ART, EDUCATION, POLITICS AND POETRY AT MONTREAL’S NEGRO COMMUNITY CENTRE $10 Quebec

VOL 12, NO. 1 WINTER 2018 HeritageNews

Concordia’s Negro Community Centre / Charles H. Este Cultural Centre Fonds Uncovered Gems from a Vanished Montreal Institution Transforming Quebec Society in the 19th Century The Infamous Bishop Bourget Just in Time for Christmas The Montreal Gazette’s 1865 Take on the Season QUEBEC HERITAGE NEWS

Quebec CONTENTS HeritageNews QAHN News 3 EDITOR Matthew Farfan RODERICK MACLEOD PRODUCTION Volunteering Matters 6 DAN PINESE; MATTHEW FARFAN Examining the Effectiveness of Your Volunteer Program Heather Darch

Remembering the Negro Community Centre 7 PUBLISHER QUEBEC ANGLOPHONE An Introduction Steven High HERITAGE NETWORK 400-257 QUEEN STREET Activating Community Archives 9 SHERBROOKE, QUEBEC The Negro Community Centre / Charles H. Este Cultural Centre Fonds Désirée Rochat J1M 1K7 and Alexandra Mills PHONE 1-877-964-0409 Tackling Racism in Montreal’s Education System 11 (819) 564-9595 The NCC and the QBBE’s Advocacy for Black Students Chelsea Matheson FAX (819) 564-6872 Afro Festival 13 CORRESPONDENCE Unpacking the Montreal Black Community’s Largest Annual Event Teejay Bhalla [email protected] WEBSITES What Happened to the NCC? 16 QAHN.ORG A Short Graphic Story Leslie Szabo QUEBECHERITAGEWEB.COM 100OBJECTS.QAHN.ORG Afro-Can 19 The Local, Global and Historical Reach of a Community Newspaper Sinéad O’Halloran PRESIDENT SIMON JACOBS The NCC’s Young Mothers’ Program 21 EXECUTIVE DIRECTOR Chloé Houde MATTHEW FARFAN PROJECT DIRECTOR “Towards a Working Ideology” 22 DWANE WILKIN Left-wing Thought within the NCC Harris Frost BOOKKEEPER MARION GREENLAY “Climbing up the maple tree” 24 Black Poetic Activism in Montreal, 1970-1980 Cassandra Marsillo

Quebec Heritage News is published quarterly by QAHN with the support New Pasts, Old Futures 26 of the Department of Canadian Heritage. Reimaging the Narrative of Montreal’s Negro Community Centre Kelann Currie-Williams QAHN is a non-profit and non-partisan organization whose mission is to help advance knowledge of the history and Retail, Religion and Rinks 28 culture of the English-speaking Montreal at Christmas, 1865 Robert N. Wilkins communities of Quebec.

Annual Subscription Rates: The Rebellion that Succeeded 29 Individual: $30.00; Institutional: $40.00; Part II: Bishop Ignace Bourget Joseph Graham Family: $40.00; Student: $20.00. Canada Post Publication Mail Agreement Number 405610004. Cover: Flyers from the Negro Community Centre. Concordia University Library, the NCC / Charles H. Este Cultural Centre Fonds, F013, HA04216, folder 3.

ISSN 17707-2670 PRINTED IN CANADA

2 WINTER 2018

QAHN News by Matthew Farfan

Fall Heritage Fair QAHN's first annual Heritage Fair, held in partnership with the Townshippers' Association, took place in October under beauti- ful fall skies at the Eaton Corner Museum in Eaton Corner. The event was funded in part through QAHN's ongoing DREAM project. The morning segment included a panel discussion by repre- sentatives of the Brome County, Richmond County and Mis- sisquoi museums, moderated by Dwane Wilkin. Heather Darch gave a keynote address on the "Anatomy of a Fundraiser."

Awards The afternoon included displays inside the Eaton Corner Museum's newly restored Foss House. Over a dozen heritage Richard “Dick” Evans, founding president of the Quebec and cultural organizations from all across the region were repre- Anglophone Heritage Network and the organization's current sented. The former Congregational Church, home to the muse- treasurer, has received a Canada 150 Volunteer Award in honour um's permanent exhibition, was also opened to the public for of his contributions to preserving heritage in Quebec. This the day. award is the latest in a string of accolades that Evans has earned Townshippers' Association was on hand for the event with a over the course of three decades of leadership in the heritage wide selection of books on the history of the region. Local sector, including involvement with Heritage Huntingville and writer Nick Fonda signed copies of his new book, Richmond the Lennoxville-Ascot Historical and Museum Society. Now and Then. Susan Campbell and Glenn Wanamaker of CBC After a long career with Dupont Canada, Dick Evans re- Radio conducted interviews. And fiddler Terry Howell provided turned to his native Eastern Townships in 1987, taking up resi- dence on the Evans family farm near Huntingville. He has de- the entertainment. voted much of his retirement to heritage preservation, not only

Scenes from the Fall Heritage Fair in Eaton Corner. Photos: Matthew Farfan. 3 QUEBEC HERITAGE NEWS in the Townships, but across Quebec. JoAnn is a careful thinker, and an excellent ambassador for the In the 1990s, Evans helped found Heritage Huntingville, many community organizations she has become involved with." and successfully raised funds to restore the Huntingville Uni- Besides her service on the QAHN board, Oberg-Müller has versalist Church, the oldest building of its kind in Canada. He devoted her time to a number of other heritage and community was also instrumental in creating Uplands Cultural and Heritage organizations. These include the Brome County Historical Soci- Centre in Lennoxville. In 2000, while president of the ety, Townshippers' Foundation, and the Canadian Club of the Lennoxville-Ascot Historical and Museum Society, and having Yamaska Valley. distinguished himself as an advocate for heritage preservation, he obtained support from the Department of Canadian Heritage Another veteran to organize a provincial conference of historical societies at QAHN director, San- Bishop’s University. The outcome was the formation of the dra Stock, has just re- Quebec Anglophone Heritage Network. ceived a Lifetime Marie-Claude Bibeau, Member of Parliament for Compton- Achievement Award Stanstead and Canada’s Minister for International Development, from the Morin presented Evans with a Canada 150 award at a ceremony at his Heights Historical home this past summer. Association, presented at its 2nd annual Heritage Awards Gala in November. The award recog- nizes Stock's long- standing commitment to preserving and pro- moting the heritage and history of the Laurentians, in particular the area around Morin Heights, and for her leadership in the foundation of the MHHA back in 1997. Stock, who now lives in Montreal but who returns regularly to the Laurentians where she lived for many years, has written extensively on the history of the Lower Laurentians, Montreal, and other parts of Quebec. Her articles and book reviews have appeared in Quebec Heritage News and elsewhere. JoAnn Oberg-Müller, a long-time director of QAHN, has just been named an "Outstanding Townshipper" by the Township- Official languages pers' Association. An American by birth, Oberg-Müller came to Also in October, organizations representing Quebec's Canada many years ago to pursue a career as a recruitment offi- Anglophone population met in Knowlton with the House of cer at Concordia, McGill and Bishop’s universities. She now Commons Standing Committee on Official Languages (LANG). lives in Knowlton, but her volunteer activities have taken her all Seven Members of Parliament, including Committee Chair over the Townships and Montérégie. Denis Paradis, were on hand to hear concerns expressed by At a ceremony in North Hatley in September, Oberg-Müller the various community groups in attendance. QAHN was was described as "a committed volunteer who is not afraid to represented by Executive Director Matthew Farfan. work. Whether it’s serving as a director on one of many local boards, or manning a table and meeting people at a community event, or judging student projects, she is always ready to help.

Mark your calendars! 5th Annual Montreal Wine & Cheese QAHN's 5th annual Montreal Wine & Cheese is set to take place on April 26, 2018 (5-7 p.m.) at the historic Château Dufresne in Montreal. Open to all who love history and heritage, this much-anticipated event serves as an informal Top left: Dick Evans received his award from Hon. Marie-Claude Bibeau. Photo: Dwane Wilkin. 4 Bottom left: JoAnn Oberg-Muller (centre), flanked by some of her QAHN colleagues. Top right: Sandra Stock. Photo: Carol Meindl. Bottom right: Château Dufresne. Photo: Thomas1313. WINTER 2018 chance to network for members of Montreal's Anglophone and Francophone heritage communities. This event should definitely not be missed! Built between 1915 and 1918, the Château Dufresene (2929 Jeanne-d’Arc Avenue, in Montreal's east end), is a superb Beaux-Arts style mansion originally owned by the Dufresne brothers, leading members of Montreal’s Francophone bourgeoisie. Today, the Château houses the Dufresne-Nincheri Museum, which is dedicated to the history of Montreal’s east end.

2018 QAHN Convention QAHN's 2018 Convention and AGM will take place over two days at the beautiful Domaine Cataraqui and other venues in Quebec City, June 9-10, 2018. The event should be an interest- ing one. Stay tuned for more details about program and registration!

Top: Domaine Cataraqui. Photo: http://www.capitale.gouv.qc.ca. 5 QUEBEC HERITAGE NEWS

VOLUNTEERING MATTERS MEASURING SUCCESS Examining the Effectiveness of Your Volunteer Program by Heather Darch

This is the fifth in a series of articles by moving forward and ask questions like: of the organization. Developing skills, Heather Darch exploring the issue of Are we attracting volunteers with the taking on more responsibilities, and volunteers and volunteering. It was in- right skills for the projects we have? Do adjusting tasks to accommodate a volun- spired by her work on the recent QAHN we have the right resources available for teer’s strengths are just some of the project, FOREVER. volunteers to complete tasks? Are volun- outcomes when you sit with a volunteer teers staying with us? Are we making and review his or her performance. Carpenters have an expression: “mea- the best use of volunteer time and skills? Evaluation also develops the team effort sure twice - cut once.” Have we set forth realistic goals and op- approach and can make volunteers feel It’s a rule of thumb we could use in portunities for the volunteer program? appreciated. our volunteer management programs Are volunteers satisfied with their roles Friedman-Fixler suggests a “valua- too. Taking a look, and even a second and responsibilities? Are we meeting tion process” for volunteers rather than look, at how our volunteer programs are their expectations? evaluation. A valuation eliminates the operating, and the impact that individual stigma of performance evaluation for all volunteers have on our organization, can concerned and reinforces behaviours be helpful in identifying any weaknesses that your organization wants to cultivate. or problems and shoring-up those areas. Volunteers will appreciate the effort and Evaluating your program as a whole the positive individualized feedback. It may sound like a lot of work, and evalu- sounds volunteer-friendly, too, which ating your individual volunteers might should ease the fear of actually sitting not sound too appealing either. In fact, down with a volunteer for a review. the thought of evaluating a person help- Formal reviews can occur at inter- ing out in your organization is so intimi- vals that coincide with the creation of a dating that most small non-profit organi- new strategic plan, but informal evalua- zations do not practice it routinely, if at tion really should be ongoing. This in- all. As volunteer management expert Jill volves active listening, casual conversa- Friedman-Fixler says, “Most people tion with your volunteers, and observa- carry significant baggage about perform- tion of their work to determine if revi- ance reviews. The majority of volunteers sions are needed and to reinforce the today are employed, and are therefore Seeing generations volunteer is a good measure of value of volunteer contributions. familiar with the review process. They the health of your volunteer program. Event vol- Most organizations will keep track unteers Lori and Madison (mother and daughter). want their volunteer experience to be of the number of volunteers as well as different from their employment, to be their volunteer hours. That’s good, espe- fun and challenging, and to have an im- In her presentation at a 2016 QAHN cially when they can use that data for pact. They don't want a lot of adminis- Volunteering Matters conference in grant applications. But it’s the value you trative bureaucracy; nor do they want Montreal, Louise Brazeau, the education need to assess that will yield information their volunteering to be reminiscent of director of the Château Ramezay, to enhance your programs. How you their workplace.” supported the practice of evaluating the manage your programs should be driven That said, experts in the field of vol- volunteers in her own program. Formal by what you want to happen as a result unteer management say that evaluations evaluation can bring very specific results of your efforts. must be done to determine how effi- in improved procedures, expand recruit- Evaluation of programs and people ciently and effectively the program ing efforts and create concrete and real- will only have a practical impact if you meets its goals and to provide structure istic goals for an organization. “It is a are committed to making the changes and guidance for volunteers. critical part of strategic thinking and and addressing the needs based on the Ongoing evaluation of a volunteer planning for the museum’s program.” results. It’s a good idea to build formal program is a healthy process of reflec- Formal evaluation of a volunteer and informal evaluation into the plan- tion, revitalization and renewal. Looking likewise motivates volunteers to do their ning of your volunteer program so it at your program through a broad lens best. Volunteers really need to know becomes a part of your routine and your allows you to see if your mission is how they measure up to the expectations organizational learning.

