North of the Color Line: Migration and Black Resistance in Canada, 1870-1955

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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 permanence and durability of the Committee on Production Guidelines for Book Longevity of the Council on Library Resources. 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 This page intentionally left blank 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 This page intentionally left blank ...