Downtown Windsor, Ontario

This week’s Salt & Roses was a perfect chance for us to explore and discuss the Black History of downtown Windsor.

On the tail end of Black History Month, we’re reminded that Windsor’s history is inexorably linked to African-Canadian history.

Neil Helmer decided that talking to local history buff, Kim Elliott, was a good place to start. Elliott, a deacon at his church, Underground Railroad descendant, and black history event re-enactor is a fount of knowledge about Windsor’s black history.

American Sculptor Ed Dwight was commissioned to install two sculptures to memorialize the Underground Railroad along the Detroit River. One on Detroit’s riverfront, and one in Windsor’s City Hall Esplanade. From eddwight.com:

“The Windsor installation features a twenty-two foot high granite “Freedom Tower” that also serves as a candle representing the “Internal Flame of Freedom.” On the Canadian side are a male slave giving thanks, and a female slave holding a baby. A female Canadian Underground Railroad “operative” is welcoming them both to safety.”

The plaque at the bottom of the Freedom Tower sculpture. For more information and photos (in nicer weather) visit this post at Andrew Foot’s International Metropolis.

With so very much to talk about with regard to Windsor’s black history, we recorded close to 15 minutes of video discussion, exploring the importance of McDougall Avenue, The Windsor Market, and downtown churches to Windsor’s Afri-Canadians. Video of this discussion can be found at the bottom of this post.

Elliott has a familial tie to many individuals who experienced the freedom that Canada had to offer to freed slaves, and his accounting of the respite they found in Windsor is inspiring.

As Neil and I left the interview with Kim Elliott, we drove into the downtown core to photograph the Freedom Tower when Neil told me to pull over. We were on McDougall Avenue, where a mural stood honouring Windsor’s black history.

From the Greater Essex Windsor District School Board:

“The ‘Reaching Out’ mural is located on the west wall of the Monteo Alkebulanian Bookstore, Windsor’s first Black history bookstore. The store is located on the south-west corner of Wyandotte Street East and McDougall Avenue in Windsor. The mural celebrates the historical roots of the African-Canadian community when many settled in the McDougall Street neighbourhood. It honours the following six community leaders who helped shape local African-Canadian views of human rights and good citizenship.”

Mary Ann Camberton Shadd, Bishop C.L. Morton, Justin Jackson, Walter Perry, Rev. J.T. Wagner, and Alton C. Parker. For more on these individuals see the bottom of this Greater Essex Windsor District School Board weblink.

Listen to the discussion below, and perhaps share your own stories an knowledge of downtown Windsor’s black history.

Strewn on a table, a litany of references to resource material about Windsor’s Afri-Canadian history that can be found at Windsor’s Community Museum. A wonderful resource for anyone looking into Windsor’s black history.