Chapter Three
The Organization of Emancipation Day Festivities
I have a dream, I gotta find my way.
My dream is to be free.
— “I Have a Dream,” Common, featuring Will.I.Am,
Freedom Writers Soundtrack, 2006
Emancipation Day celebrations in Canada attracted hundreds and thousands of people each year, requiring extensive preparations to ensure a smooth-running event. Planning began months in advance, and planning committees were formed to organize the Emancipation Day programme. These committee groups consisted of men and women of different social, educational, and economic backgrounds, including teachers, church ministers, lawyers, small business owners, and blue collar workers: “A committee of the coloured population had been long formed to carry their plans into execution and to invite delegates from various settlements to join their procession, and partake of the bountiful fare which they had provided.”[1] Early Emancipation Day committee members included Voice of the Fugitive founder Henry Bibb and Reverend Josiah Henson, co-founder of the Dawn Settlement for fugitive slaves.
Emancipation Day commemorative events were major celebrations, usually running from one to four days in length, and they drew a huge number of people from all facets of society. This was an exciting period for Black Canadians as friends and family came together to express their solidarity.
August First events were organized by African-Canadian cultural and social institutions. Churches, including the British Methodist Episcopal (BME), African Methodist Episcopal (AME), Baptist, Anglican, and Presbyterian churches, sponsored commemorations. Temperance societies — groups that spoke out against the excessive drinking of alcohol, like the Hawkesville and Windsor temperance societies — arranged observances as well. Another group, the Toronto Abolition Society (also known as the British-American Anti-Slavery Society), formed in 1833, was an anti-slavery organization established by Black Torontonians, and they planned Emancipation Day celebrations in Toronto in the 1830s and 1840s.
In Windsor the British American Association of Colored Brothers (BAACB) was responsible for the massive celebrations in that city from 1931 to 1967. Aside from making Emancipation Day “the greatest freedom show on earth,” another objective of the BAACB was to challenge discrimination in all its forms. Another group, the London-based Canadian League for the Advancement of Coloured People (CLACP), was created by James F. Jenkins, owner of the London Black newspaper the Dawn of Tomorrow, and a man named J. W. Montgomery, of Toronto. The organization focused on fighting racial discrimination and anti-Black sentiment in various facets of society. They also worked to foster unity between Black cultural institutions in Canada. During the 1930s, CLACP conducted annual excursions to Springbank Park in London to celebrate Emancipation Day.
In Jamaica, on August 1, 1914, Jamaican Marcus Mosiah Garvey founded the Universal Negro Improvement Association (UNIA), an international organization for people of African descent. The Toronto chapter sponsored the “Big Picnic” in St. Catharines from the 1920s to the1950s, and the chapter in Montreal also organized a yearly Emancipation Day picnic in the 1920s and 1930s. The Toronto Emancipation Committee, under the leadership of Donald Moore, hosted Emancipation Day commemorations in the 1950s and 1960s.
Robert Dunn (front, centre), Grand Master, with fellow members of the Freeman Lodge, the Windsor chapter of the Grand United Order of Oddfellows, at Wigle Park in Windsor, Ontario, in 1922.
Courtesy of the E. Andrea Shreve Moore Collection, Essex County Black Historical Research Society.
Planning for Success
The committee of management — also called the planning committee, the committee of arrangements, or the organizing committee — was very important for the success of the numerous events. What community festival have you attended recently? The CHIN Picnic at the Exhibition Grounds in Toronto? The Beaches International Jazz Festival in Toronto? What kinds of games, activities, and performers were there? Just like the local festivals we go to today, there was a lot to do to prepare for the arrival of large crowds and to make the event a memorable occasion for visitors.
