A LESSON TO BE LEARNED BY ALL OF US IN HUGH BURNETT’S EPIC STRUGGLE
Tuesday, August 31, 2010
For the last two weeks we have been looking at the fascinating book by John Cooper entitled SEASON OF RAGE – Hugh Burnett and the Struggle for Civil Rights. It outlines very clearly the struggle by blacks in Dresden, Ontario during the 1950s to get a haircut at their barbershop of choice, to be served in local restaurants and generally be treated as equal citizens.
This week in our last segment we are taken back in time to June of 1954 and although the Province of Ontario had passed the Fair Accommodation Practices Act it was having very little impact upon two restaurants in Dresden. Kay’s Café (owned by Morley McKay) and Emerson’s Soda Bar Restaurant (owned by Matthew and Anne Emerson) as well as Ford’s Barber Shop (owned by James Ford) defied the law and maintained that they had the right to serve only those patrons that they chose to serve.
By this time in 1954 the Toronto newspapers had gotten highly involved in the story and began a campaign of hard-hitting, emotional articles about the situation in Dresden and expressed their absolute disbelief that there were still small towns in Ontario, such as Dresden in the 1950s, that were still centers for racial hatred.
One reporter by the name of Gordon Donaldson (a white man) who wrote for the Toronto Telegram was determined to expose the discrimination occurring in Dresden by writing a series of hard-hitting articles until the issue was resolved.
To this end Donaldson ran a photo of a Chatham mailman (Richard Henderson), his wife and two children being refused service at Kay’s Café with the caption, “We sat there and were ignored”.
Later in the month two African-Canadian couples ( the Shadds and the Robbins) once again attempted to be served at Kay’s Café and were refused service and told to go to Martin’s Dairy Bar (an establishment that always served blacks).
Not one member of the white community who were in the restaurant on those nights put up any type of protest. They simply watched. Local officials (police, Crown attorney) were somewhat sympathetic but did little to help. They too in their own way simply watched. It conjures up in my mind the quote often used by the late President Kennedy that “…the hottest places in hell are reserved for those who remain neutral in a time of crisis”.
After several more “test cases” in Kay’s Café, Emerson’s Soda Bar and Ford’s Barber Shop and much agitation by Donaldson and other Toronto reporters there was eight complaints filed with the Ontario government under the Fair Accommodation Practices Act and a hearing was called.
The hearing took place in September 1954 with Judge William F. Schwenger presiding. After hearing all of the evidence Schwenger strongly recommended to the government that Morley McKay should be sent to trial for breaking the law. The Labour Ministry under Labour Minister Charles Daley chose to ignore Schwenger’s recommendation and they too did nothing.
Sid Blum, members of the NUA, Toronto activist Bromley Armstrong ( United Auto Workers) visited Kay’s Café three more times and each time the blacks in the group were once again refused service.
Also coming to the aid of the blacks denied human equality in Dresden was a young girl of Chinese descent who had recently graduated from the University of Toronto and had been throughout her young life a strong supporter of civil rights. Ruth Lor joined forces with Burnett, the NUA, Armstrong, Blum and others and eventually managed to get Morley McKay as well as the Emersons to court for their consistent and adamant refusal to serve black patrons.
On December 8th, 1954 in Chatham, Ontario the trial began and on January 14th, 1955 McKay and the Emersons were found guilty and charged $50.00 plus court costs.
Unbelievably it took more legal arguments and further refusal of service by Morley McKay before the court came down hard on McKay and he was even forced to relent and allow all people regardless of race or color to eat in his restaurant. November 16th, 1955 was the date when a group of blacks came to Kay’s Café and were served for the first time. On the surface, at least, the” Season of Rage” had ended.
What happened to Hugh Burnett? Unfortunately he fell on some hard times for many in the town turned on him. He lost jobs and as his friend Bromley Armstrong stated “… (Burnett) couldn’t get a job. He was a carpenter, they would not give him any work and they did everything to destroy him till he died.”
By 1957 Hugh Burnett had moved to London, Ontario in search of work. He died in 1991 and at that time he returned to Dresden to be buried in a plot he shares with his parents in the Dresden Cemetery.
Many of us in Canada and in Chatham-Kent smugly sat and watched the race riots in the United States during the tumultuous 1960s and prided ourselves on being so much more understanding and sympathetic to our citizens of color. That was, as John Cooper’s book entitled SEASON OF RAGE – Hugh Burnett and the Struggle For Civil Rights ( Tundra Books, 2002) so clearly points out, a mere myth in many places. We had our own hotbeds of racial discrimination as well. Some of them way too close to home and some of them still are simmering just beneath the surface.
Maybe the discrimination now is less obvious towards the black population but has turned on other people of color who are recent immigrants or even those who were here long before European settlement. Or maybe those discriminated against now are certain women or maybe the gay community as a whole or simply those who are “different”.
Keep in mind that during the crisis in Dresden during the 1950s, the only local church that openly welcomed the black population was the Catholic Church. Other churches politely told the blacks that they should attend “their own” church.
As we are finding out in recent times, we cannot always depend on religion to lead us out of the darkness and into the light of acceptance, understanding and the path of righteousness. We must all strive to rise above the seemingly innate notion of putting others down in order to elevate ourselves. That comes from within and not without.
We all need to visit sites like Buxton, the Chatham Black Historical Society; Uncle Tom’s Cabin and read books like Cooper’s in order that we do not forget men like Hugh Burnett and countless others who put their very existence on the line in order to achieve equality. There is a lesson there for all of us.
Jim and Lisa Gilbert are local, national and international award winning educators and historians.
