Eighty years ago, a group of Black railway workers took their fight for fair treatment all the way to the Prime Minister. In doing so, they made a major contribution to immigration policies, human rights legislation and employment equity in Canada, says Tamari Kitossa, Brock Associate Professor of Sociology.<\/p>\n
The story of those sleeping car porters is documented in They Call Me George: The Untold Story of Black Train Porters and the Birth of Modern Canada<\/em> by renowned author, scholar and activist, Cecil Foster.<\/p>\n The Brock University President\u2019s Advisory Committee on Human Rights, Equity and Decolonization (PACHRED) Anti-Racism Task Force will host a public reading and book signing with Foster at the central branch of the St. Catharines Public Library on Saturday, April 20. \u201cSleeping Car Porters and the Making of Modern Canada: an afternoon with Cecil Foster\u201d is an opportunity for the community to engage with the author about his work.<\/p>\n \u201cThe contributions of people of colour tend to get erased from Canadian history,\u201d says Kitossa, but Foster has shone a light on this \u201chidden history.\u201d<\/p>\n They Call Me George<\/em> demonstrates that \u201cthe sleeping car porters and domestic workers from the Caribbean really struggled hard to open up immigration and employment equity for all,\u201d says Kitossa, effectively laying the foundation for Canadian multiculturalism and human rights legislation.<\/p>\n Their fight for social justice continues to resonate today. According to Kitossa, contemporary social statistics show that African Canadians, next to Indigenous populations, are worse off relative to other immigrant groups in terms of education, health, employment, income and wealth.<\/p>\n \u201cIt\u2019s ironic that this community did so much to open space for others, but their grandchildren are falling behind relative to all the other groups,\u201d he says. \u201cSomething very clearly is happening in terms of public policy, which is basically anti-blackness in civil society.\u201d<\/p>\n In recent years, a number of community organizations from African-Canadian communities across the country have been meeting with politicians in Ottawa demanding that Canada fulfil its obligations to them, says Kitossa. \u201cThe irony is these meetings are taking place 70 to 80 years after the sleeping car porters\u2019 meetings. We need history to remind us that, in some respects, we have forgotten the path that some folks have been walking.<\/p>\n \u201cThat\u2019s what Cecil\u2019s work is calling us to do \u2014 to pay attention to history in the context of the contemporary situation,\u201d Kitossa says.<\/p>\n As a sociologist, Kitossa considers himself a consumer of history and someone who relies on archival researchers like Foster to provide a sense of \u201chistorical continuum\u201d that contextualizes his contemporary sociological work. Foster\u2019s work, he says, is \u201carchival work done well.\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cWe often imagine that history books are stodgy and boring, but this is rather exciting stuff,\u201d Kitossa says. \u201cIt\u2019s hard to put down.\u201d<\/p>\n Sleeping Car Porters and the Making of Modern Canada: an afternoon with Cecil Foster<\/em> happens from noon to 3 p.m. in the Mills Room of the St. Catharines Public Library. The event is free, but guests are encouraged to register<\/a> as seating is limited.<\/p>\n The public event is sponsored by a number of Brock groups, including the PACHRED Anti-Racism Task Force, Master of Arts in Critical Sociology, Human Rights and Equity, and the departments of Political Science, Labour Studies, Sociology, Canadian Studies and Modern Languages Literatures and Cultures.<\/p>\n Event details: Eighty years ago, a group of Black railway workers took their fight for fair treatment all the way to the Prime Minister. In doing so, they made a major contribution to immigration policies, human rights legislation and employment equity in Canada, says Tamari Kitossa, Brock Associate Professor of Sociology.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":50,"featured_media":57508,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[7484,7,3319,37,1,4,38],"tags":[159,241,7816,110,384,522,2582,139,6841,42,33,4280],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/brocku.ca\/brock-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/57507"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/brocku.ca\/brock-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/brocku.ca\/brock-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/brocku.ca\/brock-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/50"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/brocku.ca\/brock-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=57507"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/brocku.ca\/brock-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/57507\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":57509,"href":"https:\/\/brocku.ca\/brock-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/57507\/revisions\/57509"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/brocku.ca\/brock-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/57508"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/brocku.ca\/brock-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=57507"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/brocku.ca\/brock-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=57507"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/brocku.ca\/brock-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=57507"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}
\n<\/strong>What: <\/strong>Sleeping Car Porters and the Making of Modern Canada: an afternoon with Cecil Foster
\nWhen:<\/strong> Saturday, April 20 from noon to 3 p.m.
\nWhere:<\/strong> St. Catharines Public Library, Central Library Branch, 54 Church St.
\nThe free event is open to the public. Seating is limited. Register online through Eventbrite<\/a>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"