Masonic lodges are societies of freemasons, fraternal organizations that provide an opportunity for men to enjoy the company of friends, improve themselves, and help others through charity. Some African-Canadian lodges involved in the planning of Emancipation Day festivities include the Damascus Commandery #4 and the Lincoln Lodge #8, both in Amherstburg; the Peter Ogden Lodge No. 812, in Toronto; and the Mount Brydges Lodge No. 1865 of Hamilton. Recently, Black heritage sites like the North American Black Historical Museum, Griffin House at the Fieldcote Memorial Park and Museum, and Uncle Tom’s Cabin Historic Site have undertaken the task of reviving Emancipation Day celebrations.
By providing much-needed support systems, these associations and many others like them played a vital role in the lives of African Canadians. Today, African-Canadian heritage sites focus on preserving the memory of Blacks’ contributions to Canada, and celebrating this significant milestone in the history of people of African ancestry is a natural part of their efforts to uplift the spirit of the community and educate the masses.
The scheduling of the location, date, and time of celebrations had to be done months in advance, and sometimes a particular theme was selected for that year. In order to use streets for parades or public buildings for certain activities, organizers had to apply for permits from city governments. To appeal to as many people as possible, a variety of entertainers, bands, and speakers were hired. Then, venues like parks for picnics, halls for parties, and dances for after the day programmes came to an end had to be booked.
Imagine having to ensure that there was enough food to feed 10,000 people in one day! The organizing committees coordinated the preparation of literally tons of food for huge groups of festival goers. They also had to make plans for the transportation of both local guests and out-of-town tourists. Today, celebrants can use public transit, drive a car, or if they are coming from the United States, can take an airplane. Contemporary events also offer free shuttle service. However, in the nineteenth-century, planning committees organized ticket deals with railway, ferry, and coach companies such as the Grand Truck Railway and the Dalhousie Navigation Company for people without their own means of travel.
Large-scale festivals sometimes arranged accommodations with hotels and inns for visitors staying overnight, but it was common at one time for local homes to offer lodging for guests. Well into the 1960s, Emancipation Day planners would liaison with restaurants and hotels — those who would accept Black patrons — in order to ensure proper accommodations.[2]
Railway companies such as the Great Western Railway and the Canadian Pacific Railway offered special rates to travellers attending Emancipation day celebrations.
The Windsor Evening Record, July 31, 1894.
Spotlight on ...
In 2011 Blaine Courtney became the chair of the Owen Sound Emancipation Day Festival Board. He was born and raised in Owen Sound. His family have been in Canada for four generations, and his great-grandfather, a runaway slave from the Courtney plantation in the Carolinas, made his way to freedom by means of the Underground Railroad.
Another important aspect of planning festivals was providing a wide range of appealing activities for participants of all ages and tastes. It was customary to extend invitations to special guests, such as politicians, celebrities, community leaders, and other dignitaries from near and abroad — their presence added more to the occasion.
While ticket sales were the biggest way organizers made money to cover the costs of running the festival, attendees were also able to pay admission at the door. In 1962 an advance ticket to Windsor’s Emancipation Day celebration at Jackson Park cost $1.00, and the gate admission was $1.50!
Spotlight on ...
Walter Perry, “Mr. Emancipation,” was born in Chatham in 1899. He was the great-grandson of fugitive slaves. Walter grew up in Windsor.
The president or chairman, the head of the planning committee, made sure the committees worked as a team and completed their assigned tasks. Past presidents include Reverend D. J. Hulbert of the First Baptist Church, in Amherstburg in 1928; Walter Perry of the British America Association of Colored Brothers (BAACB), in Windsor from 1931 to 1967; and Dennis Scott of the Emancipation Festival in Owen Sound, from 2000 to 2010. Scott describes “the pride in following in the footsteps of community leaders” as immeasurable. The vice-president or vice-chairman assisted the president and filled in for the president during their absence.
The secretary of the committee recorded the minutes (a record of discussions and decisions of meetings) and handled all correspondence with potential guests, involved companies, and city departments. James B. Hollinsworth was the secretary for the 1857 Dresden committee, Phillip Smith was the secretary for the 1892 Toronto committee, and Winifred Shreve was secretary of the BAACB’s Emancipation Day Committee through the 1950s and 1960s.
Walter Perry was affectionately called “Mr. Emancipation.”
