Browse Items (687 total)

Jean Rix, Pearl Clunes, Aldith Farrar-Karram, Joan Cooke, and Catherine Dean are all nurses from the West Indies that studied at the St. Michael's Hospital in the 1950s. Jean Rix became the second Black nursing student to graduate St. Michael's…

In his memoir, 'My Name’s Not George,' former porter and activist Stanley G. Grizzle gives his account of his time as a sleeping car porter and of the history of the Brotherhood of Sleeping Car Porters (BSCP). For years, Black employees couldn’t…

Photograph taken in 1956 of the Labour Day Parade in Toronto. It was highly important for the Brotherhood of Sleeping Car Porters to make an appearance at community advocacy events like the Labour Day Parade. It showed not only their dedication to…

Many Black families were pushed from their homes because of discrimination, limited schooling, and unstable jobs, creating a need to move somewhere with real economic security. Montreal became that destination because the railroad industry offered…

As Black families arrived in Montreal seeking stability they had been denied elsewhere, the city’s developing community networks became an additional pull factor. Evelyn Braxton’s memories of the Ladies’ Auxiliary hosting cultural gatherings,…

The pull toward opportunity grew even stronger through the work described by Velma Iris Coward King, whose efforts within the Ladies’ Auxiliary, (organizing plays, coordinating fundraisers, and raising money for scholarships), made Montreal…

In 1987, Stanley Grizzle interviewed several former sleeping car porters, one of whom was Frank Collins. Frank Collins worked for the Canadian Pacific Railway (CPR) in Vancouver. He was born in Vancouver on August 11, 1915, and became a sleeping car…

This is a chart taken from Statistics Canada, that indicates the foreign-born population (immigrants living in Canada) in Canada. As one could see from the chart, immigration generally increased, but for the purposes of this tab, the Caribbean…

A photograph of Makeda Silvera, the founder of the Sister Vision Press along with Stephanie Martin. Silvera emigrated to Canada from Jamaica at the age of 12, and became a novelist, short story writer, activist, and more. Her writing and activism…

A black and white class photo outside of a residential school, co-ed, with matching uniforms and staff.