Photo: courtesy of the Missisquoi Historical Society. 6 WINTER 2018

REMEMBERING THE NEGRO COMMUNITY CENTRE An Introduction by Steven High

We as a black community, we don’t have a building that we websites (see for example: http://cohds.com/ncc/), books of poet- can say is our own, a place. And black people have con- ry, a graphic novel, posters, leaflets, and audio and art installa- tributed, contrary to what a lot of people believe, to tions. A number also opted to contribute to Quebec Heritage News Montreal. magazine. The student projects were then showcased at the public launch of the NCC Archive at the Liberty Hall of the Universal –Shirley Gyles, NCC President, interviewed in 2005.* Negro Improvement Association (UNIA) in Little Burgundy on *Interviews conducted in 2005 as part of the student project April 11. There was huge community interest, with an overflow “Voices from Little Burgundy” can be accessed at Concordia crowd of 200 people. University’s Centre for Oral History and Digital Storytelling. Historically, Montreal’s Black community had taken root in what is now Montreal’s “Sud-Ouest” Borough, specifically in the his past year marked the 90th anniversary of Montreal’s area that is known today as Little Burgundy. The reason was Negro Community Centre straightforward: until the 1950s, most (NCC). Formed in 1927, the Black men in Montreal worked for the NCC served as the cultural railways as red caps, porters and cooks. andT recreational hub of the community They could therefore walk to work at until 1992 when it shut its doors for Windsor (CPR) and Bonaventure the last time. The old stone building at (GTR/CNR) Stations. At the time, there 2035 Coursol Street in Little Burgundy were few other employment options. In was falling apart and the organization an oral history interview, Carl Sim- did not have the funds to repair it. monds, a former porter, recalled that “in Efforts to reopen the building eventu- 90% of the black families, the head of ally petered out, and Concordia was the family worked for the railways, be- invited to salvage 100 boxes of textual cause you couldn’t get no other kind of and photographic records from the rap- jobs. What else could you get? There idly deteriorating building. These was too much racism.” Mrs. Packwood, records remained in deep storage until interviewed by Dorothy Williams in the a couple of years ago when Shirley early 1980s, recalled that few factories Gyles officially donated them to Con- hired Black workers until World War II, cordia Library’s Special Collections. and even then “if you got a job here you As for the NCC building itself, despite had to be White in the daytime, and you protests, it was demolished in 2014. could be Black at night.” Some Black Students enrolled earlier this year in my undergraduate histo- women could “pass” as White, allowing them to work clandestine- ry class, “Telling Stories,” had the good fortune of working with ly in Eaton’s or Holts and Renfrew on St. Catherine Street. Other- the NCC records directly – thanks to our partnership with Alexan- wise, most worked as domestics in the homes of the wealthy dra Mills, archivist at the Concordia Library. The course was located uphill from Little Burgundy. The area was once known as based on a very simple question: what was in these boxes and how the “city below the hill” for a reason. could we ‘return’ this history to the community? Montreal’s Black community forged strong community insti- Thirty students were each assigned a box and told that they tutions. When excluded from membership in the White railway had to become an ‘expert’ on its contents. We then built our unions, Black workers formed the Order of Sleeping Car Porters knowledge from the ground up, sharing leads and so on. They in 1917 (a century ago this year) – the first major Black trade were helped along by Alexandra Mills, who taught them archival union in North America. Railway porters and their wives were al- theory and method, as well as by Desirée Rochat, a PhD student in so centrally involved in the founding of the Colored Women’s education, who is a specialist in community archives, with links to Club in 1902, Union United Church in 1907, the United Negro the neighbourhood. Students also read deeply into the history of Improvement Association’s (UNIA) Liberty Hall in 1919, and, of Black Montreal and Little Burgundy, including the published course, the NCC in 1927. Louise Langdon, the mother of Malcolm writings of David Austin and Dorothy Williams. They then devel- X, was active in the local UNIA. Black-owned businesses once oped their own projects, which included a research paper and a lined neighbourhood streets. Probably the most famous was public outcome. These ranged from online digital stories, to Rockhead’s Paradise, a place that was virtually synonymous with Negro Community Centre. Photo: Graeme Clyke. Concordia University Library, 7 Graeme Clyke Fonds, F027-02-177. QUEBEC HERITAGE NEWS

Montreal’s jazz era. James Franklin got a job there in 1939 and an accomplished professional and community leader too, was the worked there for the next thirty-one years. “It was the best spot in sister of Viola Desmond – who is sometimes referred to as town,” he told Dorothy Williams. He recalled meeting all kinds of Canada’s Rosa Parks for her defiance of de facto segregation. celebrities, including Nat King Cole, Redd Foxx, and Nipsey Desmond has just been put on Canada’s new $10 bill. Russell. The articles that follow do not offer a comprehensive history Little Burgundy was a lively place. In oral history interviews, of the Negro Community Centre, but rather pathways into this Black residents spoke of their childhoods in glowing terms. But centre of community life and history. They begin with an article historically, there wasn’t much green space. As children, Abel on the importance of community archives, written by Desirée Lewis recalled that they used to play hockey in the “big empty Rochat and Alexandra Mills, followed by others on the arts, mu- railroad yard” that once ran right through the neighbourhood, sic, schooling, women, the Afro-Can community newspaper, the splitting it in half. But to do so, they would have to play a game Young Mothers program, and the influence of leftist politics, con- of cat and mouse with the railway police who “felt it was very cluding with a wider reflection on the importance of Black histo- dangerous for us to be playing there and we totally disagreed with ry in Quebec. The NCC closely followed the liberation struggles that.” in Africa during the 1960s and 1970s as well as South Africa’s Starting in the 1960s, Montreal’s Black community was dis- anti-Apartheid movement in the 1980s. There were also impor- persed by a series of events that forever changed Little Burgundy. tant connections to Black radicalism at McGill and Sir George First, the decline of railway passenger travel meant the layoff of Williams (now Concordia) universities during these years. several hundred porters and red caps. Then, most of the factories As we mark Canada’s 150th and Montreal’s 375th anniver- that once lined the Lachine Canal closed, displacing thousands of saries, it is important to acknowledge the work of community people. With the area in crisis, Quebec decided to build the Ville groups like the NCC that quietly contribute so much to our lives, Marie Expressway through the neighbourhood. The stately stone and to restate the importance of archival collections like this one buildings that once stood on the north side of St. Antoine Street in preserving the history of English-speaking Quebec in all its re- were all demolished, including St. Anthony’s Church. Then a gional and cultural diversity. huge swath of the neighbourhood was demolished to make way for a new public housing project – which provided better housing conditions but forced people to move out of the neighbourhood Steven High teaches in the Department of History and is for several years during construction. Many did not move back. co-director of the Centre for Oral History and Digital Storytelling Montreal’s Black community was never again as geographically at Concordia University. concentrated. As a result, the population of Little Burgundy plum- meted from 21,381 in 1951 to just 7,000 in 1973. The NCC struggled to survive in this changed environment. It offered an impressive range of programs – “from cradle to grave,” many said. Children and youth benefitted from the NCC’s music and dance classes, sports, and the summer cultural camps that were named after Frederick Douglass, Harriet Tubman, Malcolm X, Martin Luther King Jr, and others. People remember their childhood experiences at the NCC fondly. Valerie Hernan- dez told one of my students back in 2005 that

In those days, your parents didn’t drive you because they didn’t have a car. Or, if they did have a car, they were working very long hours. So, parents would send you to the Negro Community Centre. You can walk, because we all lived in the same area. … I think I did everything [there]. There is nothing you didn’t do. I started tap dancing... Then I started taking piano lessons and then I was a Girl Guide and I went to Saint John’s ambulance. So, then you join different community groups, to youth groups…. We were all part of that. So, they put on dances and things like that. Every week end you had some place to go. And that was the focal point: the Negro Community Centre.

The NCC placed considerable emphasis on education, offer- ing scholarships and promoting Black history and culture. In 1970, the NCC inaugurated the Stanley Clyke Library of Black History and Culture. Named after the NCC long-time director, who had re- cently died, the library’s vertical files are still part of the archive at Concordia. Clyke, a social worker, originally from Nova Scotia, looms large in the organization’s history. His wife, Emily Davis,

8 WINTER 2018

A CTIVATING COMMUNITY ARCHIVES The Negro Community Centre / Charles H. Este Cultural Centre Fonds by Désirée Rochat and Alexandra Mills

