How a Brantford, Ont., group uncovered history of 'trailblazing' Black woman who attended university in 1885

CBC

2 days ago

When they began searching for Black history in Brantford, Ont., a group of community organizers say they had no idea they'd come across someone as notable as Blanche E. Williams.
After attending high school in Brantford in the 1880s, Williams became the first Black woman to attend the University of Toronto with the same privileges, including attending the same lectures, as white students, said Amanda Mersereau, director of Unite Against Hate, an anti-racism community group.
"In the late 1800s, this was unheard of," said Mersereau in an interview. "This is a trailblazing individual."
Now that accomplishment is being recognized by the City of Brantford and Grand Erie District School Board (GEDSB), which will name a new community centre, park and school after Williams.
Mersereau said the decision is a "step in the right direction."
"We're continuing her legacy and shining a light where it wasn't being shone," Mersereau said.
Unite Against Hate member Angel Panag nominated Williams in a public naming processes.
When the city and GEDSB learned what United Against Hate had uncovered, they decided to act.
"With education as the path to transformation, Blanche Williams interrupted racial barriers and showed us what's possible," said Liana Thomposn, a GEDSB superintendent in an April news release.
"Naming our school after her is a celebration not only of her groundbreaking achievements, but her story inspires all of us to be courageous, strong and to persevere to achieve our dreams."
'I feel proud of her'
Mersereau co-founded Unite Against Hate in 2020, promoting Brantford's Black-owned businesses and then highlighting Black history in the city and developing anti-racism education.
Local historian Sarah Clarke joined the effort to find and make Black history more accessible. When digging through newspaper archives, she came across an 1885 Globe and Mail story about Williams.
"Miss Blanche Williams, of Brantford, will have every right which her acquirements and Canadian citizenship fully entitle her to claim," said the article.
"The only other [Black ladies] of our provincial university were two sisters ... but were not allowed by regulations then in force to attend lectures," said the newspaper, including that the sisters were from Chatham, Ont., and had the last name Jones.
It's unclear why Williams was allowed to attend lectures when the sisters weren't a few years before.
Clarke looked through census records, directories, historic maps, baptismal logs and archives from the University of Toronto to find out more about Williams. She also found an article about Williams's accomplishment in the the Huntsville Gazette in Alabama.
Before attending the University of Toronto, Williams graduated from what's now called the Brantford College Institute and Vocational School in Brantford. She attended First Baptist Church with her parents Charles and Josephine and was baptized there in 1870.
Her father worked as a barber at what was then a Brantford landmark, the Kerby House Hotel. In 1886, he and his wife moved to Toronto and he worked at the Palmer House hotel that was located at the corner of York and King streets.
That year, at university, Williams passed math, history, geography, classics and English.
"She did quite well, especially considering all the prejudice she must have faced during that time," said Mersereau.
"I feel proud of her. I feel like we know her."
The group doesn't know what happened to the Williams family after 1886 and hasn't found any photographs of them, or descendents, but they hope as word spreads about her, other historians will join the effort.