Escaped American slaves and active abolitionists inspire naming campaign
Escaped American slaves and active abolitionists inspire naming campaign.
For the past few weeks students have been going around the campuses with clipboards, collecting signatures for the naming of George Brown’s first residence.
Building completion is scheduled for 2015, and will be available for students to live in after the Pan Am Games Village is finished hosting athletes.
The residence will be located at Front Street East and Cherry Street. Students are welcome to submit a potential name, but there is a push by the Student Association to name the housing facility “Blackburn Residence,” after Lucie and Thornton Blackburn.
The Blackburns were escaped slaves from Kentucky who made their way up through the United States to Toronto where they were very active abolitionists, and opened the city’s first taxi business.
During the 1830’s to 1850’s, Thornton came into contact with George Brown and together they worked tirelessly to create employment opportunities for refugee slaves in Toronto.
“The Blackburns were very important to Toronto’s community as well as Ontario’s past,” said Cynthia Wilkey, chair of the West Don Lands Committee and a leading advocate for naming a visible monument after the couple.
“They are recognized by heritage Canada. Fugitive slaves that escaped jail to establish the important principle that slaves could not be extradited. Among the first five to have a law about extradition interpreted in Canada, setting a legal precedent for the underground railway,” said Wilkey. “They gave back to community through self-help investment and organizations for fugitive slave families. These heroes deserve to be celebrated.”
The freedom-seeking power couple built a small house on the corner of Eastern Avenue and Sackville Street where they lived for almost five decades. The house was secretly used as a stop on the historic Underground Railroad.
There are plaques at Inglenook High School and articles online to commemorate the couple, but naming a building after them would be an honour of a higher level.
Students can also fill out a ballot through the Student Association (SA), with their theme idea for the residence, for a chance to win a free iPad.
“Where the residence is being built, you can overlook where the Blackburns stayed during the 1800s,” said Geneve Gray, the SA’s director of finance and operations. “It would be one of the few honours in the African-Canadian community if this residence is named the The Blackburn Residence as there are not many buildings named after an African-Canadian.”
