Locating Diaspora: Afro-Caribbean Migrations and the Transnational Dialectics of Race and ...

294 Pages·2014·1.41 MB·English

by  Jared Toney

Locating Diaspora: Afro-Caribbean Migrations and the
Transnational Dialectics of Race and Community
in North America, 1910-1929

by
Jared Glen Toney
A thesis submitted in conformity with the requirements
for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy
Graduate Department of History
University of Toronto
© Copyright by Jared Glen Toney, 2014.
ABSTRACT
Locating Diaspora: Afro-Caribbean Migrations and the Transnational Dialectics of Race
and Community in North America, 1910-1929.

Doctor of Philosophy, 2014
Jared Glen Toney
Graduate Department of History
University of Toronto

This dissertation examines the migration of West Indians from the Anglophone Caribbean
to the U.S. and Canada in the early twentieth century. It focuses on the transnational
negotiations of racial community and conceptions of blackness, a process enacted through
Afro-Caribbean migration networks and the encounters between peoples of African descent
in North America. The comparative element considers how conceptions of race, and
specifically blackness, were differently constituted and expressed among communities in
three different locales: New York, Montreal, and Toronto. The transnational dimension
illuminates the connective elements between those sites and the mediation of ethnic and
national difference among black Canadians, Americans, and West Indians.
It proposes three scales by which to analyze formations of community and diasporic
conceptions of race in North America. The first scale of analysis is the nation. In their
migrations, Afro-Caribbean immigrants encountered different constructions of blackness
within the respective national contexts; black peoples themselves expressed multiple and
sometimes conflicting identifications with nation, state, and empire in Canada and the U.S.
Second, this dissertation evaluates communities at the local level, identifying the
characteristics of urban sites that framed the West Indian experience and the formulations of
racial communities therein. The third scale of analysis is the transnational. Here, it focuses

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on how different expressions of race in the respective local and national contexts were
mobilized between sites and across space, and how the terms of blackness traveled and
translated across geographic, political, and cultural borders.
Ultimately, this dissertation illustrates the process and practice of diaspora among
peoples in the respective U.S. and Canadian cities, and their transnational engagements with
a broader racial community. In the early twentieth century, the category of blackness had
increasing resonance among an otherwise diverse, disparate, and ethnically heterogeneous
community. Diasporic blackness was rooted in the North American experience, and routed
through West Indian migration networks between New York, Toronto, and Montreal. It not
only incorporated differences among peoples of African descent, it was contingent upon
them. As a result of these cross-border encounters and interactions, racial, ethnic, and
national communities were remade through diaspora.

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ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS & DEDICATION

For years now I’ve been looking forward to the day when I could sit down and properly
acknowledge all the people who have in one way or another helped me through my years of
graduate school at the University of Toronto. Now that I am finally in a position to do so,
I’m finding the words do not come easily. In these, the very last steps of a long journey, I
reflect back on the past years and think about the indelible mark so many have left not only
on this dissertation, but on me personally.
While researching and writing is indeed a solitary endeavour, I would have neither
completed this dissertation nor survived graduate school without the continuous support and
generosity of many people across the U.S., Canada, the Caribbean, and around the world. I
wish first to gratefully acknowledge my committee members, all of whom are extraordinary
scholars and wonderful people. Russell Kazal, Franca Iacovetta, and Melanie Newton
offered continuous and critical feedback on drafts of my thesis, and were always eager to
discuss ideas and push me in new directions. Russ has in every way been an ideal advisor
who has given generously of his time, exhibiting an active and earnest interest in my work
and acting as a tireless advocate on my behalf. Franca and Melanie too have provided a
great deal of both professional and personal support. I am truly fortunate to have had the
opportunity to work with all of them. I wish also to thank Michael Wayne and Sean Mills,
both of whom took an enthusiastic interest in my work and have in the process become good
friends. Michael Wayne and Sandra Tychsen (and Spot, too!) were always very kind and
generous to me, and have become like family. David Austin kindly agreed to serve as the
external appraiser on my defense committee, and offered helpful and insightful feedback for
which I am most grateful.

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I wish also to thank a number of other faculty and staff at the University of Toronto
who made my graduate school experience an enlivening, enriching, and enjoyable one.
Many of them have become friends over the years as well as important intellectual
influences. Steve Penfold, Alissa Trotz, Carol Chin, Elspeth Brown, William Nelson, Dan
Bender, Rick Halpern, Ian Radforth, and Natalie Davis have each, in various ways, left their
imprints on this project. Davina Joseph, Christine Leonardo, and the staff in the History
Department front office endured my frequent requests, unscheduled visits, and occasional
emergencies with great patience and aptitude.
From my first day in Toronto to my last, I have been fortunate to be a part of a
community of graduate students who have become great friends. They truly made the city
feel like home. In particular, I would like to thank Peter Mersereau (time of our lives!), Bret
Edwards, Lilia Topouzova, Paul and Rose Lawrie, Vanessa McCarthy, Julie Anderson-
Cohen, Sam Cohen, Brandon King, Camille Begin, Nick Neufeld, Holly Karibo, Chris
Drohan, Nathan Cardon, Meaghan Marian, and Sylwia Szymanska-Smolkin. These are all
extraordinary people with great minds and warm hearts. Nadia Jones-Gailani deserves
special mention here. While our history is a complicated one, she remains my best friend,
and it is no exaggeration to say that I would never have survived the past eight years (and in
particular these last six months) without her continuous and enduring (though often
undeserved) love and support. Others outside of Toronto have enriched my life in
innumerable ways. Dennis Halpin and Troy Thompson in particular have been dear friends
for many years now, and, while we’ve long been separated by geography, they remain in
other ways very close. After taking an early interest in my academic work, Fraser Ottanelli
continues to be an invaluable mentor, confidant, comrade, and friend over the years. Katia
Rostetter, though oceans away, will always be close to my heart.

