Pearleen Oliver
Born
Althea Pearleen Borden

1917
Cook's Cove, Guysborough County, Nova Scotia, Canada
Died24 July 2008 (aged 91)
Halifax, Nova Scotia
OrganizationNova Scotia Association for the Advancement of Colored People (co-founder)
Known forBlack Activism, Church Leadership, Educational Activism
SpouseWilliam Pearly Oliver (married 1936)
ChildrenWilliam P., Philip W. B., Dr. Leslie H., Jules R., and Stephen D.

Pearleen Oliver (1917–2008), sometimes Pearleen Borden Oliver, was a Black Canadian church leader, an anti Black-racism activist, writer, historian and educator.[1]

She founded the Nova Scotia Association for the Advancement of Coloured People and co-led the Cornwallis Street African Baptist Church. She advocated against the exclusion of Black students from learning nursing, and against racial segregation in education. She received an honorary doctorate degree from Saint Mary's University (Halifax) in 1990.

Oliver died in 2008 before being the focus of Ronald Caplan's book Pearleen Oliver: Canada's Black Crusader for Civil Rights.

Early life and education

Oliver was born into a Church of England-following family as Althea "Pearleen" Borden[2] at Cook's Cove near Chedabucto Bay in Guysborough County, Nova Scotia in 1917.[3] Her great-grandfather was an African slave, her great-grandmother was Dutch and her family was the only Black family in her community. Their daughter, Oliver's grandmother, was Catherine Jewell, who married a man from Newfoundland.[4] Oliver lived in Cook's Cove with her nine[5] brothers and sisters and her mother for her first two years, before moving to New Glasgow to live with her father Joseph Borden (sometimes written Bowden), who worked as a miner in Allen Mines. Her father was killed by a mining accident when she was three or four years old. her mother remarried to a potter who worked at L.E. Shaw's Clay Works in New Glasgow.[4]

Oliver attended New Glasgow High School and was the first Black graduate in 1936.[4][5] She aspired to work in nursing, but was Black students were prohibited from studying nursing in Nova Scotia at the time.[2]

Career and activism

Oliver was a historian, writer, and an educator[6] who founded the Nova Scotia Association for the Advancement of Coloured People.[3] Oliver co-led Halifax’s Cornwallis Street African Baptist Church, Nova Scotia’s premier late 19th and mid 20th century Black church[7][8] and hub for many lower socioeconomic status neighborhoods.[9] The church was a cultural hub and social hub for the Black community.[10] As a leader in the Black community Oliver campaigned against racial segregation in schools.[6]

Oliver expanded the African United Baptist Association in 1953 to include a Women’s Institute for Black women to gather annually and discuss racialized socioeconomic problems and their solutions.[9] These women-run church clubs also raised money, through social functions like bake sales, to combat localized social inequities.[11] She campaigned to get the book Little Black Sambo replaced from the reading list at her son's school.[3]

After repeatedly denouncing Canada’s exclusion of Black women from nursing,[12] Halifax’s Children’s Hospital had Oliver select two Black applicants for admittance and training.[13] Oliver selected Gwenyth Barton and Ruth Bailey, who had been rejected from multiple hospitals due to their race despite their educational qualifications.[13] Oliver personally informed them of their admittance and invited Bailey, a Torontonian,[14] to stay with her family until Oliver arranged Bailey’s permanent room with another family of the Cornwallis Street Church.[13] Oliver’s church network, public speaking, and written correspondence[15] helped Barton and Bailey become the first Black students to attend and graduate nursing school in Canada in 1948.[15]

Oliver received an honorary doctorate degree in Doctor of Humane Letters from Saint Mary's University (Halifax) in 1990.[16][17]

Selected publications

  • A Brief History of the Colored Baptists of Nova Scotia, 1782–1953, Published by the African United Baptist Association of Nova Scotia, in Halifax, 1953[6][18][19]

Personal life, death and legacy

Husband William Pearly Oliver in 1934

Oliver and married William Pearly Oliver just before she graduated from high school in 1936.[4] They had five sons[2] William Jr., Leslie, Jules, Steven and Philip.[3]

Her brother Hector Borden was the father of the actor Walter Borden.[4]

Oliver died in Halifax, Nova Scotia, on 24 July 2008, aged 91.[20] Her life was documented in Ronald Caplan's 2020 book Pearleen Oliver: Canada's Black Crusader for Civil Rights (Cape Breton Books, ISBN 9781926908816.)[3]

