Africa's Children. Sharon Robart-Johnson
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AFRICA’S CHILDREN
AFRICA’S CHILDREN
A History of Blacks in
Yarmouth, Nova Scotia
Sharon Robart-Johnson
Copyright © 2009 Sharon Robart-Johnson
All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic, mechanic, photocopying or otherwise (except for brief passages for purposes of review) without the prior permission of Dundurn Press. Permission to photocopy should be requested from Access Copyright.
Published by Natural Heritage Books
A Member of The Dundurn Group
Edited by Jane Gibson
Copy-edited by Shannon Whibbs
Design by Jennifer Scott
Printed and bound in Canada by Transcontinental
Library and Archives Canada Cataloguing in Publication
Robart-Johnson, Sharon
Africa’s children : a history of blacks in Yarmouth, Nova Scotia / by Sharon Robart-Johnson.
Includes bibliographical references and index.
ISBN 978-1-55002-862-1
1. Black Canadians--Nova Scotia--Yarmouth-- History. 2. Yarmouth (N.S.)--History. I. Title.
FC2350.B6R63 2009 971.6’3100496 C2008-905868-2
1 2 3 4 5 13 12 11 10 09
We acknowledge the support of the Canada Council for the Arts and the Ontario Arts Council for our publishing program. We also acknowledge the financial support of the Government of Canada through the Book Publishing Industry Development Program and The Association for the Export of Canadian Books, and the Government of Ontario through the Ontario Book Publishers Tax Credit program, and the Ontario Media Development Corporation.
Care has been taken to trace the ownership of copyright material used in this book. The author and the publisher welcome any information enabling them to rectify any references or credits in subsequent editions.
J. Kirk Howard, President
Front cover photo credits, clockwise from top left: The Missionaires, photo courtesy of Ernest Johnson; Disney Chapel, photo courtesy of Yarmouth County Museum and Archives; Private John Clarence Johnson, photo courtesy of Clarence Bodden; Benjamin Rogers and wife at their homestead, photo courtesy of Yarmouth County Museum and Archives; Jeanette Johnson, photo courtesy of Margery Lawrence.
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DEDICATION
This book is dedicated to my parents Lendley Irving Robart, son of John Murray Robart and Alice Augusta (née Wesley) Robart; and Mary Eileen (Smith) Robart, daughter of James Rudolph Smith and Mary Rose (Muise) Smith.
Mary Eileen (Smith) Robart and Lendley Irving Robart. This photo of my parents was taken in the summer of 1979, several months before my father’s death from cancer in March 1980. They were the proud parents of seven children, five girls and two boys. The two boys, unfortunately, passed away at three months of age. My parents’ ingenuity and dedication saw my sisters and me through some extremely rough times. Being able to draw from their strength has made us all better people.
This book is also dedicated to my sister, Rose M. Robart, who wrote the poem “Jude” and went through the manuscript to make sure that each “i” was dotted, each “t” was crossed, and punctuation was in the correct places. Without her help, the work may not have come this far. I love you, Rose. You will be deeply missed and always in my heart.
My sister, Rose M. Robart, wrote the poem “Jude.” Born January 7, 1940, she passed away suddenly at her home in Montreal October 29, 2008. Rose waited patiently and with joyful anticipation for the release of this book, but for her to see the finished product wasn’t meant to be.
TABLE OF CONTENTS
Foreword by Craig Marshall Smith
Chapter 2 Early Treatment of Blacks
Chapter 3 Racism Beyond the Grave
Chapter 4 Community of Greenville: Earliest Black Settlement in Yarmouth, Nova Scotia
Chapter 5 Black Churches in Yarmouth
Chapter 6 Greenville School: Yarmouth County’s Only All-Black School
Chapter 7 Military: Yarmouth’s Men in the First World War
Chapter 8 The Role of Sports
Chapter 9 Murders, Mysterious Disappearances, and Deaths of the Twentieth Century
Chapter 10 Black Reminiscences: Articles From Yarmouth’s Past
Chapter 11 Other Stories of Historical Interest
Chapter 12 Bridging the Gap: Success Stories of Yarmouth’s Blacks
Epilogue
Appendix A List of Pastors at the Disney Chapel, 1877 to 1940
Appendix B Probationers Achieving Full Membership in the Disney Chapel AME Church, 1904–05
Notes
Bibliography
Index
About the Author
So Sayeth Tippin
Like the old gal sayeth, ain’t it peculiar that in a place like this
which had its