Courtesy of the E. Andrea Shreve Moore Collection, Essex County Black Historical Research Society.
The secretary had to be able to read and write, which was uncommon in the years before the abolition of American slavery — in many southern states, it was against the law to teach slaves to read and write. Some Whites who supported slavery believed that this would prevent Blacks from learning about race equality and the arguments against slavery. Furthermore, slave owners thought an education was not necessary for a slave to work in the fields or in the slave master’s house. Still, some slaves learned to read, write, and do math in secret; they were taught by other slaves, free Blacks, or liberal-minded Whites. Free Blacks living in northern states were able to go to school and learn.
Financial matters related to organizing Emancipation Day could be very demanding. The treasurer kept track of all the money brought in. At times, donations were collected for specific causes connected to the Black community, such as social programs for young people. As the celebrations grew in size, new financial concerns had to be addressed, like providing parking spaces for visitors or compensating speakers, marching bands, and other performers for their time and travel. Sometimes, fees were charged for using city-run parks: festivals hosted on city property had to be insured in case of accidents or damage, and paid duty police officers had to be hired to patrol public locations. Another way to obtain funding was to solicit local businesses to purchase advertisement spots in programme booklets, including the ones published inside Progress magazine in Windsor.
Winifred Shreve (second from left) was active in numerous areas of Windsor’s Black community. Her efforts of preserving African-Canadian history have continued on through her daughter, E. Andrea Shreve Moore, and granddaughter, Irene Moore Davis, president of the Essex County Black Historical Research Society.
Courtesy of the E. Andrea Shreve Moore Collection, Essex County Black Historical Research Society.
As the treasurer in the 1960s, Alice Anna Allen prepared financial reports at the end of the yearly celebrations. She noted, “It is expected that the receipts will well meet the disbursements when all collections are in.”[3] In other words, organizers were expected to collect enough money to pay for the expenses.
Subcommittees were formed to cover various aspects of the organization of Emancipation Day. For example, the program subcommittee assisted planning the program of activities. Fundraising Committees were created to raise money that would help the development of the Black community throughout the year. In 1851 money was raised for building the Sandwich First Baptist Church. In 1869 a club from Detroit proposed that a concert be held in Chatham on August First, with the proceeds to go to the Nazrey Institute, a school organized by Reverends Willis Nazrey, Richard Randolph Disney, and Walter Hawkins that same year. The school educated over sixty students and had six teachers.[4] Money was also raised for scholarships to assist students who wished to attend high school or specialized programs — before the late nineteenth century, secondary education was not part of the public school system and was typically paid for by parents. Higher levels of education were important for Blacks, both for individual success and the progress of the Black community as a whole.
In 1891 in St. Catharines, fundraising proceeds went to aid the BME church Salem Chapel. The profits of the evening programme in Chatham in 1871 went to the Widow and Orphan’s Fund of the St. John’s Lodge No. 9 in Chatham. In 1935 the Emancipation Day picnic was a fundraiser for the church and school building in Wallenstein in the Queen’s Bush area, which was located southwest of Lake Huron and included parts of present-day Wellington County and Waterloo County, as well as Dufferin, Grey, and Bruce Counties. These funds were also used to help with the daily operations of the various institutions that were of great benefit to community members. In those days, there were no government grants like there are today to support running community programs. Organizations and individuals had to be creative in coming up with ways to raise money to maintain their survival.
Womens’ committees were regularly formed to unite African-Canadian women to address their concerns and needs. They were also an excellent platform to showcase the work Black women were doing in the community. In Sandwich in 1851, Mary Bibb — wife of newspaper founder and abolitionist Henry Bibb — and other women, including Jane Hawkins, Sophia East, Winnie Hoover, Lucretia Brown, Eliza Brent, as well as the wives of Henry Turner and Robert Ward, prepared dinner and refreshments for sale in support of the building fund for the Sandwich First Baptist Church.
