He then held a number of odd jobs, including work at a paper mill in Michigan and as a hand on a steamer. For four years prior to 1874 he taught in Colchester’s school section 13 (very likely the Gilgal school, which had been established by the African Methodist Episcopal Church).

Davis began to study law in 1871 under the tutelage of two Windsor men, county judge Gordon Watts Leggatt and attorney Charles Robert Horne, and in December of that year he was appointed a commissioner of affidavits, affirmations, and recognizances. On 19 June 1873 he became a notary public. In the Essex County Historical atlas of 1881 he is listed as a farmer, attorney, notary, and real estate and loan agent, living near Gesto in north Colchester. He was unable, however, to find a lawyer willing to allow him to article in his office. Davis’s mpp, William Douglas Balfour*, therefore introduced a special act in 1884 authorizing the Supreme Court of Judicature to admit Davis to practise as a solicitor provided that he passed the test of the Law Society of Upper Canada and paid the standard fee. Davis wrote the examination and was sworn in on 19 May 1885. In 1886 his petition to the legislature to be admitted as a barrister was granted under another special act, again on the condition that he pass the requisite examination. He was called to the bar on 15 Nov. 1886. Although Davis is often believed to have been the first black lawyer in Canada, Robert Sutherland of Walkerton, Ont., and Abraham Beverley Walker* of Saint John had qualified before him.

The way in which Davis became a solicitor and a barrister was unusual, but it was not without precedent in Ontario, where since confederation 27 others had been called to the bar through special statutes. Similar wording in both Davis acts provides insight into the problems he faced. The legislation stated that “in consequence of prejudices against his colour, and because of his being of African descent he had not been articled to any attorney or solicitor.” Apparently, along with the obvious racism, some difficulty had also resulted from his humble background.

Davis established a practice in Amherstburg in 1887, and subsequently took up residence in a small subdivision east of the town; it was here that his first wife would die, in childbirth in 1893. Davis focused on criminal and municipal law, and was counsel in six important murder cases. His specialty, however, in low-lying Essex, was drainage litigation. In 1900–5 he practised in partnership with his son Frederick Homer Alphonso, a graduate of Osgoode Hall in Toronto. (Their relationship may not have been harmonious: after the death of his father, Fred would unsuccessfully contest his will on the grounds that he had been a debilitated alcoholic.) Davis was important locally as a freemason, a member of the Wesleyan Methodist church, and a major player in municipal politics (he had evidently been involved in the formation in 1879 of North Colchester Township).

Following Davis’s retirement in 1909, the provincial government recognized his status within his profession by appointing him kc, on 10 Nov. 1910. About 1913 he suffered a stroke and at some point lost the sight of an eye. He died at his home near Amherstburg in 1915 and was buried in New Canaan, possibly in the African Methodist Episcopal Cemetery, where his parents, first wife, and a daughter were interred. Remarkable for his tenacity and resolve, Davis had done much to expand what was considered to be an acceptable role for blacks in Canada

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The Great Pyramid of Giza is one of the most prominent landmarks in the African continent. Situated on the banks of river Nile, at a distance of 20 km from Cairo, it symbolizes the Nile Valley Civilization which is one of the oldest civilizations of the world. The Great Pyramid of Giza was built as a tomb for Pharaoh Khufu belonging to the fourth dynasty of Egypt. Though the pyramid is seemingly simple and perfect in design, its purpose and architecture are not yet fully understood. This pyramid is also known as the Pyramid of Cheops and it is the only surviving structure of the old Seven Wonders of World. Though technology has advanced greatly, even today it is not known how the Great Pyramid was built. It is a huge stone pyramid edifice, with a base of 756 feet squares and an original height of 481 feet. It is built of 2.3 million large lime stone blocks. Constructed between 2560 and 2540 BC, the gigantic pyramid took 20 years to be completed. There are three main chambers inside the pyramid, of which one is an incomplete chamber carved out of the base rock. The other two chambers are constructed at an upper level and known as King’s Chamber and Queen’s Chamber. Many of the parts of the pyramid are still unexplored and recent explorations by small robots have shown the existence of shafts and air ducts that were previously unknown.