See also

References

  1. ↑ Oliver, Pearleen (20 April 2020) [1992]. "Nova Scotia Women's Oral History Project Nova Scotia Archives Sound 1995-009 Transcripts MF 420-0: Tape 1, Side 2". Nova Scotia Archives (Audio recording). Interviewed by Marjory Whitelaw. 26:30. Archived from the original on 2023-03-29. Retrieved 2023-03-27.
  2. 1 2 3 "William Pearly Oliver". The Canadian Encyclopedia. Archived from the original on 2023-02-09. Retrieved 2023-04-26.
  3. 1 2 3 4 5 Smith, Emma (26 February 2021). "New book brings to light legacy of civil rights crusader Pearleen Oliver". CBC. Archived from the original on 30 March 2023. Retrieved 30 March 2023.
  4. 1 2 3 4 5 PEARLENE OLIVER INTERVIEW, SUMMER 1992, TRANSCRIPT 1 Archived 2023-03-29 at the Wayback Machine , Nova Scotia Archives, 1992
  5. 1 2 Barrington Walker (editor)The African Canadian Legal Odyssey: Historical Essays. (2012). United Kingdom: University of Toronto Press. p113
  6. 1 2 3 GEORGE ELLIOTT CLARKE. Odysseys Home : Mapping African-Canadian Literature. Toronto: University of Toronto Press, 2017. ISBN 9781487516611. Disponível em: https://search.ebscohost.com/login.aspx?direct=true&db=nlebk&AN=2093118&site=eds-live&scope=site. Acesso em: 26 abr. 2023.
  7. ↑ Morrison, James (1982). "Your World: International Education Centre Newsletter Vol. 4 No. 1 1982". Saint Mary's University: Patrick Power Library: 10. Archived from the original on 2023-03-27. Retrieved 2023-03-27.{{cite journal}}: CS1 maint: bot: original URL status unknown (link)
  8. ↑ Harding, G. Sophie (2005). Surviving in the Hour of Darkness: The Health and Wellness of Women of Colour and Indigenous Women. University of Calgary Press. p. 54.
  9. 1 2 Oliver, Pearleen (20 April 2020) [1992]. "Nova Scotia Women's Oral History Project Nova Scotia Archives Sound 1995-009 Transcripts MF 420-0: Tape 3, Side 2". Nova Scotia Archives (Audio recording). Interviewed by Marjory Whitelaw. 8:20. Archived from the original on 2023-03-29. Retrieved 2023-03-27.
  10. ↑ Canada, National Film Board of, Black Mother Black Daughter, archived from the original on 2023-04-26, retrieved 2023-03-27
  11. ↑ Archives, Nova Scotia (20 April 2020) [1992]. "Nova Scotia Women's Oral History Project Nova Scotia Archives Sound 1995-009 Transcripts MF 420-0: Interview PDF Transcript 1". Nova Scotia Archives (Typed interview transcript). Interviewed by Marjory Whitelaw. p. 16. Archived from the original on 2023-03-29. Retrieved 2023-03-27.
  12. ↑ Keisha JEFFERIES, et al. Black nurses in the nursing profession in Canada: a scoping review. International Journal for Equity in Health, [s. l.], v. 21, n. 1, p. 1–35, 2022. doi:10.1186/s12939-022-01673-w. Disponível em: https://search.ebscohost.com/login.aspx?direct=true&db=a9h&AN=158137543&site=eds-live&scope=site. Acesso em: 26 abr. 2023.
  13. 1 2 3 Oliver, Pearleen (20 April 2020) [1992]. "Nova Scotia Women's Oral History Project Nova Scotia Archives Sound 1995-009 Transcripts MF 420-0: Tape 2, Side 1". Nova Scotia Archives (Audio recording). Interviewed by Marjory Whitelaw. 7:25. Archived from the original on 2023-03-29. Retrieved 2023-03-27.
  14. ↑ Flynn, Karen (2018). "'Hotel Refuses Negro Nurse': Gloria Clarke Baylis and the Queen Elizabeth Hotel". Canadian Bulletin of Medical History. 35 (2): 284. doi:10.3138/cbmh.256-042018. PMID 30274523. S2CID 52896274 – via Project MUSE.
  15. 1 2 Flynn, Karen (2018). "'Hotel Refuses Negro Nurse': Gloria Clarke Baylis and the Queen Elizabeth Hotel". Canadian Bulletin of Medical History. 35 (2): 285. doi:10.3138/cbmh.256-042018. PMID 30274523. S2CID 52896274. Archived from the original on 2022-02-02. Retrieved 2023-03-27 – via Project MUSE.
  16. ↑ "Black History | The Canadian Encyclopedia". The Canadian Encyclopedia. Archived from the original on 2023-02-06. Retrieved 2023-04-26.
  17. ↑ Saint Mary's University (Halifax, N. S. ) (1990-10-28). "Convocation 1990 Fall". Archived from the original on 2023-03-27. Retrieved 2023-03-27. {{cite journal}}: Cite journal requires |journal= (help)
  18. ↑ GEORGE ELLIOTT CLARKE, “What Spines to Crack, What Leaves to Thumb! On Uncovering Black History in Atlantic Canada, from Cover to Cover.” Acadiensis, vol. 50, no. 1, 2021, pp. 220–22. JSTOR, JSTOR 27085381. Accessed 26 Apr. 2023.
  19. ↑ MORTON, SUZANNE, and DONALD WRIGHT. “Black History in Atlantic Canada: A Bibliography.” Acadiensis, vol. 50, no. 1, 2021, pp. 223–75. JSTOR, JSTOR 27085382. Accessed 26 Apr. 2023.
  20. ↑ Armstrong, Neil (4 March 2015). "Ryerson Honours Strong Black Women Leaders". Pride. Archived from the original on 30 March 2023. Retrieved 30 March 2023.
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