North of the Color Line: Migration and Black Resistance in Canada, 1870-1955 (John Hope Franklin Series in African American History and Culture)

297 Pages·2010·3.3 MB·English

by  Sarah-Jane Mathieu

North of the Color Line
North
the john hope franklin
series in african american
history and culture
Waldo E. Martin Jr. and
Patricia Sullivan, editors
f
The University of
North Carolina Press
Chapel Hill
f
sarah-jane mathieu
of the Color Line
Migration and Black Resistance
in Canada, 1870–1955
∫ 2010 The University of North Carolina Press
All rights reserved
Designed by Jacquline Johnson
Set in Minion
by Keystone Typesetting, Inc.
Manufactured in the United States of America
The paper in this book meets the guidelines for
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The University of North Carolina Press has been a
member of the Green Press Initiative since 2003.
Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
Mathieu, Sarah-Jane.
North of the color line : migration and Black
resistance in Canada, 1870–1955 / Sarah-Jane Mathieu.
p. cm. — (The John Hope Franklin series in African
American history and culture)
Includes bibliographical references and index.
isbn 978-0-8078-3429-9 (cloth: alk. paper)
isbn 978-0-8078-7166-9 (pbk.: alk. paper)
1. Blacks—Canada—History. 2. African Americans—
Canada—History. 3. West Indians—Canada—History.
4. Canada—Race relations. 5. Immigrants—Canada.
6. Blacks—Canada—Social conditions. 7. African
Americans—Canada—Social conditions. 8. West
Indians—Canada—Social conditions. I. Title.
f1035.n3m318 2010
305.800971—dc22
2010018364
Portions of this work appeared earlier, in somewhat
di√erent form, as ‘‘North of the Colour Line: Race,
Migration, and Transnational Resistance in Canada,
1870–1955,’’ Labour/Le Travail 47 (Spring 2001), and
are reprinted here by permission.
cloth 14 13 12 11 10 5 4 3 2 1
paper 14 13 12 11 10 5 4 3 2 1
To mia avery and hélène lochard
for teaching me the magic of telling stories
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Idon’t know if you’ve ever noticed, or perhaps would care very much if you
did, that the sweater numbers of all the dominant hockey players of an
earlier age . . . were single digits. Think about it, Richard, 9 and Howe the same,
and later on Bobby Hull. Bobby Orr was 4, of course but so was Jean Béliveau
and Red Kelly, even after he switched from defence to centre. Tim Horton, 7.
Doug Harvey, 2. This list could go on. . . . But even if you noticed all the low
numbers, you may not know why so many of the better players wore them. It all
had to do with sleeping cars. When teams travelled only by overnight train,
someone had to rule on who got the lower bunks. The solution, well you’ve
guessed it by now, they were allotted by sweater number, and of course, you
didn’t want to have your stars having to clamber awkwardly up those silly but
necessary ladders. Ergo, good player, low sweater number, lower berth. . . . It’s
surprising how much social history is reflected in the history of train travel and
nowhere more so, I’d say, than in the story of those old sleeping cars.
peter gzowski, cbc radio
‘‘Some of the Best Minds of Our Times’’
2 July 2000
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Contents
Acknowledgments xiii
Abbreviations xv
introduction
Birth of a Nation: Race, Empire, and Nationalism during
Canada’s Railway Age 3
chapter one
Drawing the Line: Race and Canadian Immigration Policy 22
chapter two
Jim Crow Rides This Train: Segregation in the Canadian Workforce 61
chapter three
Fighting the Empire: Race, War, and Mobilization 100
chapter four
Building an Empire, Uplifting a Race: Race, Uplift, and
Transnational Alliances 143
chapter five
Bonds of Steel: Depression, War, and International Brotherhood 185
Notes 219
Sources 249
Index 269