awareness and challenge the policies and practices that denied African Canadians their full rights. One such infringement was the denial of the right of Black men to serve in the Canadian military during the Second World War. Other human rights infractions included the ongoing refusal of service in restaurants and bars, barriers to hotel accommodations and housing, and discrimination in employment and education. The BAACB also worked with other community groups in Essex County to address racism. They collectively received reinforcement from various levels in the region. Alvin McCurdy, president of the Amherstburg Community Club and active trade unionist, wrote to the federal government in 1943 expressing that African Canadians “want every single right and privilege to which our citizenship entitles us, no more, no less,”61 and, in 1947,Walter Perry appealed for “greater understanding of created racial problems.”62 Obviously, this formula was proving successful as the number of participants climbed steadily. In 1947, approximately fifteen thousand assembled at Jackson Park, while the 1948 event saw an astounding 275 thousand attend, and in 1949 about 120 thousand gathered.63
As part of the annual program, the BAACB presented awards to various citizens, politicians, and organizations; people such as Walter P. Reuther, the international president of the United Auto Workers– Congress of International Unions (UAW–CIO), and those individuals who had contributed to the betterment of the African race in some way. His brother, in an acceptance speech on Reuther’s behalf in 1950, declared, “While Jim Crow may have been kicked off the assembly line, he still lives smugly in many homes and many other places where humans gather.”64 One way the UAW–CIO had contributed to the civil rights movement in Windsor had taken place seven years prior when the union took a position against racial discrimination waged against a Black military officer who was refused service at a local restaurant. The union wrote a letter of support and distributed pamphlets to its members denouncing the racist action.
The 1950s witnessed the height of the American Civil Rights movement aimed at putting an end to Jim Crow laws legalizing the practice of discrimination against descendants of African slaves. But the battle for democracy and equal rights among Blacks and Whites was brewing in Canada as well. The BAACB invited civil rights activists from the United States throughout the mid-1940s to the 1960s, to motivate African Canadians to act against racism and to show how much they had achieved since the end of slavery. Numerous Black civil rights activists addressed Emancipation Day audiences in Windsor. American congressman and church minister Adam Clayton Powell was a guest speaker in 1945. Mary McLeod Bethune, an African-American female civil right activist,65 and Eleanor Roosevelt, President Franklin Roosevelt’s wife, spoke at Windsor’s Emancipation Day festivals in 1954. Twenty-seven-year-old Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. attended in 1956 just after garnering international attention for leading the Montgomery Bus Boycott triggered by the arrest of Rosa Parks. The next decade saw speakers like Daisy Bates,66 an American civil rights activist; Reverend Fred Shuttlesworth,67 Baptist minister and civil rights activist in Birmingham, Alabama; and Mrs. Medgar “Myrlie” Evers,68 wife of civil rights activist Medgar Evers, deliver addresses to the throngs of people at Jackson Park. Emancipation Day had returned to its roots of being an effective political vehicle for the African-Canadian community.69
Reverend Adam Clayton Powell Jr. was the first African-American to be elected as a city councillor in New York City, in 1941. He was a special guest at Windsor’s Emancipation Day celebrations in 1945. A prominent civil-rights activist, he advocated for fair employment and housing for Blacks.
The Miss Sepia International Pageant was a unique feature added to the celebrations in Windsor. This beauty and talent competition, introduced in 1931, provided a platform for young African-Canadian women who otherwise would not receive such an opportunity. In the early twentieth century women of African descent were banned from entering mainstream pageants and women of colour were hardly ever featured in magazine or television advertisements. Contestants were judged on the basis of evening gowns, swimwear, and talent competitions. In addition to the honour of being crowned Miss Sepia, winners also received prizes in the form of cash, a trophy, and flowers. Local and American contestants took great pride in representing their cities and their race. Young girls also competed in the Little Miss Sepia Pageant.70 Other attractions at Windsor’s celebrations included the anticipated barbecue chicken, one of the most popular foods, and a variety of captivating forms of entertainment, such as an aviation stunt show.71
The 108th Emancipation Day program included the Miss Sepia Beauty Pageant, which was open to contestants from both Canada and the United States.
Preparation for this important annual social event on African-Canadian calendars required an extensive amount of work. Celebrations had to be planned months in advance to host hundreds and thousands of observers. Overnight accommodations needed to be available for the throngs of people staying in Windsor, and local restaurants had to be prepared to serve many visitors. According to one person’s recollections of the Big Picnic in St. Catharines, “All of the relatives came to stay. They would sleep anywhere — on the lawn, in a car in the driveway. The police would even put you up for a night until you found accommodation.”72 Cooking and baking had to begin days before the event. It is evident the yearly logistics worked out as Windsor’s celebrations remained successful for decades.
Janie Cooper-Wilson, born in Collingwood, Ontario, was crowned Miss Sepia in 1965 at the age of eighteen. During her teenage years she was a competitive baton twirler, her talent in the Miss Sepia International contest. She is the current Executive Director of the Silvershoe Historical Society.
Generally during these festivities, Black patrons were not mistreated or denied service because of their race. E.C. Cooper, president of the Chatham Literary Society, remarked that when he visited Windsor he ate “at a first-class restaurant amongst white gentlemen and ladies.”73 However, the same could not be said for attendees of events in Chatham. Throughout the end of the 1800s and early 1900s, African Canadians in Chatham and their guests were refused service in White establishments and could only frequent the few Black-owned businesses.
Three factors led to the end of Emancipation Day celebrations in Windsor in the middle of the twentieth century. Firstly, a fire at Jackson Park in 1957 caused extensive damage to the main event grounds just three weeks before the scheduled event. Secondly, the park was split into two by the construction of an overpass. Then, the 1967 race riots in Detroit led to the refusal of Windsor city council to issue the event permit because of security and safety concerns. No celebrations were hosted in Windsor for the years between 1967 and 1978, but eventually resumed in 1979 at a new location, Mic Mac Park. However, attendance fell dramatically. Shortly after, Windsor’s festivities merged with those in Amherstburg.
August First celebrations were revived in Windsor in 2008 by the Windsor Council of Elders and the Emancipation Planning Committee, with the support of several other community organizations and the City of Windsor, in honour of the 175th anniversary of the abolition of slavery throughout British colonies. The organization’s aim is to restore an awareness of family unity and identity to the African-Canadians in Windsor. The revitalized four-day event recaptured elements of the past by featuring foods from the African Diaspora, musical concerts highlighting hip hop, gospel, blues, and R&B artists, a sunrise church service and breakfast with a keynote speaker, a boxing demonstration, the Miss Sepia International Pageant, and a parade on Ouellette Avenue. The opening ceremony and reception on the Friday night was co-hosted by the United States Consulate General in Toronto, Mr. John R. Nay. Many provincial and American dignitaries, along with local dignitaries and community leaders were on hand to lend their support, such as Rosemary Sadlier, president of the Ontario Black History Society. New attractions