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My dog Henry deserves a special acknowledgement here. He spent many hours
lying in bed on his back snoring away blissfully while I worked at my computer. He also
listened very closely and attentively to me as I talked to him while I wrote. His demands for
long walks were good for both of us as they forced me to take breaks, and helped keep me
sane during the final stages of this project. While he may not understand or appreciate the
contents of this thesis or the labour that went into it, he certainly derives a great deal of
satisfaction from eating the pages.
I also wish to think those people who very generously offered their time to speak
with me and share their lives. Indeed, they helped me to formulate some of my initial ideas
for this project, and are central to its story. Inez Adams, Carlton and Beverly Baird, Richard
Lord, and Stanley Grizzle all opened up their homes to me and patiently indulged my
endless questions and inquiries. I met with Claire Clarke many times over the years, and am
privileged to have known her. Unfortunately she passed away before I finished this thesis; I
hope she would be pleased with the finished product.
I have been fortunate to teach and work with some outstanding students during my
years at the University of Toronto. Because the nature of this work demands so much
solitary time in the archives and in front of the computer, meeting with them was always a
highlight of my week. In particular the students of NEW428 and HIS294 were enthusiastic,
interesting, smart, and entertaining groups, who often challenged and always inspired me. I
truly learned a great deal from them. They have indeed made teaching a true passion of
mine, and one from which I derive tremendous satisfaction and fulfillment.
I am also blessed to have four incredible parents, all of whom are unconditionally
loving, generous, patient, and supportive. Words cannot possibly express the gratitude and
love I feel for them. They have always believed in my abilities, even when I most doubted

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myself. They have sustained me in immeasurable ways, and continue to be a constant source
of strength and inspiration. My dear nephews, David and Martin, have grown into
remarkable young men during my years in Toronto. I’ve been in university their entire lives,
and they’ve frequently wondered whether that would ever not be the case. My sister often
joked that David would graduate from high school before I finally finished my doctorate.
She was right: he did … by two months.
This thesis is dedicated to the memory of my sister, Sonya, who reminds me that
there are far more important things in life than work. I know she would have been
enormously proud of me for completing my thesis, though smart enough not to bother
reading it. I miss her every day.

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CONTENTS

Introduction………………………………………………………………………………....1

Chapter One

Migration and the Making of the Afro-Caribbean Diaspora……………..………………....27

Slavery and Early Trans-Atlantic Migrations…………………………….…...……….30

Regional Migrations and Patterns of Itinerancy………………………………...…32

Historical Intersections and Interstices: The United States, Canada, and the
Caribbean…………………………………………………………………………...41

Immigration, Settlement, and the Regulation of National
Borders………………………………………..…………………………………….53

Conclusion………………….…………………………………………………………65

Chapter Two

Diasporic Nationalisms: Afro-Caribbean Migration, Race, and the Nation/State in North
America…..………………………………………………………………………………....68

Race, Nation, and the Black Diaspora in North America………….……………….73

Post-War Reaction and Military Demobilization….…………………………..……90

Africa and the Territorialization of Black Diasporic Community...………………..96

Conclusion…………………………………………………….……………………………103

Chapter Three

The ‘Mecca of the New Negro’? Race, Place, and Community in New York……………105

Migration and Settlement in Black New York…………………………………..….….110

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Race and Community in Harlem……………………………….……………......……119

Job Options and Employment Patterns……………...…………………………....123

Organizations and Institutions ……………………………………………………131

Black Churches of Harlem……………………………………………………………….139

Conclusion………………………………………………………………………………….144

Chapter Four

But where are you really from? Race, Place, and Community in Montreal and
Toronto…………………………………………………………………………………….148

Migration and Settlement in Toronto and Montreal…………...………………….151

Montreal: Harlem of the North?........................................………………….…….154

Toronto the Good?........................…………………………………………….…..159

Race Relations in Toronto and Montreal.…………………………………………164

Discrimination and the Consolidation of Blackness………………………………168

Black Employment Patterns and Experiences..……………………………………174

West Indian Business Enterprises………………...…………………………………181

Black Organizations………..………………………………………………………183

The UNIA in Montreal and Toronto……………..……………………………….…188

Black Churches………………………………………………………………….…197

Conclusion…………………………………………………………………………202

Chapter Five

Diasporic Routes: Transnational Communities, the Geographies of Race, and the Dialogical
Construction of Blackness in the Americas……………………………………...……..…205

Marcus Garvey and the UNIA……………………….………………………………211

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The Black Press……………………………………..…………………………………234

Railway Workers.…………………………….……………………………………242

Conclusion…………………………………………………………………………249

Thesis Conclusion………………………………………………………………………...253

Bibliography………………………………………………………………………..…….262

Appendix………………………………………………………………………………….282

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