What do reparations look like? Black Council of Windsor-Essex calls for action from municipal leaders

With the Sandwich First Baptist Church filled with community members as part of Emancipation Jubilee festivities, the Black Council of Windsor-Essex says municipal leaders need to do more to help repair the relationship with Windsor's Black community.

The Black Council of Windsor-Essex was founded in Aug. 2020 by a grassroots collective of local Black organizations, elders, leaders and advocates.

Over the weekend, the group has been holding Emancipation Jubilee festivities for the public which include a documentary screening, gospel concert, barbecue dinners with original African food and community conversation moderated by council chair Leslie McCurdy.

During Sunday's community conversation, multiple members of Windsor's Black community offered their thoughts on some of the steps they would like to see the city take, such as restoring the bandshell at Jackson Park.

That's because this year's event marks 90 years since the first Emancipation Day festival in Windsor, first organized by city resident Walter Perry at the Jackson Park bandshell in 1932.

But the bandshell — which saw speeches from prominent civil rights leaders including Martin Luther King Jr., former U.S. First Lady Eleanor Roosevelt and Dr. Benjamin Mays — was damaged by a fire in 1957.

Future Emancipation Day festivities were moved to a different location but never quite achieved the same heights.

"I think doing things like refurbishing and redeveloping it [is important], as a tribute to emancipation and Walter Perry who, for so many years, brought 100,000 people a year into the city for those celebrations," says McCurdy.

Another step, she added, is for the city not to recognize the long weekend as the Civic Holiday — but as Emancipation long weekend. Despite slavery being abolished in 1834, it wasn't until Mar. 2021 that the House of Commons unanimously voted to officially designate August 1 as Emancipation Day.

"Using the name, Civic Holiday, for Aug. 1 is actually a form of erasure of our history and our presence in this country," says McCurdy. "Now that it has been officially proclaimed as Emancipation Day nationally, I think it's really important that we call it Emancipation Day locally as well and recognize the population of the descendants of Africa that lived here."

The group is also calling for the redevelopment of the former Windsor Arena in the city's downtown core, as it sits "on the land that was owned by McDougall Street residents."

During the community conversation, multiple people made reference to a municipal redevelopment plan in the 1950s that led to Black people being pushed out of the community.

According to McCurdy, the arena could be used as a hub for community events — not just for Windsor's Black community but for other groups as well.

"I know that many people within that community would like to see some real activity come back to that arena that we all, in the city, can partake in," she says.

Among those in attendance for Sunday's community conversation was Nadia Washington who recently graduated from the University of Windsor's criminology program. She said much of the content that was taught to her struggled to depict Black history in an accurate manner.

But being able to listen to first-hand stories of Black elders was an invaluable experience that could not be matched elsewhere.

"My experience as a student, I really had to search for Black history courses and it was really hard. I don't think I should have to search that hard for that because we're a central part of this country," says Washington. "Students and young people like me are starved for that in education. Getting to hear the perspectives of people that have come before me that have lived in a different time was really important for me to hear."

"I think events like this are important because they make me proud to be Black. They make me proud of our history and appreciate the struggles of my ancestors ... I have a place in this community. Black people have a place in this community.”

Established in 1841, the Sandwich First Baptist Church was used as a safe haven for settlers escaping slavery through the Underground Railroad.

The 2022 Emancipation Jubilee wraps up Monday at Jackson Park with a bring-your-own-food-and-drink gathering at 11 a.m. and walking tours of Windsor's legendary Emancipation Day celebrations at 1 p.m.