The Negro Community Centre, like advocacy work, and connections with tions, and context that allow us to better most private welfare organizations, other groups. The records tell stories of understand the material and the stories they was founded by a small group of community achievements, community convey. Archival materials can, and should, citizens. In this particular instance, building, as well as tensions and strug- be used by the public and the community it is notable that the citizens were gles. They also document the various or communities that created the records as members of the Negro minority who networks of relationships that sustained a means to engage with and begin to under- felt a need for organizing ways and the centre. stand the nuanced histories of individuals, means of helping to “alleviate dis- Community archives bring to light organizations, and communities. tress” among Negroes in Montreal. the narratives that shaped communities The belief that primary research is the over time. The materials found within domain of scholars and higher education –Negro Community Centre (no date) those archives can trigger memory, persists and should be vehemently resisted. prompt discussion, and foster engage- While archives are necessarily used for re- he organizations that commu- ment. The memories of the individual search purposes, they should also be avail- nities establish tell a lot about and collective experiences of those who able for other forms of exploration, what communities strive for, engagement, and discovery. Education is what they understand as just one way to meaningfully engage Ttheir collective needs and aspirations, with non-traditional users of archival ma- and how they envision fulfilling them. terials. It is necessary for archivists to They tell us about the spaces and step outside their institutions and bring means people put in place to bring their holdings to these new-to-them user about change. The Negro Community communities. Centre (NCC) was part of a network Educational possibilities are many. of institutions founded by members of When seeking to (re)activate an archive the Montreal Black community. Dur- such as the NCC’s, learning can, and ing its peak years, thousands of peo- should, take place both inside and outside ple came through its doors. In 1967 the archive. Community archives can be alone, general attendance reached brought to the classroom and into com- 44,558. In addition to addressing the munities to foster engagement, under- social, economic and living conditions standing, and learning. Introducing un- of its members, the NCC objectives dergraduate students to archival materials were (according to the 1967 report): in a classroom setting provides students with first-hand experience of historical ● To provide leadership facilities were involved in the NCC are intimately research and archival literacy skills. and opportunities for members to tied to the archive. They hold the stories Actively engaging with primary sources meet in groups for social, re- that the records cannot tell in isolation. sparks curiosity and provide real, tangible creational and cultural purposes They are a vehicle through which an un- connections to history. derstanding of history can emerge. Com- In ‘Telling stories,’ the course offered ● To use resources for individual, munity archives are not static. Through at Concordia University in 2017, under- group and neighborhood growth interpreting, using, and re-using archival graduate students were able to connect to documents, we are able to tell stories, the history of the NCC, to its members, and ● To promote and encourage better revisit events, and engage with history. to its partner organizations, and did so in inter-racial understanding Archives are sites of identity, culture, the classroom, the reading room, and the social memory, and history. They are creat- community itself. The course provided stu- The archive of the NCC emerges ed in and by communities, and this should dents with the opportunity to conduct ex- out of the community mobilization and not be forgotten once materials formally tensive archival research, an infrequent re- organizing that was characteristic of the enter the holdings of an archival repository. quirement of undergraduate coursework. centre. It was created through the NCC’s By removing archives from communities By working directly with and from the educational and cultural programming, entirely, we risk losing insights, connec- archive, students learned about community Site of the Negro Community Centre, 2017. 9 Photo: Kelann Currie-Williams. QUEBEC HERITAGE NEWS organizing and community archives, the archive, giving students the opportunity to housed the centre no longer exists. Since NCC, and the history of part of Montreal’s expand their understanding and excitement the NCC’s physical home was demolished Black community. Students also had the for the history of this important centre and in 2014, keeping its archive alive will help opportunity to bring the stories they uncov- its surrounding communities. These ensure that the centre’s legacy continues, ered back to the community, fostering dia- encounters helped to deepen understand- while cultivating new opportunities for logue and eliciting memories. Through ings of history and prompt discussions that connections, collaborations and communi- research-creation projects, students were will hopefully lead to further exploration, ty building. able to share their interpretations of the partnerships and collaborations. documentation and make them accessible Another result of bringing the NCC Sources: to a wider audience. archive to the classroom and the communi- The Negro Community Centre / Charles Keeping an archive alive means en- ty is the establishment of relationships and H. Este Cultural Centre Fonds, F013, suring the accessibility and use of the ma- the opening of dialogue between academia Special Collections, Concordia Univer- terial by all individuals, regardless of their and the wider public. These relationships sity Library. affiliations. By getting students and com- further enrich and enliven the archive, and munity members engaged with archival encourage engagement with the materials “The Negro Community Centre: records, the archive is being (re)activated. and the histories represented. An added Historical background,” (no date), Box New users animate archival records by im- effect of community engagement is the HA01379, folder 3. buing them with new, or alternative, per- potential to expand archival holdings. spectives. Their interactions with the Greater visibility and accessibility leads to “Report of the Negro Community records also prompt reminiscences in the greater use of an archive, making it more Centre (a neighborhood house), 1967,” community or communities that created the likely that community members will Box HA04245, folder 10. documents and help forge new ones in deposit their own papers with an archival those individuals engaging with the docu- institution. Any additional documentation ments and the stories they communicate. would provide users with a more compre- This is precisely what happened during the hensive view of communities and their Alexandra Mills is the Special Collec- final event for the class, where the student histories. tions archivist at Concordia University. projects were showcased and the archive Encounters between people, records, was launched. Members of the NCC memory and history through the use of Désirée Rochat is a PhD. candidate in shared their memories of the centre, inter- archives foster learning and discovery. This the Department of Integrated Studies in acted with the students, and engaged with is especially important in the case of the Education at McGill University. their projects and reproductions from the NCC archive, as the building that last

Young Children at the Negro Community Centre, 1981. Photo: Graeme Clyke. 10 Concordia University Library, Graeme Clyke Fonds, F027-02-001. WINTER 2018

T ACKLING RACISM IN MONTREAL’S EDUCATION SYSTEM The NCC and the QBBE’s Advocacy for Black Students by Chelsea Matheson iven its strong advocacy in nity, self-confidence, valuing the human acknowledgment of this support, the the face of societal racism, over the material, [and] commitment to NCBW’s final report was addressed to the NCC went to great the struggle.” Lawrence Sitahal: “Many thanks to you lengths to protect the com- In 1974, recognizing the difficulties and to members of your staff for the Gmunity’s youngest and most vulnerable in navigating the education system, the generous assistance extended to us members – significantly, Black students NCC held a workshop for parents and throughout the planning of this confer- within the Montreal school system. By educators, focusing on the problems ence.” A key organizer of the conference partnering with other organizations, es- encountered by Black students and the was Vera Jackson, who was not only a pecially the Quebec Board of Black Ed- limits of parental experience with the prominent NCC employee, but also ucators, by lobbying the government, school system. The workshop’s conclu- acting president of the NCBW and an and by hosting anti-racist pro- outreach worker for the Quebec gramming for Black students, Board of Black Educators. Host- the NCC played a significant ing educational workshops, role in combating racism in providing support for major con- Montreal schools during the ferences, and bringing together 1960s, 70s and 80s. various educational stakeholders The inadequacies of the edu- and activists did much to promote cation system was one of the the needs of Black students and to main issues plaguing young peo- combat racism in Montreal ple in the Black community, and schools. required concerted action. In a Another way that the NCC January 1973 letter to Quebec engaged in educational advocacy Premier Robert Bourassa detail- was by partnering with the Que- ing the main issues faced by the bec Board of Black Educators, Anglophone Black community, which had an office within the NCC director Lawrence Sitahal NCC building itself. The QBBE, decried the “increasing and formed “to safeguard the interests alarming rate at which Black of Anglophone Black students in youth [are] becoming alienated... Quebec,” was an absolutely piv- due to the persisting racism and otal organization combating white ethnocentricity perpetuat- racism directly within the Mon- ed by the school system... These treal school system. The aims of combined factors quickly strip the QBBE reflected a need for di- Black youth of their sense of rect intervention: to fight for worth and identity.” Aside from formally sion: “the Canadian educational system equal educational opportunity, to address lobbying the government with letters is designed to create exploiters and the failures of the school system by running such as this, the NCC took an Afrocen- exploited. Naturally, Black youth are its own programming for Black students, tric approach in its own youth program- being modeled to become the exploited to rid the curriculum of its racist content, ming to help develop Black pride and generation of tomorrow. It is therefore and to include more Black studies. The consciousness. The archive contains a the duty of the Black community, QBBE successfully lobbied the Protes- file of resources and ideas for teachers parents and educators to equip their tant School Board of Greater Montreal educating Black children, with different young to counteract this process.” to hire a Black liaison officer, who exercises and activities to “develop and The NCC took its part in this mis- would be chosen by the QBBE. This of- strengthen an African consciousness” sion seriously. It provided essential sup- ficer would be responsible for interven- through educational and recreational ac- port for the Montreal chapter of the ing within the Montreal education sys- tivities, and “a sense of the collective: National Congress of Black Women tem on behalf of vulnerable Black stu- feeling responsible to other Black peo- (NCBW), which held an important edu- dents facing racism at school, sensitizing ple, love and pride in the Black commu- cation conference in 1981. As an teachers to the needs of Black students,

Girl reading at the NCC. Photo: Graeme Clyke. Concordia University Library, 11 Negro Community Centre/Charles H. Este Cultural Centre Fonds, F013-02-091. QUEBEC HERITAGE NEWS and setting up Black studies programs. leaving significant legacies in their cation,” July 1978, File 20, HA The QBBE not only engaged in di- wake. Montreal schools not only had 04139. rect advocacy within the education sys- failed Black students in terms of aca- tem, but also provided programs outside demic achievement, but also were ac- Montreal Regional Committee Na- of school for Black students. It aimed tively destructive, constituting hostile tional Congress of Black Women, “to motivate and build a positive self- spaces where Black students regularly “Educational Conference Report,” concept in the students in a rich Black faced innumerable forms of racism. 1981, File 23, HA 04173. environment,” and to make up for the Both the NCC and the QBBE took up failures of the school system Quebec Board of Black Educa- with targeted programming to tors, “Our Aims,” c.1979, File address issues faced by Black 36, HA 04191. students. The main issues were: racism from teachers, lower ex- Quebec Board of Black Educa- pectations for Black students, tors, “Report on the Charles the trend of funneling Black stu- Drew Program,” 1979, HA dents into lower academic 04196. streams, the Eurocentric curricu- lum, low numbers of Black Quebec Board of Black Educa- teachers and administrators, and tors, Minutes of the meeting be- a sense of alienation of Black tween the Protestant School students in school. To address Board of Greater Montreal and these issues, the QBBE created the QBBE, 1976, File 36, HA the Da Costa Hall Program for 04196. Black high school students to help them get accepted into Quebec Board of Black Educa- CEGEP and to provide crucial tors, “Bana Program Report,” support during the years where 1976, File 36, HA 04196. dropout was common. The QBBE also created the Charles Lawrence Sitahal, Letter to Pre- Drew program, to help Black mier Robert Bourassa, 19 Janu- students deemed to be two or ary 1973, HA 04191. more years below their grade level, and the Bana program, Resources for Black Teachers, hosted at the NCC, to aid Black c.1975, File 17, HA 04205. elementary students in their edu- cational development. Recogniz- Education Workshop, 1974, File ing the crucial importance of 12, HA 04146. Black representation within teaching and the charge to combat this racism from administration, and of Black role models within school walls. To reach children Henry Codjoe, “Fighting a 'Public Ene- who understood the lived Black reality and youth in the community who had my' of Black Academic Achievement: of their students, the QBBE especially their self-esteem and self-concept beaten The Persistence of Racism and the strived to staff its programs with Black down by a racist Eurocentric school Schooling Experiences of Black students educators. It also ran its programs with system, both organizations provided in Canada,” in Race Ethnicity and the fundamental assertion that Black stu- programs to envelop children and youth Education, 4 (4), 2001, 343-375. dents were under-performing in schools in a supportive environment that would not because of academic inferiority, but develop their pride in being Black and because of a hostile school environment give them a second chance at academic and marginalization. The QBBE also success. Chelsea Matheson is currently a went to extensive lengths to include Master's student at McGill University Black studies, creating content that Sources: pursuing an Education degree. Original- reflected the students’ reality by bring- The Negro Community Centre / Charles ly from Edmonton, she was first exposed ing Black people out from the margins H. Este Cultural Centre Fonds, F013, to issues of racism within Montreal of Eurocentric history and into the fore- Special Collections, Concordia Univer- schools while doing the research for this front, and helping them understand their sity Library. article. As a result of this experience, place in the world as Black citizens in a she is planning to continue this research racially divided society. Black Community Work Group on Ed- during her current degree, and will be The NCC and the QBBE were both ucation, “Final Report on the Aspir- making anti-racist pedagogy a central pivotal organizations serving and tions and Expectations of the Quebec aspect of her future career as a teacher. advocating for the Black community, Black Community with Regard to Edu-