The engineering applied to construction of the Great Pyramid of Giza is a kind of landmark in the history of architecture and knowledge of science and mathematics too. Though scientists have still not arrived at a consensus regarding the extent of knowledge that existed in the ancient Egyptian Civilization, the perfect design, technique and architecture seen in the pyramid speak volumes. The average error in the four lengths of the base of pyramid is only 58 millimeters and there is a very systematic proportion in the area and circular ratio of the building’s dimensions. The pyramid is made up of limestone, granite and mortar. Originally, the pyramid was covered with flat stone casings made of glistening white Tura limestone. Very little of these casing stones remain and a few can be seen at the base of the pyramid. The King’s Chamber has very large granite stones weighing 25 to 80 tons and they were transported 500 miles over the Nile from mines in Aswan.

It is believed that the basic purpose of the pyramid was to serve as a tomb for Pharaoh Khufu and is associated with the ancient Egyptians belief in life after death. All the same, there exist structures and hieroglyphs inside the pyramid whose mystery is yet to be solved by Egyptologists. Each year thousands of tourists from all over the world visit the Pyramid of Giza to gaze at these wonder created by manual labor. Tourists can enjoy a camel ride to the Pyramid of Giza which is a part of a complex which has two other pyramids and the world famous sphinx. The sands of time keep flowing but this ancient landmark of Africa continues to stand tall on the horizon among the red dunes that surround it.

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Good words are food, bad words poison.

Malagasy Proverb

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During my lifetime I have dedicated myself to this struggle of the African people. I have fought against white domination, and I have fought against black domination. I have cherished the ideal of a democratic and free society in which all persons live together in harmony and with equal opportunities. It is an ideal which I hope to live for and to achieve. But if needs be, it is an ideal for which I am prepared to die.

Nelson Mandela

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The Real Mccoy

Elijah J. McCoy was born on May 2, 1844, in Colchester, Ontario, Canada, to George and Mildred Goins McCoy. The McCoys were fugitive slaves who had escaped from Kentucky to Canada via the Underground Railroad. In 1847, the large family returned to the United States, settling in Ypsilanti, Michigan.

Beginning at a young age, Elijah McCoy showed a strong interest in mechanics. His parents arranged for him to travel to Scotland at the age of 15 for an apprenticeship in mechanical engineering. He returned home to Michigan after becoming certified as a mechanical engineer.

Despite his qualifications, McCoy was unable to find work as an engineer in the United States due to racial barriers; skilled professional positions were not available for African Americans at the time, regardless of their training or background. McCoy accepted a position as a fireman and oiler for the Michigan Central Railroad. It was in this line of work that he developed his first major inventions. After studying the inefficiencies inherent in the existing system of oiling axles, McCoy invented a lubricating cup that distributed oil evenly over the engine's moving parts. He obtained a patent for this invention, which allowed trains to run continuously for long periods of time without pausing for maintenance.

McCoy continued to refine his devices, receiving nearly 60 patents over the course of his life. While the majority of his inventions related to lubrication systems, he also developed designs for an ironing board, a lawn sprinkler, and other machines. Although McCoy's achievements were recognized in his own time, his name did not appear on the majority of the products that he devised. Lacking the capital with which to manufacture his lubricators in large numbers, he typically assigned his patent rights to his employers or sold them to investors. In 1920, toward the end of his life, McCoy formed the Elijah McCoy Manufacturing Company to produce lubricators bearing his name.

McCoy married Ann Elizabeth Stewart in 1868. She died four years after their marriage. In 1873, McCoy married Mary Eleanor Delaney. In 1922, the McCoys were involved in an automobile accident. Mary died, while Elijah sustained critical injuries from which he never fully recovered. Elijah McCoy died in the Eloise Infirmary in Detroit, Michigan, on October 10, 1929. He was 86. He is buried at Detroit Memorial Park East in Warren, Michigan.

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The most beautiful fig may contain a worm.

Zulu Proverb

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Cross the river in a crowd and the crocodile won’t eat you.

African proverb

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Nobody is born wise.

