Threatened Homes: Africville

a sketch of Richard Preston. A former slave, Preston came to Nova Scotia as a young man, where he began his religious career under Pastor John Burton in Halifax. After being ordained in 1832, he would become notable in his efforts founding several Baptist Churches across Nova Scotia, Including the Campbell Road Baptist Church of the recently founded Africville. Preston died in Halifax in 1861.

A photograph from 1958 showing children in Africville. Despite the hardships facing their home as a result of the inaction or nefarious action of the Halifax municipal Government, these children were able to appreciate their home.

This newspaper, published on september 13th, 1963, headlines that an expert had been called to handle what is referred to as the "Africville Issue." While Africville had survived as a community for 80 years as of the publiction of this text, it had face discrimination and poverty, as Halifax refused them services such as water, sewage, and garbage, despite the petitions of residents for this to change. Eventually, the Halifax Government did come to a desicion, and called a Professor from the University of Toronto in order to study the problem of rehousing the 80 families following a complaint about poor housing by the Halifax Advisory Comitee for Human Rights. this relocation was done under the guise of these human rights, with the argument that the former residents of Africville would have improved standards of living elsewhere. Thus, in 1964, the destruction of Africville was ordered, without any input from the residents of the community.