12 NCC Program Memo, March 1987. Concordia University Library, Negro Com- munity Centre/Charles H. Este Cultural Centre Fonds, F013, HA04194, folder 8. WINTER 2018

A FRO FESTIVAL Unpacking the Montreal Black Community’s Largest Annual Event by Teejay Bhalla

y the 1970s, Montreal’s ethni- the Lasalle Black Community Association, two pieces, BTW was mirroring the inten- cally diverse Black communi- the Black Studies Centre (Que.) Inc, tions of the rest of the festival: to promote ty had begun to disperse from Walker Credit Union, the N.D.G. Black local Black artists and represent the often the St. Antoine District (aka Community Association, the Quebec unspoken voice of the Black community BLittle Burgundy) to different neighbour- Board of Black Educators, Black Commu- and the realities it faced in North America, hoods around the city, yet the Negro nity Communications Media and the Cote while reminding the audience of the Community Centre remained committed des Neiges Black Community Association. greater implications of their roots. to fostering a sense of community and As their titles implied, these groups repre- The Black Art Exhibition ran unification. It achieved this in part by sented the municipalities with the highest throughout the festival, and along with the organizing both local and large-scale concentration of Black inhabitants. The Creative Black Arts Awards, “aimed at events, often in collaboration with Black BCCAQ saw the event as an opportunity developing and encouraging the creative community groups from other parts of to unite as Black Montrealers in order “to talents of potential Black Artists.” The Montreal. Of these events, the largest stimulate a sense of community among awards included a variety show, which was the annual city-wide Afro Festival. Black people of diverse national origins allowed performers to demonstrate their Beginning in the summer of 1973, living in Quebec.” With a massive abilities in front of an audience and judges. Afro Festival featured different daily outreach in all of these districts of the city, The awards were separated into five cate- events over seven to twelve days, usually Afro Festival was designed to unite thou- gories: music, dance, poetry, drama and in July, with the aim of bringing all ages sands of Black Montrealers and “make the visual arts. The most popular of these cate- and ethnicities together. The wide array of Quebec public aware of this Black cultural gories was dance, and the festival organiz- events changed as the festival evolved, but experience.” It was important not only to ers often had to emphasize the other cate- the objective was always the uplifting of unite Montreal’s Black community, but gories to promote participation. Both of Black youths and the unification of the also to represent it to the rest of the these events encouraged a pursuit of community. From athletic competitions province. excellence in artistic fields within the between municipalities to bus excursions In the pursuit of representation, festi- Black community, while providing partici- bringing families to enjoy a picnic outside val organizers encouraged participation pants with a venue to demonstrate their the city, Afro Festival featured events for from many different Black organizations talents to the rest of the city. every age group and interest. There was around the city. For years, the Black The- Afro Festival was a celebration of the something to do every night of the festival, atre Workshop had offered a safe place for internal diversity of Montreal’s Black whether it was a film screening, a dance, Black artists to perform their own works. community. One event, “Pot Pourri,” ex- or a presentation from the Black Theatre For this reason, BTW was accorded its emplified the festival’s intention of bring- Workshop. These events led to a final own event during Afro Festival to show- ing all the different Black nationalities to- music festival held at Girouard Park in case the talents of Black Montrealers and gether by serving many dishes from these NDG. to present unique performances of Black countries. A cookbook was prepared with On the surface, Afro Festival was stories. The 1975 edition of the festival recipes boasting that they would take you simply a celebration of Montreal’s Black featured two acts presented at Revue on “a gourmet trip around the Black community and history. However, organiz- Theatre on Maisonneuve Street. The first, world!” Local participants had submitted ers had more than just the amusement of Bonanza 72, “a rhythmic and biting satire handwritten recipes – Lamb Soleil from the population as motivation for the event; on politics and attitudes in the Black Com- Senegal, Mseto from Tanzania, Pepper Pot the festival was used as a unification tool munity,” depicted the life of a West Indian from Guyana, and Conkies from Barba- for Montreal’s internally diverse and geo- woman working in Toronto as a domestic dos, to name only a few – which were then graphically dispersed Black population. In servant. The second piece, The Black typed and bound for sale. Twelve different addition, the festival aimed at providing a Experience, offered a complete history of African and Caribbean countries were much-needed outlet for Black artists to “Black life,” beginning with human represented in this cookbook, and cumula- showcase their talents, and to promote origins in Africa and continuing through tively they speak to the diversity of African history to Black Montrealers and life before the slave trade, the horrors of Montreal’s Black community. The intro- the rest of Quebec. the middle passage, Black life in the New duction stated that “the recipes in this Afro Festival was promoted under the World, and finally the Black Panther book reflect the experiences of the former banner of the Black Community Central movement in the 1960s. The piece used house slaves who dined on the master’s Administration of Quebec, an umbrella Shango drum rhythms to evoke a sense of leftovers and made them even more delec- organization that also included the NCC, African spiritualism. By choosing these table than the original main course.” Even 13 QUEBEC HERITAGE NEWS a cookbook, then, was an opportunity to By including subtle hints of Black history The Black Theatre Workshop Mon- evoke the historical injustices their com- in its events such as Pot Pourri, and more treal Flyer (Back side), 1975, Box munity faced. obvious ones by the Black Theatre Work- HA04149, Folder 40, Flyers Afro Afro Festival’s main coordinator, Jim shop, Afro Festival was a vehicle through Festival 1975. Ashby, explained why it was important to which the community could remember include these types of messages for Mon- where it fit within the North American Creative Black Arts Awards Regis- treal’s Black community: “The Afro-Festi- context. There were usually many events tration Form, 1975, Box HA04196, val program content is designed to encour- over several days, so Afro Festival Folder 32, Pot Pourri 1979. age ethno-cultural identity which is prone required considerable monetary and volun- to confusion and distortion because of the teer support, but without the participation Minutes from Meeting Afro Festival peculiar historical situation facing peoples of the Black community, it would not have Steering Committee, September of African descent in North America and been as successful throughout the 1970s. 12th, 1977, Box HA04196, Folder the Diaspora as a whole.” Ashby was di- Unfortunately, the slow and eventual 45, Afro Festival 1977. rectly implying that Blacks in North demise of the NCC in the late 1980s and America needed to have events such as early 1990s appears to have corresponded Cookbook first page, 1975, Box Afro Festival in order to remind them of to the end of Afro Festival. Today, there is HA04196, Folder 5, Afro Festival their unique heritage, and that their reality no event in the Black community that ’75. is diluted by North American culture. It is reaches out to all areas on the island – or evident that events such as Pot Pourri were none that holds the same deep significance Jim Ashby Correspondence, August crucial to the festival’s broader agenda. ingrained in the organization of Afro 1, 1977, Box HA04196, Folder 45, Afro Festival brought thousands of Festival. Afro Festival 1977. people from different parts of town togeth- er for a few nights in the summer to Sources: Clarence S. Bayne, 2004. "The Origins celebrate a culture and history that was The Negro Community Centre / Charles of Black Theatre in Montreal." Canadi- unified despite being internally diverse. H. Este Cultural Centre Fonds, F013, Spe- an Theatre Review, No. 118, 34-40. Culture was not only to be enjoyed but cial Collections, Concordia University also passed along to the next generation Library. and to the rest of the city. In this regard, Teejay Bhalla is a Concordia University the BCCAQ was successful in fostering a Afro-Festival 77 Pamphlet, 1977, Box History and Film Studies student. She sense of unity within a diverse community. HA04245, Folder 13, Afro Fest Leaflets was born and raised in Montreal.

Left: NCC After School Program, Concordia University Library, Right: Site of the NCC, 2017. Photo: Kelann Currie-Williams. NCC/Charles H. Este Cultural Centre Fonds, F013, HA04194, folder 67. 14 WINTER 2018

15 QUEBEC HERITAGE NEWS

W HAT HAPPENED TO THE NCC From the ashes of democracy : by Leslie Szabo a participatory artistic installation at the crossroads of history
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17 QUEBEC HERITAGE NEWS

18 WINTER 2018

AFRO-CAN The Local, Historical and Global Reach of a Community Newspaper by Sinéad O’Halloran