In particular, there was strong female involvement in the planning of Emancipation Day celebration in Windsor in 1954. The Hour-A-Day Study Club and the BAACB invited African-American civil rights activist Mary McLeod Bethune and former first lady Eleanor Roosevelt as guest speakers. Both women were very accomplished and active in improving the social conditions of people around the world. Mary McLeod Bethune was the founder and president of Bethune-Cookman College in Daytona Beach, Florida. She was also one of the advisors to President Franklin Delano Roosevelt on the “Black Cabinet.” This group was formed to advise the president’s administration on the concerns of African Americans. For her part, Eleanor Roosevelt travelled around the world advocating for human rights and encouraging the public to become active in making the world a better place.
This was the first time in the history of the commemoration of Emancipation Day that women were part of the lineup of key speakers. In 1958 International Women’s Day was held as part of the Emancipation Day celebration in Windsor, organized by the female members of the planning committee who were also members of the Hour-A-Day Study Club. The all-women’s program included guest speaker Irene Gaines of Chicago, president of the International Association of Colored Women’s Clubs of America. Also involved were the Michigan Women’s Choral Ensemble and Windsor soprano-singer Hazel Solomon. African-Canadian women have always played key roles in organizing the annual freedom festival. Their involvement was important to the success of August First.
Another Emancipation Day standing committee was the games committee. Selected committee members organized all of the athletic and sporting activities held at public parks. They selected a range of traditional picnic games like sack and three-legged races, along with other competitive and fun games that would appeal to participants young and old.
On the day of the event, the president of the management committee or an elected chairman of the day called the assembly to order, greeted the audience, proclaimed the meeting legally assembled, opened the exercises for the day, introduced the speakers, reminded people to conduct themselves with respect, and stated the reason for the gathering. The African-Canadian men who held this position were highly respected and committed to the success of the Black community.
Chairmen of Emancipation Day Celebrations
Dr. Daniel Pierson officiated Emancipation Day in Amherstburg for about seven years between 1884 to 1893. A practising physician in Amherstburg, he learned medicine while enslaved in the state of Kentucky.[5]
Delos Rogest Davis, a lawyer, was the master of ceremonies in Amherstburg in 1894. In 1885 this son of a former slave had become the second Black lawyer in Canada.
William H. Bazie, AME pastor, was chairman of the day in Chatham, both in 1889 and 1899.
Thomas Smallwood was president of the day at Toronto’s twentieth anniversary of Emancipation Day, in 1854. He was a freedom seeker. Thomas operated a saw factory, and he wrote his autobiography, A Narrative of Thomas Smallwood (Coloured Man), in 1851. It was the first slave narrative to be written and published in Canada.
George Morton presided over the day’s exercises in Hamilton in 1884. George was born in Hamilton and delivered mail for thirty-six years after leaving his job as a barber. He was active in several Black organizations in his community, including the Brotherly Union Society and the Mount Brydges Lodge No. 1865.
Bertrand Joseph Spencer Pitt was a Toronto lawyer who managed the “Big Picnic” in St. Catharines from 1924 to 1951.
All of these men and other chairmen throughout the years of Emancipation Day celebrations shared similar qualities. They were outspoken, resilient, and industrious — characteristics that exemplify great leaders.
Henry Weaver. A park located across the street from the site of his grocery store on Duke Street was dedicated in honour of Henry Weaver’s contributions to Chatham.
Courtesy of the Chatham-Kent Museum. 1999-52-11.
Lois Green, a lively community elder, helped in the organization of Emancipation Day festivals in Owen Sound since the 1930s and continued well into the 1990s. She was involved in different aspects of preparation, from the early planning to the set-up the day of the picnic. She said, “Planning was part of our everyday life, not just at the time of the picnic. It was about our families, the children, the community, and all the visitors and relatives who came from the United States and different parts in Canada.” Lois has attended every year and looks forward to attending many more.
Emancipation Day committee members were and continue to be skilled, dedicated volunteers representing a cross-section of African-Canadian society. Time and time again, they demonstrate their ability to organize parades, volunteers, and ensure successful celebrations.
