Students with the Lambton-Kent District School Board have learned that, before Rosa Parks refused to move to the back of the bus, a prominent Canadian was paving the way for civil rights in Ontario.
A Kitchener-Waterloo-based production company, Flex We Talent Players, presented My Place is Right Here: Hugh Burnett and the Fight for a Better Canada, to an audience in the cafeteria of the Lambton-Kent Composite School in Dresden.
Learning about Burnett's story was part of the third black history symposium for the LKDSB.
"Far and wide it's really easy to look at the make-up of the region and see a lot of white people," said Colin Pattison, an organizer for the symposium and Grade 8 teacher at Indian Creek Road Public School. "The biggest things we try to do with this symposium is reminding people in and around the area that we have a very rich culture, history, and heritage, in Chatham-Kent."
Roughly 200 students filled the Dresden high school's cafeteria to learn about Burnett, a black man from the community who overcame racial discrimination and successfully fought to overturn laws on workplace and public segregation in the early 20th century. Burnett's life struggle was depicted by actor Lannois Carroll-Woolery, who studied the man intensely. The actor went so far as to sit down with Burnett's first-wife in order to fully understand his struggle.
Lannois Carroll-Woolery, left, and members of the Flex We Talent players field questions from students following their performance at Lambton-Kent Composite School, in Dresden. (Photo by Michael Hugall)
"From a young age, [Burnett] experienced that racism and that humiliating behaviour first hand," said Carroll-Woolery."The more that I learned about the different facets and aspects of his personality, then I tried to relate to those the best I could."
In Carroll-Woolery's words, the story begins in the early 1900s when Burnett helped a white man whose car had broken down at the side of the road. The man offered to buy lunch for Burnett as a thank you. But Burnett was turned away at the door of a restaurant because of the colour of his skin. Later, Burnett would join the military with the hope he would be well-respected by his white counterparts. But those men treated German prisoners of war better than people of colour, according to Carroll-Woolery.
"Even if he were to fight and die he was still a second-class citizen... I found, personally, that he was a man who prioritized results," said Carroll-Woolery. "He had a singular focus ... because of his tenacity he was able to bring about law changes."
Students in the audience, some of whom were persons of colour, reflected on the story and what it meant to them. One of the students, Malaki Johnson, said he had never heard of Burnett's story until Thursday morning.
"I'm kind of disappointed in myself for not knowing who he was," said Johnson. "If it wasn't for him there might not have been the laws in place that there are today... he didn't have a lot of fame and money, he was just like every other average joe."
Burnett was born in 1918 and died in 1991 but still has relatives who live in London.