he Negro Community Centre’s erally wrote the book on African Cana- Can featured milestones within the com- achievements, local concerns dian history: Canada and Its People of munity: the birthday announcement and and broad political positions African Descent (1977). Bertley’s legacy life tribute “Annie Stucker Hurdles to were captured in its affiliated also extends to the Universal Negro Im- 100” (Vol.7, No.1, 1987) was only one newspaperT Afro-Can, published between provement Association (UNIA), of among hundreds of tender and intimate 1981 and 1994. Produced for the com- which he was an active member and messages of congratulations, support or munity by members of the community, firm advocate of Garveyism as a means appreciation. Afro-Can also continued the newspaper served both as a resource of empowering the international Black the long NCC tradition of Black empow- to reach outside the St. Antoine District community. Education, Black history erment through specialized services and and as an outlet for internal community and Garveyism were cornerstones of advice, as well as the exposure of racial dialogue. The founding editor of the pa- Bertley’s identity, and he was able to injustice in Montreal. Richard Lord, a per, Dr. Leo W. Bertley, was paramount bring these together in Afro-Can. respected community figure and advo- in developing the structure and cate for education and multicultur- objectives of Afro-Can: to reflect alism, wrote a regular immigration what mattered to the Black com- column featuring practical legal munity at large, the local, histori- advice for new immigrants, with cal and global components of the necessary paperwork included right Black experience. in the issue. Afro-Can was bold in Dr. Bertley was a dynamic its detection and denunciation of force, “very focused in trying to injustice in Montreal, preferring define himself and Black cul- not to wait for the city to act but ture,” which quite clearly became rather to call for immediate action. the underlying mission of Afro- The 1987 issue contained a politi- Can (Héroux). Born in Pointe-à- cal cartoon entitled “Help the Pierre, Trinidad, in 1934, Bertley police, beat yourself up!” accompa- had Black history instilled in him nying an article by Dwight Jenkins, by his parents, Constance and “Your Right and the Law,” Nicholson Bertley. “My parents outlining ways to deal with law ingrained my history in me, enforcement for people of colour in taught me its worth and impor- Montreal. tance,” Bertley once told a re- Afro-Can reasserted the Black porter. “It is inbred and I won’t experience in the Canadian histori- forget it.” He was a very strong cal narrative. This objective was of student his entire academic ca- the utmost importance to Dr. Bert- reer, which garnered him several ley, who in his lifetime “made a scholarships in primary and sec- significant contribution in raising ondary school; after relocating to the consciousness of the contribu- Montreal in 1954 he acquired tions of Black people in Quebec seven Post-Secondary degrees. and Canada” (Héroux) through his Bertley’s innate love for learning in- Afro-Can was created in 1981 as a books, as a founding member of the evitably lead him to a career of teaching, community resource with a further reach Quebec Board of Black Educators, and, which he naturally excelled at; col- than the NCC building itself. Deindustri- of course, with Afro-Can. The newspa- leagues and students remembered him as alization had resulted in the dispersal of per’s historical content educated its a revered, influential and passionate ed- the Black community beyond the St. An- readers about the largely overlooked ucator. For 36 years he worked as a pro- toine District, and so the NCC turned to achievements and struggles of African fessor and lecturer at McGill, Vermont, print as way to make connections, pub- Canadians, and provided commentary on and St. Lawrence universities and at lishing regular segments such as “Com- both the realities of historical white- Vanier College, teaching Afrocentric munity Calendar” and “Church News” washing in Canada and the significance History with a concentration on the in order to close the growing physical of remembering the truth. The cover of Black Canadian experience. Bertley lit- gaps between Black Montrealers. Afro- the February 1984 Black history month 19 Front page, Afro-Can, March 1987. Concordia University Library, Negro Community Centre / Charles H. Este Cultural Centre Fonds, F013. QUEBEC HERITAGE NEWS issue depicted dozens of prominent mo- Foreign Role Vital - Mandela” was an standard for just how far a community ments in Canadian Black history span- interview by reporter Larry Olmstead paper can reach. Afro-Can’s goal to ning hundreds of years – a means of with Winnie Mandela, who emphasized retell Black Canadian history has now straightforwardly asserting this history the need for maintaining international come full circle, acting as a physical into public space. Another striking piece pressure on the Apartheid regime. Afro- memory of the Montreal Black commu- on the historical Black presence in Can also called for activism over race nity from 1981 to 1994, and insuring Canada is “Nobody Knows Our relations in the United States, the Hait- through its permanent location in the Names,” in which author Gosnell I.O.R. ian dictatorships, and the development NCC archive that the stories it told will Yorke compares the oppressive practice of other African nations. Regular not be forgotten. of slaves being denied their own names columns connected the local community and African descendants symbolically with current events in other Black na- Sources: being denied the dignity of knowing tions, primarily in the Caribbean: The Negro Community Centre / Charles their own names, in terms of their own “World View” catered to the large West H. Este Cultural Centre Fonds, F013, histories. Indian immigrant population in Montre- Special Collections, Concordia Univer- Afro-Can’s world view was wide- al, fostering the Garveyite notion of the sity Library. ranging, tying together Bertley’s confraternity of Black people globally. Garveyism and Pan-Africanism with the Afro-Can continued publishing for a Afro-Can, June 1987, File 5, social justice and Black empowerment few years after the NCC closed its doors HA04262. promoted by the NCC. The newspaper’s in 1989, but was unable to remain finan- involvement in the betterment of the cially independent. The spirit of Afro- Bud Jones, Afro-Can, Vol.7, No.1, global Black community is clear not on- Can survived in a new publication, the 1987, File 32, HA413. ly from its published content, but also Afro-Canadian, and is still present in from its support for far-reaching issues. Montreal Community Contact, which Afro-Can, Vol.4 No.2, February The content enabled the local Black serves today’s Black community. As a 1984, File 2, HA4206 community to stay informed on matters pioneer publication, and as the media familiar to them, and to learn about is- arm of the NCC, Afro-Can asserted the Gosnell I.O.R. Yorke, “Nobody sues that were less familiar. For years, Black presence in the Canadian histori- Knows Our Names,” Afro-Can, Afro-Can devoted a page or more in cal narrative and forged solidarity with Vol.7, No.2, 1987, File 32, HA4131. every issue to the struggle against the global Black community. Through Apartheid, through both regular updates the ideological influence of Dr. Leo W. Larry Olmstead, “A Model Inter- on the situation within South Africa and Bertley and the nuanced explorations of venes: Foreign Role Vital – Man- insight into what needed to be done by the Black experience by all the writers dela,” Afro-Can, Vol.6, No.1, Febru- those outside. “A Model Intervenes: and editors involved, Afro-Can set the ary 1986, File 5, HA04262.

File 11: Flyers and Advertisements, HA4131.

Gilbert Héroux, “In Memoriam of Leo Withnol Bertley,” PresMen Interna- tional, http://www.prezmen.org/about- us.html (accessed March 23, 2017).

“Dr. Leo Bertley In Memoriam,” Black in Canada: The New Narrative, http://www.blackincanada.com/2011/03/ 26/leo-bertley/ (accessed March 23, 2017).

Dawn P. Williams, Who’s Who in Black Canada 2: Black Success and Black Ex- cellence in Canada: a Contemporary Directory (2006).

Sinéad O’Halloran is from Calgary, Alberta, and is currently a Concordia undergraduate double majoring in Hon- ours History and Irish Studies.

Boys playing basketball at the Negro Community Centre, 1981. Photo: Graeme 20 Clyke. Concordia University Library, Graeme Clyke Fonds, F027-02-126. WINTER 2018

TE H NCC’S YOUNG MOTHERS PROGRAM by Chloé Houde

he Young Mothers Program special program worker in charge of ations in the spring of 1986, at which was started in 1983 but ran expanding the teenage mothers program. time Leith Hamilton succeeded Sitahal more officially from 1985 to Rowe conducted extensive research with as NCC executive director. Hamilton 1987. The NCC recognized relevant organizations and institutions sent a program proposal to Centraide, Tthat many young, single Black mothers such as the YWCA, Elizabeth House, mentioning that the NCC had experi- were living in poverty with their chil- Head and Hands, various CLSCs and enced “recent problems” but it had since dren. The program offered support to hospitals, and a few high schools. These changed its board and mandate. Changes these young mothers with the goal of contacts enabled her to receive referrals included a focus on the Black family and helping them go back to school or pre- and have the appropriate experts and the NCC’s role as a community organi- pare for the job market, all the while en- specialists as references. zation in solidifying this structure. The couraging self-esteem and teaching them In March 1985, Dorothy I. Height, proposal to Centraide explained how the parenting and home management skills. president of the National Council of NCC implemented its new Family Sup- The program lasted a few short years, Negro Women, wrote an article for port Programs in order to help Black but it had a positive impact on the young Ebony magazine entitled “What Must be families at risk for violence, delinquen- mothers who participated. Done about Children Having Children.” cy, parent-child conflicts, sexual abuse, Teenage pregnancy rates in Canada Height focused on the importance of and other issues. declined from 1974 to 1986, but then be- Black family networks and their frag- The Young Mothers program was gan to increase. The increase started ear- mentation in recent decades because of renewed by Zoya Taylor, a social worker lier in Quebec, although Quebec re- urban life, Black unemployment, and and the new director of the Family Sup- mained a province with one of the low- economic depression. She argued that port Programs, with the help of social est teenage birth rates. Concern over this fragmentation led to increasing work students Colleen Blenman and teenage pregnancy mounted because numbers of Black teenage mothers liv- Theresa Boothe. The program’s new mothers were increasingly unmarried, ing in poverty and without support sys- goals included developing self-help ap- poor, and having to drop out of school. tems, and that Black community organi- proaches for the participants, supportive The rate of pregnant unmarried zations had to help reinforce family net- peer group networks, and a range of teenagers rose from 25% to 81% in the works in vulnerable communities. These services in cooperation with other com- twenty years between 1974 and 1994. concepts were very much incorporated munity agencies and social service or- The job market at that time started re- in the NCC’s Young Mothers Program. ganizations; it also provided counselling quiring higher levels of education, A few weeks after Height’s article to teenage mothers. Jeanne Rowe, the which meant that not finishing high appeared, NCC Director Lawrence Sita- program’s former coordinator, collabo- school had dire consequences for many hal wrote to Joe Berlettano, chair of the rated by contacting old members and teenage mothers, who often had to settle Youth Services Committee of the Rotary helping to recruit teen mothers. Recruit- for low-paying jobs or welfare assis- Club of Montreal, requesting a donation ment was also done through the distribu- tance. of $500 for equipment and supplies for tion of flyers, word-of-mouth, and con- In 1979, concerned organizations the new teenage mothers program, tact with relevant organizations that pro- such as the NCC, the CLSC Côte des which was offered free of charge to par- vided referrals. Neiges, and Ville Marie Social Services ticipants. Sitahal described teenage The first sessions of the new Young came together to discuss the rise of mothers in need as generally living Mothers program began in April 1986 teenage pregnancies in Montreal’s Black alone and isolated, separated from fami- with Group I, which consisted of 14 population, especially in Côte des ly, on social welfare benefits, inexperi- participants. Three volunteers provided Neiges. The increase was attributed to enced in parenting and home manage- childcare services during the meetings, ignorance about sex and its conse- ment skills, forced to drop out of school, which were once a week for 2 ½ hours. quences, limited sex education in high and ill prepared for jobs. He stated that Activities and discussions focused on schools, and a lack of information about 8 to 10 mothers had been attending the child development, parent-child rela- birth control. weekly meetings of the program, which tions, enhancing parenting skills, and An initial teen mothers program be- included counselling, home management self-help. One challenge arising from the gan in 1983 as a Canada Works Project training (budgeting, cooking, sewing), Group I sessions was that it was not focused on helping young mothers discussion sessions, lectures, exercise homogeneous; mothers came from vari- return to school. Recognizing the need activities, and career planning. ous areas and backgrounds and did not for this project to continue and expand, After a year of inactivity, the necessarily share the same concerns and the NCC appointed Jeanne Rowe as teenage mothers program resumed oper- needs for their children and themselves.

21 QUEBEC HERITAGE NEWS

Attendance was also an issue, as well as patients [sic] of the facilitator,” the way prepared in early 1987, Zoya Taylor the mothers’ isolation and low self- “all questions were answered complete- indicated that a $1,000 grant had been esteem that had not been addressed. ly,” “the form of the presentation,” and received from the Montreal Rotary Club The Group II sessions began in Sep- “the interaction between groups.” The and that a grant proposal had been sub- tember 1986. They spanned 12 weeks majority said they would recommend the mitted to Quebec’s Ministry of Cultural and had 18 participants, who met on Sat- program to others; the rest had not Communities and Immigration (MCCI) urdays from 1:00 to 3:00 p.m. This time, answered that question on the evaluation for $6,000. Soon after, the MCCI ap- participants were recruited from the form. ‘Graduate’ mothers also showed proved a grant of $4,500 for the Young NCC community, which made for a interest in being part of a Young Moth- Mothers Program. A calendar from July more homogeneous group; their children ers Advisory Committee and acting as 1987 notes that a “Teen Mothers Group” were at the same stage of development. mentor mothers for the next group. met on Fridays but only lasted for the Specialized workshops appealed to The Group III sessions, which took month. There is little or no mention of young mothers with topics including place between January and April 1987, the Young Mothers Program after this, child development, family planning and were held Fridays from 6-8 p.m. and had but other activities in the calendar con- birth control, budgeting on a limited in- 18 participants. Workshops added to this tinued until September 1987. Staff meet- come, nutritional needs of mothers and session discussed myths about child ings in July also made a few mentions of young children, and self-assertiveness development, alternative child discipline the program and the grants received. and self-esteem building. There was also techniques, the legalities surrounding At that time, part of the NCC’s an educational focus on future life goals, immigration, setting up cooperatives, exterior wall collapsed, forcing many transition to work, assertiveness train- and sexuality and relationships. Many of programs to relocate or cease entirely. ing, and health care. The “mentor these workshops and discussions were This event could explain the lack of sub- mothers / big sisters” initiative was also facilitated by “graduates” who had come sequent records for the Young Mothers implemented during these sessions; back as mentor mothers. Recruitment for Program, although like many other former participants attended later ses- this third instalment of the Young Moth- activities, it probably ceased after the sions as facilitators and mentors to new ers Program was conducted through collapse. young mothers. information workshops, the distribution On October 18, 1986, members of of flyers, telephone contact, home visits, Group II completed evaluation forms and mentor mothers from the former two Chloé Houde is an undergraduate about the Young Mothers Program. The groups performing outreach to new History student at Concordia University, evaluations were positive: mothers ap- young mothers. having previously studied Liberal Arts. preciated “the way we were allowed to After the Group III sessions, the She wants to pursue a career in the field speak out about subject,” “the warmth Young Mothers Program seems to have of museums and heritage. [sic] friendly atmosphere,” “the time and been less active. In her program budget