African proverb

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Senator Anne Cools

Senator Anne Clare Cools is an Ontario Senator representing Toronto-Centre-York.  She was summoned to the Senate in January 1984 by His Excellency Governor General Edward Schreyer on the recommendation of the Rt. Hon. Pierre Trudeau.  She is the first black person appointed to the Senate of Canada and the first black female senator in North America.  Born August 12, 1943 in Barbados, British West Indies, at age 13 she moved to Montreal with her family.  Senator Cools was educated at Queen’s College Girls School, Barbados, Thomas D’Arcy McGee High School, Montreal, and Montreal’s McGill University from which she holds a Bachelor of Arts degree.  In the 1979 and 1980 federal general elections, Anne Cools was a candidate for the Liberal party in Toronto’s Rosedale riding.  For twenty years, from 1984 to 2004, Senator Cools sat as a Liberal Senator and then briefly joined the Conservative Caucus.  Presently, Senator Cools sits as an Independent Senator.  She has no party affiliation.  In October 2004, in CBC’s The Greatest Canadian contest, Senator Cools was chosen one of the 100 greatest Canadians of all time, and also one of CBC’s Top 20 Canadian Women.

Social Services: Prior to the Senate, Senator Cools was a social worker in innovative social services in Toronto.  In 1974, as a pioneer in curbing domestic and family violence, she founded one of Canada’s first women’s shelters, Women in Transition Inc., serving as its Executive Director.  She assisted in the establishment of several other women’s shelters in Ontario, and Canada.  In 1977, she co-organized Canada’s first domestic violence conference, called Couples in Conflict.  Senator Cools has conducted extensive work, advancing the plight of women, men and families in conflict throughout her public life.  She presents the evidence that men and women are equally capable of good and bad, and that violence and aggression are not gendered characteristics, but are human ones, and often are a pathology of intimacy.

Field Supervisor, Field Advisor: During the 1970s, in the forefront of social services in family violence, Senator Cools acted as a field supervisor for students from community colleges, Ryerson University, Seneca College, and the University of Toronto Faculty of Social work.  She was the field advisor to the York University doctoral student who wrote one of Canada’s first doctoral thesis on domestic violence.  More recently, in the late 1990s, Senator Cools also acted as field advisor to doctoral students from the McGill University Department of Educational and Counselling Psychology.

Electoral Politics: In 1978, Senator Cools entered federal politics seeking the Liberal Party nomination in Toronto’s Rosedale Riding.  This became the largest party nomination battle in Canadian history, with only two candidates.  The National Film Board documented this nomination contest in its film The Right Candidate for Rosedale, which showed Senator Cools’ innovativeness, hard work and tenacity in her campaign.  Though defeated in 1978, Senator Cools won the Rosedale nomination and was the Liberal Party’s candidate in both the 1979 and 1980 federal general elections, under the leadership of Pierre Elliot Trudeau.  Though Senator Cools was a formidable candidate in both elections, the Progressive Conservatives managed to hold on to the seat in Rosedale.

National Parole Board: By four Order-in-Council appointments under Prime Minister Trudeau, Senator Cools served from 1980 to 1984 as a Member (Temp.) of the National Parole Board of Canada, the parole authority for inmates in federal correctional institutions.

Senate Activities: On Divorce law, Child Custody and Child Support: Senator Cools has always worked for families and children. She was instrumental in the creation of the Special Senate-House of Commons Joint Committee on child custody and access after divorce.  This Joint Committee’s 1998 report For the Sake of the Children recommended shared parenting.  The Joint Committee Report held that after divorce, children should have continuing relationships with both parents, both mothers and fathers.  Senator Cools has long upheld the importance of fathers’ meaningful involvement in their children’s lives.

On Marriage Law: Senator Cools upheld marriage as a voluntary union between one man and one woman.  She was central in the national debate on marriage.  In fact, she and Roger Gallaway, MP (Sarnia - Lambton) were interveners in the 2004 marriage reference case in the Supreme Court of Canada.

On Governance & Constitutionalism: Senator Cools is deeply committed to the constitutional system of responsible government.  She is a student of constitutional history and of parliament.  She has worked tirelessly as a Senator to protect the institutions of our Westminster styled Parliament.  A diligent reader, she is known for her focused approach to the study of legislation and parliament.

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JOSEPHINE & CHIQUITA | 1931

Josephine Baker with pet cheetah, Chiquita, given to her by a night club owner to use as part of her dance show. The cat stayed with her long after the act ended; eventually travelling the world with Baker, always riding in her car and sleeping in her bed.

