Editor’s note: this is the fifth in a series of Black History Month articles written by Dr. Lockwood, tracing the history of Blacks in the Anglican Diocese of Ottawa from its beginnings to present day.
The legacy of slavery haunted Blacks in Canada, as their immigration here was proscribed in the early 20th century, and “science” harnessed to prove that hierarchical relationships were natural and right. This led to widespread segregating of Black citizens, whether in theatres or hotels into the 1940s. As late as the inter-war period, Blacks were concentrated in low wage corners of the economy: men as waiters, janitors, barbers and labourers, and women as domestic servants, laundresses and waitresses. The federal government permitted racial restriction in its hiring and promotion policies.
By 1940, most Blacks were born here. Elsewhere in Canada, Blacks were organizing, protesting limitations on employment and where they could socialize. The revelation of Nazi atrocities at the end of the Second World War produced a major shift in attitude. This led to new expressions of international opinion through the United Nations charters to create a more liberal intellectual climate. Researchers were discrediting the claims of “scientific” racism. The federal Bill of Rights in 1960 refuted personal limitations by reason of race, religion or sex.
In 1962, Ontario consolidated its anti-discrimination legislation in a code, to be implemented by a Human Rights Commission with a mandate to promote equal opportunity as well as to administer existing laws accordingly. In 1962, new Canadian immigration regulations made individual skills the chief criterion for admission and ended race or national origin as reasons for exclusion. Further regulations in 1967 established a “points” system, whereby all who accumulated sufficient points were automatically admitted to Canada.
The effect was immediate in the Anglican Diocese of Ottawa. With artificial barriers removed, highly qualified applicants from Asia, Africa and the Caribbean flocked to Canada. West Indians so swelled Ottawa’s Anglican population that in 1985 Christ Church Cathedral was twinned with Saint George’s Cathedral in Georgetown, Guyana. A significant number of Anglicans among the new arrivals led to pressure for more Blacks to be ordained. Twenty years after Blair Dixon became a priest, (the year the cathedrals were twinned), The Rev. Frederick December (1912-2004), originally from Agricola, Guyana, came to serve in the Diocese of Ottawa.
The struggle over race relations in the United States from mid-century, including the assassination of the Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King Junior in 1968, rivetted attention north of the border. Violence visited on peaceful non-violent Blacks demanding American civil rights was one side of the news reports, while Black achievements in sports, music and various mainstream fields of endeavour spoke of hard-won achievements.
The improving climate for Blacks in Canada contrasted with the apartheid policies of the government of South Africa, another country in the British Commonwealth. The attention of Anglicans in the Diocese of Ottawa was drawn to the words of a Black cleric—and eventual Nobel laureate, Archbishop Desmond Tutu. In his polemics, he wrote against the racist regime:
No matter how long and how repressive this unjust and undemocratic rule turns out to be, the urge for freedom remains as a subversive element threatening the overthrow of rigid repression. The tyrant is on a road to nowhere even though he may survive for an unconscionably long time and even though he may turn his country into a huge prison riddled with informers.
These words of hope eventually brought South African apartheid to an end, and it did so by encompassing the goal of “Truth and Reconciliation”—a phrase that eventually moved Canadians to confront their sordid history with Indigenous inhabitants.
Another 20 years would pass by after the reception of the Rev. Fred December before a number of Blacks were ordained Anglican clergy in the Diocese of Ottawa. They included receiving the Rev. Manassé Maniragaba (2007), the Rev. Naomi Kabugi (2008), the Rev. George Kwari (2008), ordaining the Rev. Hilary Murray (2012), receiving the Rev. Nash Smith (2014), ordaining Deacon Elizabeth December (2015), receiving the Rev. E. Julian Campbell (2019), the Rev. Felix Longdon (2023), and the Rev. Dr. Sony Jabouin (2025).
Despite growing numbers of Black clergy, the Rev. Julian Campbell in 2022 wrote about the longstanding negative impact of colonialism. Although slavery was abolished in his native Bahamas in 1838, Campbell noted how Blacks affected a British accent, and they were not allowed to serve at royal functions until the late 1960s. Plantation owners became dominant, possessed land, and owned Black bodies. Blacks suffered from misogyny, homophobia, xenophobia and colouration long after. Under slavery, British people saw money flowing into their coffers without witnessing the price in blood paid by Blacks in the West Indies.
Forgiveness, concluded Campbell, doesn’t mean forgetting the past. Today, as anti-Black bigotry again is stoked in the United States, note William Faulkner’s warning: “The past isn’t dead. It isn’t even past.”