“T OWARDS A WORKING IDEOLOGY” Left-wing Thought within the NCC by Harris Frost

“Socialist” can be a loaded term, but to thirty feet away from the site of Montre- ing through the NCC’s archive made it discuss the international Black struggle al’s Negro Community Centre. Although feel more real than all the years I spent without addressing the contributions of I vaguely knew what it had once been, I living next to it. The archive trans- socialist thinkers and activists would tended just to think of it as a mysterious formed what had been, to me, a mere paint an incomplete picture. Angela boarded-up building. Shortly before its abstraction into a real and complex insti- Davis, C.L.R. James, Rosie Douglas and destruction, it was declared unsafe and tution: not a monolithic organization but many other prominent Black activists fenced off, making it seem almost like a one informed by several ideas, some of and scholars have denounced capitalism museum exhibit: right in front of you but them difficult to reconcile with others. as an integral part of the subjugation of inaccessible. Yet, the fence also seemed Differences within the NCC were Black people. It is therefore not surpris- to command more attention for the naturally far less pronounced when it ing that the Negro Community Centre NCC, giving it greater importance, even came to providing programs such as here in Montreal would be touched by though (or perhaps because) it summer camps, dancing lessons and this aspect of Black activism. announced that the centre’s days were sports, but when the NCC had to posi- For almost my whole life, I lived in numbered. Soon, the building that had tion itself within the larger socio-politi- the neighbourhood of Little Burgundy for so long been a mere echo of what it cal landscape, things were much less (traditionally known in the Black com- represented would itself slip away. A clear-cut. The goal of addressing the munity as the St. Antoine District), only few years later, the experience of look- needs of Montreal’s Black community

22 WINTER 2018 left room for many different interpreta- a five page manifesto of sorts that em- these views with its members. tions. What struck me the most was the phatically and eruditely advocates the In fact, the closest thing to a defini- infrequent but tangible presence of so- establishment of a secular “scientific so- tive statement on the part of the NCC re- cialist influence scattered throughout the cialist” society. The author describes garding socialism is a document entitled NCC’s archive. how the educational system and broader “Towards a Working Ideology,” which The most obvious and striking ex- capitalist society condition Black youth rejects established ideologies – “Black amples of this influence were the clip- to be fearful and passive. Although it Power, Nationalism, [and] Marxism” – pings from leftist publications such as cannot be proven that this document was as strong foundations on which to build The Militant, a long-running American written by a member of the NCC or even a community organization. It argues socialist newspaper, and Contrast, a a Montrealer, its presence in the archive these ideologies are too bogged down Toronto-based paper aimed at Black suggests, more strongly perhaps than by global, over-ambitious goals to Canadians that took a decidedly militant any other document, an ideological adequately serve communities on a stance on political issues, particularly openness to radical socialism. smaller scale. As an alternative to these then-recent events concerning Black civ- This is not to suggest that the NCC classical ideologies, the article proposes il rights. In addition to this external ma- had a hidden socialist agenda. After all, that community centres adopt “com- terial, the NCC’s own Afro-Can would the organization hesitated to present it- munology,” defined as a means of set- occasionally feature opinion pieces es- self as explicitly political, even within ting aside ideological disputes in order pousing socialism and criticizing capi- its own internal documents. Further- to unify and empower the community. talism. It is not difficult to imagine why more, because it is impossible to know Whether it is possible for an organi- the issues prioritized by these newspa- who within the NCC decided to include zation like the NCC to entirely dodge pers would be of interest to the NCC’s which documents in the archive, it the issue of ideology is debatable. Nev- membership, given its preoccupation would hardly be prudent to assume any- ertheless, the notion of “communology” with police discrimination, worker’s thing about the organization as a whole remains a helpful lens through which to rights, protesters’ rights, community-ori- based on these files. It is quite likely that understand the NCC’s presentation of it- ented projects, and grassroots activism. there was a group of vocal socialists self. In the wake of the Sir George The archive also includes anti-colo- within the NCC, but it is also possible Williams Affair, for instance, NCC lead- nial pamphlets and flyers speaking out that the organization simply shared some ers chose to express sympathy for the in favour of African libera- cause while emphasizing that tion. Once again, these were they did not endorse violence, produced by outside organiza- dissociating themselves tions such as the Third World somewhat from the politically Peoples' Anti-Imperialist contentious group of protest- Committee and the All- ers. This moderate stance African People’s Revolution- likely made it easier to focus ary Party. Many of these on the community’s material would specifically advocate needs by protecting the liberation from colonial rule NCC’s public image. and the creation of independ- What all these docu- ent socialist republics ments reveal is that the ideo- throughout Africa. It is worth logical core of the NCC was noting that there is consider- far more complex than one ably less socialist language in might expect. Too often we the abundance of literature ignore the finer details of his- condemning South African tory and remember only the apartheid. This phenomenon broad strokes. What archives is likely due to the compara- can do is illuminate these de- tively high international pro- tails and uncertainties and file of the South African help keep a place like the cause, meaning that political- NCC from slipping entirely ly moderate groups were into the past. more likely to dominate the movement than smaller fringe groups. Again, we see the overlap between the interests Harris Frost is a recent of the NCC and socialist or- graduate of Concordia ganizations. University's Communications Most intriguing is an program. This project repre- anonymous document entitled sented his first exposure to a “Capitalism and Social Life,” historical archive.

23 Ground floor & basement floor plan, NCC. Concordia University Library, NCC/Charles H. Este Cultural Centre Fonds, F013, HA0425, folder 31. QUEBEC HERITAGE NEWS

“C LIMBING UP THE MAPLE TREE” Black Poetic Activism in Montreal, 1970-1980 by Cassandra Marsillo

n early January 2017, almost fifty programs for members of all ages. Beyond a means for communication, boxes were placed in rows in a In other boxes, I found a typed book, language is a mechanism and tool Vanier Library study room. Heavy, “Puzzle,” unpublished and undated, by Ja- for control. imposing, silent, they sat along the cotte, and the creative writings of Rujeko desksI as we circled through, reading the Tasika and J. Ed Clarke. Although these In Montreal, French Canadians box listings, getting just a glimpse of instances of poetic activism are, in fact, were told to “speak white” – meaning what was stored inside. I quickly passed works of self-reflexive and even autobio- English. This correlation between over two boxes before I reached 4147. graphical “serious personal introspection,” Whiteness and English has serious im- Eyes scanning the box listing, they they consistently – and aggressively – con- plications. Rujeko Tasika’s “We Gots stopped at line 36: The Entity I AM, a fronted the larger issues faced by the To” confronts this by playing with the book of poetry. I continued on, curious African diaspora in Montreal and else- English language, deconstructing its about what the others could hold, but as where. Poetic activism, therefore, contin- grammar and syntax to create choppy, I ventured deeper into the rows, I found ued the work of the “group excesses” of but powerful phrases. The main verb myself looking back every few boxes, the 1960s, challenging the nostalgic idea “gots” is conjugated incorrectly, and making sure 4147 remained unclaimed. of a lost, 1960s activist culture. These words are missing endings or vowels. Prose, poetry and the poet have pow- poems responded to the changes facing the Tasika appropriates the English lan- er. Before even flipping through its forty NCC and Montreal’s Black community at guage to create a Black narrative told poems spanning over 73 loose-leaf, type- that time. The poets’ words challenge the through a Black voice. Jacotte’s bilin- written pages, The Entity I AM had exert- absence of narratives of slavery in gual, almost epic-like, poem is 35 pages ed its quiet power over me: I made my Canada’s national history and the sup- long and tells the story of searching for way back to 4147 quickly, eager to delve posed lack of African Canadian culture in belonging in the present and understand- in. Written by Jahleel Hilkiah Jubal in the Black North America. In short, they were ing of the past. Jacotte echoes Tasika’s 1980s, this unpublished book somehow not silent when “climbing up the maple call to arms: “We’ve got to keep going!” ended up in the hands of someone at the tree” (Jubal). It then shifts to the individual, comment- Negro Community Centre. At some point, Much like demonstrations, marches ing directly on language and asserting a someone went through each poem leaving and protests (which continued on into certain sense of collectivity and univer- traces: check marks, question marks, one the 1970s and 80s, as evidenced by no- sality – which is also seen quite often in or two words here and there. Writing about tices and bulletins in the archive), intro- Jubal’s poetry: freedom, spirituality, and identity, Jubal spection is merely a different tool in the confronted a society that continued to hold struggle. Poetic activism took up the I don’t speak black Black community members captive to so- cause. Artists began to understand the I don’t speak white cial, economic and political discrimina- power of language as a weapon. In an I speak black and white and… tion. essay on “slam poetry,” Gholnecsar Colours in kaleidoscope patterns “Serious personal introspection has Muhammad and Lee Gonzalez dug a I was born wrong colour replaced the group excesses of the past,” little deeper: Wherever I go right colour. declared school principal Alwyn Spence in a July 1977 speech to the Montreal Protes- Before slam and hip hop, communi- By claiming English as a Black lan- tant school board, “and I would like to ties that have been historically guage, this poetry fights back against the suggest that the present calm may be due marginalized were claiming and re- colonial implications of “speaking to the fact that we have been lulled into claiming the power of language in white.” passivity and even resignation by the pas- order to assert ownership over Through their poems, Jubal, Jacotte sage of time and events that separate us language as well as human rights… and Clarke also write the missing narra- from the 60s.” But Jubal's poems did not They spoke truth to power by tive of Black slavery in Canada. As with reflect a “present calm,” and nothing in the retaining their varied uses of language, the history we choose to write NCC archive boxes suggested passivity. language and learning the language can serve as a weapon, perpetuating vio- Well into the 1970s and 80s, the NCC con- of the oppressor. Understanding the lence with each story we choose to in- tinued to connect with various like-minded multi-functions of language enabled clude or exclude. Canada, unlike the organizations around the world, to show them to communicate through oral, United States, has the reputation of a pride in Garveyism, and to develop written, and performative practices. safe haven, propagated by the telling and

