Black activist was Canada’s Rosa Parks
Pivotal figure in struggle to create nation’s first anti-discrimination laws
Canadian civil rights leader and trade unionist Bromley Armstrong has died, according to the Urban Alliance on Race Relations, an organization he helped found. Armstrong, who was named to the Order of Canada in 1994, is considered a pivotal figure in the campaign for the nation’s first anti-discrimination laws. He was 92.
“Bromley Armstrong’s work was trailblazing and courageous, and the legacy he leaves in Ontario and across our country is exceptional,” Prime Minister Justin Trudeau wrote in a tweet on Thursday.
Born in Kingston, Jamaica, on Feb. 9, 1926, Armstrong moved to Canada in 1947 at age 19.
He began his working career as the first Black welder at Massey-Harris in Toronto.
“‘We’ve never hired a Black welder,’ ” Armstrong recalled, in an interview with the Star in 1992, his employer saying. “I decided I was going to be the first Black welder.”
As a member of the worker’s union, Armstrong joined other activists in “testing” discrimi- nation by landlords, restaurants and clubs, often in sting operations involving pairs of people posing as customers, one couple white, the other Black.
Armstrong’s gained widespread notoriety for challenging segregation in Dresden, Ont., in the early 1950s. The town, located at the end of the Underground Railroad, was the last stop for people escaping enslavement in the United States. By the mid 20th century, the population of Dresden was 20 per cent Black, but many shop and restaurant owners still refused to serve non-white customers.
In 1954, Armstrong joined other activists and labour leaders at “sit-ins” to test whether those business owners and landlords would comply with a new anti-discrimination law meant to compel business to serve everyone, regardless of race.
“We sat there, and nobody would pay any attention to us and the waitress didn’t come over,” Armstrong recalled in a 2008 story in the Star.
As Armstrong told the story, a restaurant owner, Morley McKay, was in the kitchen “at a chopping block with a meat cleaver in his hand.”
“The more I talked to him, the faster the cleaver was going. And I said, ‘You know, I’ve come all the way from Toronto, and I’m thirsty and hungry.’ ”
He wasn’t served, and McKay became one of the first Canadians to be found guilty under the new law.
“It’s a Rosa Parks story in Canada,” said Nigel Barriffe, president of the Urban Alliance on Race Relations. “I can’t even imagine being this young Black man going into a hostile city, sitting at a restaurant where he knows they’re not going to serve them and saying, ‘I want to order food,’ knowing that conflict was going to happen.”
“He put his body on the front line,” Barriffe said. Armstrong would go on to found the Urban Alliance for Race Relations, alongside other concerned community leaders, in 1975 as a response to racialized violence in Toronto.
He is also responsible for the formation of the Jamaican Canadian Association, the Black Business and Professional Association, and the National Council of Jamaicans and Supportive Organizations.
Audi Dharmalingam recalled Armstrong’s commitment to equity for all races: “People can call him at any time, and he was willing to participate … if you look at anything that happened in Toronto in the 60s and 70s, he had a role to play.
“He was able to reach out to almost all communities,” Dharmalingam said. “He was comfortable with all of them.”
“Even after his health failed, he’d still come to meetings when he was invited … We’re going to miss him,” said Dharmalingam.
In 1954, Armstrong led a delegation to Ottawa, challenging federal immigration protocols that discriminated heavily against people of colour.
In 1994, Armstrong was made a member of the Order of Canada. He was also recognized with the Order of Distinction in Jamaica, and the Order of Ontario. He was also recognized as an Honourary Doctor of Law at York University.
Armstrong remained a tireless advocate of worker’s rights throughout his life. He was labour leader for United Auto Workers Local 439.
He is survived by his wife Marlene, to whom he was married for 47 years. He was father to eight children and a grandfather to 18 grandchildren.
Avisitation for Armstrong will be held on Aug. 28 at McEachnie Funeral Home in Ajax, from 4 to 8 p.m.