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The Supremes looking chic in Paris (1965)

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Peace is costly but it is worth the expense.

Kenyan Proverb

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If you cannot find peace within yourself, you will never find it anywhere else.

Marvin Gaye

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We have to talk about liberating minds as well as liberating society.

Angela Davis

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The Right Honourable Michaëlle Jean

Michaëlle Jean, social activist, journalist, documentary filmmaker, governor general was born in Port-au-Prince, Haiti on September 6th 1957. Jean's early years were spent in a middle-class neighborhood in the Haitian capital, Port-au-Prince, where her father was principal and teacher of philosophy at an elite, Protestant preparatory school. She was educated at home because her parents, Roger and Luce, did not want her to attend school, where she would have to swear allegiance to dictator Francois "Papa Doc" Duvalier. In 1965, her father was arrested and tortured. In 1967 he fled to Canada; his wife and two daughters joined him the next year.

The family settled in Thetford Mines, a Québec mining town, where Roger taught at the local college. Jean later recalled that her father was, by this point, a "broken man," increasingly prone to violence. Her parents' marriage disintegrated, and Jean moved to Montréal with her mother and sister. They lived in a basement apartment, while their mother supported the family by working first in a clothing factory and then as a night orderly in a psychiatric hospital.

Jean attended the Université de Montréal, where she received a bachelor's degree in Italian and Spanish. She began a master's degree in comparative literature at the Université de Montréal, taught Italian at that institution, and won scholarships that allowed her to make several trips to Italy to study at universities in Perugia, Florence, and Milan. She became fluent in five languages (French, Haitian Creole, English, Italian, and Spanish). She was also an activist on the issue of domestic violence, working with shelters for battered women and coordinating a government-funded study on spousal abuse during her time in university.

In 1986, Jean returned to Haiti with a friend to conduct research for an article on the island's women. The two arrived to witness the ouster of Jean-Claude "Baby Doc" Duvalier, the country's dictator and son of the man whose regime Jean's family had fled. Jean's work caught the eye of a National Film Board producer, who invited her to return to Haiti as a researcher and interviewer for a film on the 1987 Haitian elections, shown on Le Point, a news magazine program on Radio-Canada, the French language arm of the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation.

When Radio-Canada subsequently hired Jean, she became the first black person on French television news in Canada. She worked as a reporter or host for several of the network's programs, includingActuel, Montréal ce soir, and Virages. In the mid-1990s, she moved to RDI, Radio-Canada's all-news network, becoming host of le Journal RDI and other programs, winning many awards along the way, including a Gemini. By 2004, she was well enough known among Francophone Canadians to launch her own current affairs show on RDI, entitled Michaëlle. In English Canada, she was familiar to viewers of CBC Newsworld's documentary programs The Passionate Eye andRough Cuts, both of which she had hosted since 1999.

With filmmaker husband Jean-Daniel Lafond, Jean made several documentaries in the 1990s, including Tropique Nord (Tropic North), about the black experience in Québec; the award-winning Haiti dans tous nos rêves (Haiti in All Our Dreams); and L'heure de Cuba, on the 40th anniversary of the Cuban revolution.

In August 2005, Prime Minister Paul Martin announced Jean's appointment as governor general, news that sparked controversy. A Québec sovereignist publication suggested that Jean and her husband had supported the separatist cause in that province. At first, Jean refused to respond, but then issued a brief statement insisting that she had never belonged to the separatist movement. Debate over her dual citizenship (she became a French citizen when she married Lafond, who was born in France) subsided after she renounced her French citizenship shortly before taking office.

Sworn in on 27 September 2005, she succeeded Adrienne Clarkson. Jean became the first black person to serve as governor general. The descendant of slaves, she used her office to passionately emphasize freedom as a central part of the Canadian identity. Reflecting on her experience as an immigrant, Jean argued that it was time to "eliminate the spectre" of the two solitudes, French and English, which had long characterized the country's history.

As governor general, Jean showed herself to be a passionate speaker and a photogenic presence. She used her office to advance human rights, support the arts, draw attention to socio-economic problems in the Canadian north, and promote Canada abroad, particularly in Africa and her native Haiti

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