24 WINTER 2018 retelling of the story of the Underground lot on Coursol Street continue to tell? Railroad. Jacotte writes : Sources: “Puzzle” Je refuse de découdre, d’effacer, The Negro Community Centre / Charles d’oublier… H. Este Cultural Centre Fonds, F013, A rich collection of poetry and prose, remi- Je recouds, je repièce, je Special Collections, Concordia Univer- niscent of work from the 1950s Beat Gen- patchworke, sity Library. eration, working between the linguistic J’essaie désespérément… margins of English and French to effort- De recoller les morceaux Jacotte, “Puzzle” (no date), Box lessly comment on the racial divides pres- Du puzzle infini. HA04131, Folder 2. ent in the city of Montreal. Through the use of allegory and metaphor, the collec- Within Jacotte’s work, and the work of Jahleel Hilkiah Jubal, “My Way” in The tion deals with the moments of pain caused Clarke and Jubal, there is an adamant re- Entity I AM (~1980), Box HA04147, by rejection and the instances of rebirth fusal to forget the injustices of the past Folder 36. through exploration many Black Montreal- and to provide the pieces of the story ers have had to withstand throughout their that have been hidden away over time. Alwyn Spence (July 1977), “From lives. The anonymous author refers to As Black enslavement and liberation Dismay to Commitment” in Focus themself as ‘Jacotte’ and there is no exact struggles became “tropes” and UMOJA 20, Box HA04147, Folder 41. date associated with the work. Anonymity “metaphors” for the plight of French abounds. Canadians, it further negated the realities Lee Gonzalez and Gholnecsar Muham- —Kelann Currie-Williams and the histories many Black people mad, “Slam Poetry: An Artistic Resist- lived in Montreal, Quebec, and Canada. ance Toward Identity, Agency, and Ac- She laid herself across the beach Generally absent from the Canadian tivism,” Equity & Excellence in Educa- Her body historical and national narratives, minor- tion 49 (4), 2016, 444. Making a path to the sea ity groups often find themselves navigat- She had fallen… ing their hyphenated identities through But she stayed there more local dimensions. Community or- Cassandra Marsillo is an artist and And every one thought ganizations take on great responsibili- budding public historian. She is starting She was dead…” ties. These institutions, including the her Master’s in Public History at But slowly, millions Union United Church and the Negro Carleton University, after completing two Of buds started bursting all along Community Centre, have been social Bachelor degrees at Concordia Universi- Her body. hubs for Montreal’s Black community, ty, in Honours Public History and Studio Immortal Hydra providing everything from day-to-day Arts, with a minor in Italian. She looks Rooted in the sea, the sand, activities to political services for its forward to dedicating the next two years The forest and members. And what about these poems? to her oral history project on Italo-Cana- The sky. Jubal’s poetry book was the only dians in Montreal post World War II. one that had clear evidence of interac- tion. I was unable to find any informa- tion about him, other than that he pub- lished The Blatant Principles of Absolute Truth with Arawak Publishing House in 1980. This book was probably a collec- tion of short reflections, which he also included at the end of The Entity I AM, under the same title. The NCC still exist- ed at that point, although 1980 marked the end of its centralized administrative set-up. I also cannot know who engaged with his poems or how they made their way to the NCC. Jubal writes about the “solo-self,” and his concern for the bal- ance between personal and collective identity is evident throughout. The role of the individual, as active and implicat- ed, is crucial to the collective. But the collective is also embedded in the indi- vidual: the entity, I am. Like language and poetry, erasure can be violent. What other stories does the vacant

Site of the Negro Community Centre, 2017. Photo: Rod MacLeod. 25 QUEBEC HERITAGE NEWS

NWE PASTS, OLD FUTURES Reimaging the Narrative of Montreal’s Negro Community Centre by Kelann Currie-Williams

Strengthening a Community ate. Black Montrealers, because of their The NCC’s efforts to strengthen the from Within small population size in comparison to St. Antoine District and the Black com- White montrealers, were very visible, munities across Montreal came in the Blackness is ever-present. Across Mon- even hyper-visible. They were not sim- form of undoing the unvisibility of treal and throughout its history, Black- ply lost among the majority; their race Blackness, which was rife in the city. ness is, and was, and will always be made them easily identifiable. Thus, the However, becoming unvisible did not present. However, there are perpetual simply entail becoming more visible, but moments when Blackness is ignored, rather involved the active empowerment overlooked, and silenced or, perhaps of bodies that had been rendered unvisi- more accurately, obscured. These mo- ble to see themselves as worth perceiv- ments are as tragic as they are frequent, ing and to demand a new chapter in their but they need not be a constant reality. narrative. And so, along with instilling Indeed, they could be brought to a ideas of community and support in its much-needed end. members, the NCC sought to change From 1927 until its doors closed in their mentality and perception of self. 1989, the Negro Community Centre pro- Members needed to see themselves as vided social, cultural and educational business owners, scientists, church lead- programs to residents of the St. Antoine ers and writers, as well as in celebratory District (today usually referred to as Lit- events such as the Afro Can Culture Fes- tle Burgundy) and beyond in the form of tival, a day of festivities uniquely prais- festivals, conferences, tutoring programs ing and celebrating Montreal’s Afro- and financial support services. While the Canadian Culture. Photographs taken NCC was preoccupied above all with during the 1981 edition of the Festival providing immediate community support are clear examples of the NCC educat- for its members, it passionately sought ing its youth about their identity, but to empower Blacks to recognize their they also serve to dismantle the miscon- presence and identity as relevant, signif- ception that Blackness only exists out- icant and worthy of celebration. The side of Canada, beyond “Canadianess,” NCC archive reveals an organization de- separate from ideas of Canadian identity. termined to celebrate the presence, visi- bility, and identity of Black Canadians. The Negro Community Centre It is through the centre’s many endeav- and Empowering the Black ours to educate its members on the im- Canadian portance of their Blackness, and on the symbiotic relationship of Blackness to In 1978, the Black Community Work Canadianess, that the legacy and life of Group issued its “Final Report on the the archive continues to exist. Aspiration and Expectations of the Que- bec Community with Regard to Educa- The ‘Unvisible’ Black Canadian tion.” The group, consisting of NCC concept of the unvisible or of unvisibili- members, proposed a program to enrich Despite the overt racism that Black ty – a term I borrow from Ralph Ellison, the lives of Black students who faced Montrealers experienced in the many at- which has been expanded upon by Avery racial discrimination that posed serious tempts to render them “unvisible,” the Gordon and Katherine McKittrick – problems to their overall character for- NCC stood resolute in instilling ideas of does not explicitly mean that Blacks are mation. Under the heading “The self- community and support in its members, not visible or are invisible, but rather concept of Black student and the possi- and empowering their perception of self. that their visibility is ignored, looked ble implications for guidance counsel- My use of the word “unvisible” instead over, not deemed worth perceiving or lors,” the report noted that “if the social of “invisible” or “not visible” is deliber- acknowledging, regarded as irrelevant. image of an individual is debased, that

1st Annual Afro-Can Culture Fest, 1981. Concordia University Library, 26 NCC/Charles H. Este Cultural Centre Fonds, F013, HA04154, folder 34. WINTER 2018

individual will learn to accept himself and in living archives, both physical and from Ottawa. I never had the pleasure of through the devalued perception” and “if digital. I speak of the centre’s existence seeing the building. But its archives – its Black people must find means to effec- after seeing what can only be understood living archives – have provided me with tively raise their self-concept, ethnic as its absented-presence and invisible- the knowledge of the NCC’s endeavour identity is indubitably an important visibility. to educate and serve as a pillar of the element in this search.” community through a sort of afterlife. As In this manner, the NCC provided can be seen in the many articles generat- moments and spaces where the celebra- ed from the archive, it is clear that tion of Blackness, and specifically through the sharing of memories, stories, Blackness in Canada, could freely occur. and history with current generations, the Its presence throughout the neighbour- Negro Community Centre is at once hood, and especially its fixed presence at present, and at once visible. 2035 Coursol Street, did much to counter Black unvisibility. The NCC did Sources: not merely exist, but served to signify The Negro Community Centre / Charles spaces, affect spaces, act upon spaces, H. Este Cultural Centre Fonds, F013, claim spaces, and in many instances Special Collections, Concordia Univer- create spaces to highlight Black identity sity Library. and history, both physical and imagina- tive. The NCC affected the geography of Afro Can Culture Festival [1/4], 1981, the St. Antoine District, mapping that File 32 Afro Can Culture Festival, Box site onto the lives of residents; in turn, HA04154. lives, identities and memories were mapped onto that very space. The Black Community Work Group, Final report on the aspiration and ex- Living Archives pectations of the Quebec Black Com- munity with regard to education, 1978, The NCC archive is an indispensable en- File 20, Box HA04139. try point into the centre’s history, but it is not the only way one can see and experience the NCC’s continuing exis- tence. I speak of “existence” well aware Kelann Currie-Williams is an under- of the centre’s demolition in 2014. I graduate Communication and Media speak having seen the hole in which it Studies student in the Department of once rested and the rocks that were once Communication Studies at Concordia part of the building still, after three University. Her research interests years, positioned around the site at 2035 The NCC closed before I was born include Postcolonial and Diasporic me- Coursol Street. But this existence is one and, incidentally, its building was de- dia, Black Studies, Oral history, and that is fixed in memories, in photographs molished the year I moved to Montreal Performance studies.

Site of the Negro Community Centre, 2017. 27 Top, left and right: Kelann Currie-Williams. Bottom: Rod MacLeod. QUEBEC HERITAGE NEWS

R ETAIL, RELIGION AND RINKS Montreal at Christmas, 1865 by Robert N. Wilkins

n Christmas Day 1865, the tisement to appear in the regular daily Old Montreal. The historic structure that Montreal Gazette issued a Montreal Gazette did so on December 9, housed the firm still stands, although the special holiday supplement considerably later than it would these commerce is now long gone. for the enjoyment of its many days. The ad, for the James Morison Dry Unlike the times in which we live, faithfulO readers. This unique edition Goods Store on Notre Dame Street, ped- where the secular nature of the holiday provides a wealth of information about dled a variety of women’s dresses, all is front and centre, religion played a what the city was like at holiday time greatly marked down and disseminated major, if not the primary part, in 152 years ago. in the old British currency that Canada Yuletide festivities in the 1860s. Church- In the 1860s, Montreal was a colo- used at the time. No images whatsoever es abounded, with several new ones nial town of slightly more than 100,000 accompanied the rather modest and having just recently made an appearance people. Some were rich, while others, matter-of-fact announcement. on St. Catherine Street (today’s Christ- many others, were wretchedly poor. A profusion of items was also man- mas avenue of choice); two of them, Christmas was a short but welcome dis- ufactured locally. Savage & Lyman, one Christ Church Cathedral (1859) and the traction for most. of the town’s most reputable businesses Church of St. James the Apostle (1864), 1865 had not been a particu- survive to this day. Parenthetical- larly easy year for the burgeoning ly, the latter was erected on the municipality. Indeed, the Victori- southwest corner of the city’s an town was becoming notice- cricket field, necessitating the po- ably dirty, with household sitioning of a metallic grille over garbage and animal carcasses the edifice’s colourful stain glass littering numerous public places. window overlooking Bishop Youth crime was up, with the Street. Although this sports pitch wayward youngsters, many of disappeared at the turn of “tender years” (as was so often the twentieth century, the protec- reported), being sent off to the tive screen was only common jail to serve their time removed in September of 2003! in near proximity to hardened Two other ecclesiastical criminals. Boys were no longer structures were present on St. even permitted to play baseball in Catherine Street in 1865 but have city parks and other public places since disappeared: Erskine Pres- as the activity had been forbidden byterian Church (nearing com- by civic ordinance earlier that pletion in December of that year) same year. at Peel Street, and St. Jacques Christmas shopping was Church at St. Denis. Elements of more judicious in the 1860s for there of the 1850s and 1860s, promoted their the latter were incorporated into the Uni- was not the abundance of relatively in- famous merchandise in the 1865 Gazette versité du Québec à Montréal. expensive products to choose from that supplement. Silversmiths in the finest St. Catherine Street also featured a we are so familiar with today. Neither Canadian tradition, Savage & Lyman few other non-residential buildings of was there the widespread wealth and manufactured gold and silver watches, note. For instance, the Sisters of Provi- easy credit that we currently come fine jewellery, electro-plated ware, table dence nunnery stood at the corner of St. across. Furthermore, the disastrous cutlery, and marble mantle clocks. The Hubert Street, where for 120 years the American Civil War had ended earlier superior quality of their products was sisters served a soup lunch to the city’s that same year, but the United States such that the Gazette at one time volun- needy, which was particularly appreciat- economy was still struggling; as a result, teered that they were “the most convinc- ed at Christmas. The Protestant Orphan most imported Christmas goods to Mon- ing proof that Canada need not in future Asylum, where an extra effort was al- treal still came from Great Britain – import presentation sets from abroad.” ways made at Yuletide to bring a little although a profusion of items was also Their celebrated shop was located in the joy to the heartbreaking lives of the manufactured locally. “Cathedral Block,” diagonally opposite young ones, was found at the corner of In 1865, the first Christmas adver- Notre Dame Church in what is today Stanley Street in the town’s west end.