Based on the writing of James W. St.G. Walker and The Rev. E. Julian Campbell
Black History Month
Black Anglicans in the Diocese of Ottawa, 1978-2026
Editor’s note: this is the fifth in a series of Black History Month articles written by Dr. Lockwood, tracing the history of Blacks in the Anglican Diocese of Ottawa from its beginnings to present day.
The legacy of slavery haunted Blacks in Canada, as their immigration here was proscribed in the early 20th century, and “science” harnessed to prove that hierarchical relationships were natural and right. This led to widespread segregating of Black citizens, whether in theatres or hotels into the 1940s. As late as the inter-war period, Blacks were concentrated in low wage corners of the economy: men as waiters, janitors, barbers and labourers, and women as domestic servants, laundresses and waitresses. The federal government permitted racial restriction in its hiring and promotion policies.
By 1940, most Blacks were born here. Elsewhere in Canada, Blacks were organizing, protesting limitations on employment and where they could socialize. The revelation of Nazi atrocities at the end of the Second World War produced a major shift in attitude. This led to new expressions of international opinion through the United Nations charters to create a more liberal intellectual climate. Researchers were discrediting the claims of “scientific” racism. The federal Bill of Rights in 1960 refuted personal limitations by reason of race, religion or sex.
In 1962, Ontario consolidated its anti-discrimination legislation in a code, to be implemented by a Human Rights Commission with a mandate to promote equal opportunity as well as to administer existing laws accordingly. In 1962, new Canadian immigration regulations made individual skills the chief criterion for admission and ended race or national origin as reasons for exclusion. Further regulations in 1967 established a “points” system, whereby all who accumulated sufficient points were automatically admitted to Canada.
The effect was immediate in the Anglican Diocese of Ottawa. With artificial barriers removed, highly qualified applicants from Asia, Africa and the Caribbean flocked to Canada. West Indians so swelled Ottawa’s Anglican population that in 1985 Christ Church Cathedral was twinned with Saint George’s Cathedral in Georgetown, Guyana. A significant number of Anglicans among the new arrivals led to pressure for more Blacks to be ordained. Twenty years after Blair Dixon became a priest, (the year the cathedrals were twinned), The Rev. Frederick December (1912-2004), originally from Agricola, Guyana, came to serve in the Diocese of Ottawa.
The struggle over race relations in the United States from mid-century, including the assassination of the Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King Junior in 1968, rivetted attention north of the border. Violence visited on peaceful non-violent Blacks demanding American civil rights was one side of the news reports, while Black achievements in sports, music and various mainstream fields of endeavour spoke of hard-won achievements.
The improving climate for Blacks in Canada contrasted with the apartheid policies of the government of South Africa, another country in the British Commonwealth. The attention of Anglicans in the Diocese of Ottawa was drawn to the words of a Black cleric—and eventual Nobel laureate, Archbishop Desmond Tutu. In his polemics, he wrote against the racist regime:
No matter how long and how repressive this unjust and undemocratic rule turns out to be, the urge for freedom remains as a subversive element threatening the overthrow of rigid repression. The tyrant is on a road to nowhere even though he may survive for an unconscionably long time and even though he may turn his country into a huge prison riddled with informers.
These words of hope eventually brought South African apartheid to an end, and it did so by encompassing the goal of “Truth and Reconciliation”—a phrase that eventually moved Canadians to confront their sordid history with Indigenous inhabitants.
Another 20 years would pass by after the reception of the Rev. Fred December before a number of Blacks were ordained Anglican clergy in the Diocese of Ottawa. They included receiving the Rev. Manassé Maniragaba (2007), the Rev. Naomi Kabugi (2008), the Rev. George Kwari (2008), ordaining the Rev. Hilary Murray (2012), receiving the Rev. Nash Smith (2014), ordaining Deacon Elizabeth December (2015), receiving the Rev. E. Julian Campbell (2019), the Rev. Felix Longdon (2023), and the Rev. Dr. Sony Jabouin (2025).
Despite growing numbers of Black clergy, the Rev. Julian Campbell in 2022 wrote about the longstanding negative impact of colonialism. Although slavery was abolished in his native Bahamas in 1838, Campbell noted how Blacks affected a British accent, and they were not allowed to serve at royal functions until the late 1960s. Plantation owners became dominant, possessed land, and owned Black bodies. Blacks suffered from misogyny, homophobia, xenophobia and colouration long after. Under slavery, British people saw money flowing into their coffers without witnessing the price in blood paid by Blacks in the West Indies.
Forgiveness, concluded Campbell, doesn’t mean forgetting the past. Today, as anti-Black bigotry again is stoked in the United States, note William Faulkner’s warning: “The past isn’t dead. It isn’t even past.”
Based on the writing of James W. St.G. Walker and The Rev. E. Julian Campbell
Dr. Glenn J Lockwood is the Diocesan Archivist.
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