The Letters, Anti-Racism, & the United Church

This is the last day of Black History Month so I'll share our experience of watching a segment of TVOntario's program The Agenda earlier this week. This was a fascinating interview with Canadian author Sheila White who has written a book that is a love letter of sorts about her courageous parents. Here is a description of the episode: 

 Sheila White's parents met in Nova Scotia just after the Second World War. As she describes in her biographical novel, "The Letters: Postmark Prejudice in Black and White," it was a love story for the ages. With one caveat: Vivien was white, Billy was Black. How they forged their relationship against family and societal disapproval provides a snapshot into the fraught race relations of the time, and how two individuals worked to dispel narrow thoughts about who they were and what their life together would be based on their differences. She talks to Jeyan Jeganathan about hers and her parents' anti-racism advocacy and what she learned by delving into their story.

                                                                            Billy White Poem

We were struck by Ms White's energy, and her description of a remarkable extended family. We also learned that in the 1940s the United Church invited her Baptist father, then living in Toronto, to write what was essentially an anti-racism guide. Sheila has a copy of that booklet, called a Programme Annual, part of her parents effects. She is still in possession of her father's poem which describes the exchange with Al Cooper from the United Church. 

I am heartened to learn that nearly 80 years ago our denomination was taking what were at least faltering steps to address anti-racism -- the young people on the cover of the booklet look decidedly white. I've written about the UCCs first and only Black moderator, the Rev. Wilbur Howard, who was ordained in 1941 and couldn't find a congregation to call him for many years. Despite our chequered past we are still learning and growing. 

I'm grateful for the phone conversation I had with Sheila White and her graciousness in sharing images of her family treasures. Here is a link to The Agenda segment: 

https://www.tvo.org/video/what-post-war-letters-reveal-about-racism-in-canada