City Passenger Railway Company Sleigh in a Snow Storm. Canadian 28 Illustrated News, Vol. 1, No.1, March 19, 1870. Collections BAnQ. WINTER 2018

The Crystal Palace, inspired by the and the famous printer and publisher, every exertion has been made to make massive glass citadel erected in London John Lovell, resided at the corner of the entertainment one of the pleasantest for the Great Exhibition of 1851, stood Union Avenue, where The Bay is located of our Christmas festivities.” near University Street. As Montreal was today. As we know, McGee was at the time a garrison town, its own assassinated in 1868 and buried Crystal Palace was frequently used by in Notre-Dame-des-Neiges Cemetery the British military to stage seasonal following a funeral at St. Patrick’s productions. One such “Promenade Con- Church. Lovell, a devout Anglican, died cert” attracted some three thousand in 1893. The two were close friends. Montrealers to the site in 1865, just In 1865, after an unusually mild au- eleven days before Christmas. tumn, the weather became increasingly Whether located on St. Catherine cold and snowy as Christmas Day Street or elsewhere in the city, Montre- approached. For that reason, “Guil- al’s many churches were almost always bault’s Glaciarum” opened for skating full for Christmas services. In 1865, on the evening of December 20. Located however, this street (“an unpaved road, on St. Urbain Street, just north of Sher- on marshy ground with a stream running brooke, this site was a botanical and through it”) still had a mostly residential zoological garden during the summer vocation. Since 1861, a single track ran months. In the winter, however, it had a down its centre to facilitate the town’s very different vocation. “A gala night omnibus public transportation network, will take place at this popular rink on which, just before Christmas in 1865, Christmas evening, when the ice will be took the form of several horse drawn in fine condition, and a first-rate band sleighs running the length of the soon- will be in attendance,” reported the to-be famous road. Gazette two days before the big day. In December of that year, two And if that didn’t tickle the fancy of eminent Montrealers resided on the Victorian Montrealers, the Officers of street and were surely preparing for the the 30th Regiment were staging their period revelry in their own separate sec- much-anticipated Christmas play in their tarian ways. Thomas D’Arcy McGee, very own Sphinx Theatre in the Molson Robert N. Wilkins is a local historian then colonial Minister of Agriculture, Barracks in the city’s east end. “We un- and author of Montreal 1909 lived at the corner of Drummond Street, derstand,” pronounced the Gazette, “that (www.shorelinepress.ca).

TE H REBELLION THAT SUCCEEDED Part II: Bishop Ignace Bourget by Joseph Graham ne of the most influential was present, encouraging and expanding Catholic nature of his see, but he went well people in Canadian history is religious centres of education. He went to beyond that, encouraging the creation of a barely explored in the history Europe, spending time in France, which new see in Toronto and ultimately in Ot- books, and that would be just was undergoing a period of religious tawa, as well as the creation of the ecclesi- fineO by him. growth. His objective was recruitment and astical province of Quebec. Ignace Bourget had been Jean-Jacques he found new Sulpicians to come and join Before dismissing all of this as Lartigue’s right hand man since 1821. Lar- the order in Montreal, as well as Oblates, irrelevant religious history, we must con- tigue named him his successor as Bishop Jesuits, Sisters of the Society of the Sacred sider Bourget’s extreme anti-liberalism, the of Montreal four years before he died, in Heart of Jesus, and Sisters of Our Lady of political influence that the Church was 1840. Bourget would take Lartigue’s initia- Charity of the Good Shepherd. He also had cultivating, and Lartigue’s earlier opposi- tives to dizzying new levels, changing the occasion to impress the new pope, Pius IX, tion to the Patriote movement. The election fabric of Quebec society and the direction who would become the first pope to of Reformers in Canada East in the 1840s of history. endorse the notion of papal infallibility, and and the divisions encouraged between Both men were Ultramontane, believ- who would come to consider Bourget as them and the Parti Rouge, led by Jean- ers in the central power of the pope, but it the guiding spirit of the Canadian episco- Baptiste Étienne Dorion, reveal the was the young, energetic Bourget who took pate. Back home, he helped form the com- Church’s strategy. their ideas forward. His diocese ran from munities of the Sisters of the Holy Names To understand the role of the Church, James Bay to the American border, and of Jesus and Mary, the Sisters of Provi- we must recall that Catholics were depend- from Upper Canada to the boundary of the dence, the Sisters of Mercy and the Sisters ent upon its hospitals, primary and second- diocese of the Bishop of Quebec, and he of St. Anne. His objective was to ensure the ary schooling, and social services. The 29 Erskine Church, from the Montreal Gazette Illustrated Supplement, December 25, 1865. QUEBEC HERITAGE NEWS

Church was also responsible for the civil Lower and Upper Canada, LaFontaine with Robert Baldwin and the Reformers of registry of Catholics. These same files partnered with the Upper Canadian Reform Upper Canada, and they worked together account for roughly 75% of the total Party, and eventually won a majority in the throughout the 1840s to win a majority of budget of the Quebec government today. Assembly in 1848, obliging the governor the seats in Upper Canada, or Canada When the British Colonial Office left the to name him the first prime minister of the West, where the Reform spirit was choice of the new bishop to the Church, it Province of Canada. To achieve the support stronger. For his part, LaFontaine obliged was trusting in the traditional relationship he needed, he depended also on the the Church, and the Church delivered his that the two parties had formed since the Catholic Church, and in return, he accom- majority in Canada East. The Parti Rouge 1760s when France abandoned New modated it on issues that were strongly op- was married to the concept of secularism France. There was no reason to distrust the posed by the secular republican Dorion and and was officially opposed to the growing Catholic Church; it existed at the whim of the Parti Rouge. LaFontaine’s single-mind- influence of the Church, having hopelessly the King of England and looked after a ed objective of ministerial responsibility underestimated just how great that power colonial people who were not of British blinded him to the dangers of the growing had already become under the stewardship descent. It was unthinkable that it could in of Bishop Lartigue and his successor, any way threaten the Anglican Church in Bishop Bourget. Lower Canada and the British Colonial LaFontaine and Baldwin achieved Office had little patience for any other reli- their goal of creating our parliamentary gions. In fact, it was Louis-Joseph democracy but they were both exhausted Papineau, leading the Parti Canadien, who by 1849 and had no further vision of first stood up for the religious rights of the where to take this new society. Their last Jews. Before these two bishops, Lartigue great act, the Rebellion Losses Bill, led to and Bourget, the Catholic Church was a failed uprising from the British elite in answerable to the Colonial Office; after which the Parliament was burned. The 1836, it wasn’t – as we saw in the first part uprising served only to confirm that the of this series. power of the British elite no longer flowed Early in the 1830s, the Parti Canadien through the office of the governor, tem- became the Parti Patriote, and its leader, porarily side-lining their influence. While Louis-Joseph Papineau, was leading the Canada West was growing rapidly, Canada secular powers on a collision course with East was left in the hands of the Church, the Colonial Office. Their issues were sim- and it wasted no time. The next battle ilar to those of the American Patriots of just would be between the Church and its only two generations earlier, but while the remaining opposition, the liberal ideals of American Patriots managed to control their the Parti Rouge and the Institut Canadien. lower classes, the Lower Canadian The absurdity of what happened next ex- Patriotes had to compete with the Church plains the Grand Noirceur, that period of for support and control. Bishop Lartigue deep civic slumber from which Quebec (who was Papineau’s cousin, ironically) powers that the Church wielded, while a would only be awakened more than a cen- saw the Rebellion as a threat to the stability divided French Catholic secular elite tury later, by the Quiet Revolution. of the Church and an unnecessary risk. He played into the hands of Bishop Bourget’s publicly opposed the Rebellion and sent Roman Catholic priorities. Sources: letters to his priests instructing them to A more powerful force that Fernand Ippersiel, Les Cousins Ennemis, condemn it from the pulpit. LaFontaine perceived he had to beat was Montreal, 1990. After the failed rebellion, the real the English-speaking business elite in damage done to French Lower Canada was Quebec and Montreal whose interests were Thério, “Joseph Guibord, victime expia- that the secular elite had been sidelined and best served by supporting an appointed toire de l'Évêque Bourget,” L'institut no power remained to confront the newly governor who generally saw things through canadien et l'Affaire Guibord revisités, reformed Roman Catholic Church of Low- their eyes. They also had members running 2000. er Canada. The new French secular elite, for seats in the Assembly. They were not an led by Louis-Hippolyte LaFontaine, and organized party and their interests were not Dictionary of Canadian Biography. the new Church, explored their common necessarily the same as those of Canada needs into the 1840s, and largely found that West. the Reformers’ agenda did not conflict with The idea of political parties was differ- the Church’s priorities. Meanwhile, the re- ent from what it is today. They were a Joseph Graham, author of Naming the maining rebels promoted secularism and more casual union of people who agreed Laurentians, is writing a book that re- objected to the growing power of the on a few fundamentals but who could vote examines much of our early history, the Catholic Church; assuming that liberalism as they wished. There was no concept of a elements that drove European society, was inevitable, they headed for a second party whip, forcing party members to toe and the extraordinary damage these collision, this time with the Church itself. the line. ideas inflicted on North America. Burdened with the forced union of LaFontaine accepted a partnership The foregoing is an excerpt.

30 Bishop Ignace Bourget, 1862. McCord Museum, I-4562.0.1. WINTER 2018

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31 HISTORY FOR EVERYBODY

MONTREAL, CITY OF SECRETS Barry Sheehy with Photographer Cindy Wallace MONTREAL Confederate Operations in Montreal CITY OF SECRETS during the American Civil War CONFEDERATE OPERATIONS IN MONTREAL DURING THE AMERICAN CIVIL WAR Barry Sheehy

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RICHMOND RICHMOND, NOW & THEN Now & Then

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