June2l,2015 to Whom It May Concern at the Toronto Library Board

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June2l,2015 To Whom It May Concern at the Toronto Library Board: I understand that there is an effort to have the Scarborough Civic Library Branch after my father, Daniel Grafton Hill III. I am writing to support these efforts enthusiastically, and wholeheartedly. My father became a proud Canadian shortly after moving from the United States to Canada permanently, in 1953, with my mother. Toronto became their home, and a beloved adoptive city for both of them. He did his MA and PhD at the University of Toronto, and the subject of his 1960 doctoral dissertation was a groundbreaking work at the time, entitled Negroes in Toronto: A Sociological Study. My father went on to become the first Director and later the Chairperson of the Ontario Human Rights Commission, and then the Ombudsman of Ontario. In his spare time, he and my mother and friends founded the Ontario Black History Society. He did a significant amount of research into Black history in Toronto, Ontario and Canada and was the author of Canada’s first popular history of Blacks in Canada, entitled The Freedom Seekers: Blacks in Early Canada. My father and mother moved in Don Mills in 1961, and stayed there until my father died in 2003. He was deeply honored to have made Toronto his city and Canada his country, and proudly became a member of the Order of Ontario and the Order of Canada. I should mention that my father and mother also raised my brother Dan Hill, our late sister Karen Hill and me in Toronto, and that we all developed proud, active links to the city. I would be happy to answer any questions that you might have. Should you choose to name a library branch after Daniel G. Hill, I would be delighted to give a reading and talk in it at a mutually convenient time, and to describe the life and times of my father, Daniel G. Hill III, 1923- 2003. Sincerely, Lawrence Hill [email protected] www.lawrencehill.com 154 Dalewood Crescent Hamilton ON L8S 4B8.

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