Carrie Best
Carrie Best was a pioneering figure in the civil rights movement in Canada, born on March 4, 1903, in New Glasgow, Nova Scotia. Growing up in a context of systemic segregation, she developed a strong sense of pride in her Black identity and began writing poetry at an early age. Best is best known for her courageous stand in 1941 when she and her son challenged segregation at the Roseland Theatre, leading to their arrest and sparking a civil rights dialogue in Canada. In 1946, she founded Nova Scotia's first Black-owned newspaper, the Clarion, which became a prominent voice advocating for equality and covering significant civil rights issues, including the case of Viola Desmond. In addition to her journalism, Best hosted a weekly radio show, The Quiet Corner, from 1952 to 1964, promoting messages of civility and kindness. She continued to write about human rights issues until her later years, earning recognition for her contributions, including being appointed to the Order of Canada in 1974. Best's autobiography, published in 1977, solidified her legacy as a key advocate for equality, inspiring future generations to pursue justice and dignity for marginalized communities. She passed away on July 24, 2001, at the age of ninety-eight.
Carrie Best
Canadian journalist and civil rights leader
- Born: March 4, 1903
- Birthplace: New Glasgow, Canada
- Died: July 24, 2001
- Place of death: New Glasgow, Canada
Significance: For more than half a century, Carrie Best fought to end racism and discrimination in her native Nova Scotia. In 1946, Best started the first black-owned Canadian newspaper, the Clarion, which during the 1950s gave voice to that province’s black community and its crusade against laws that promoted segregation.
Background
Carrie Best was born Carrie Mae Prevoe to James and Georgina Prevoe on March 4, 1903, in the small town of New Glasgow, on the banks of the East River by Nova Scotia. Nova Scotia’s north shore had long been home to a significant black community. A relatively small number of Africans began arriving in colonial Nova Scotia as slaves in the eighteenth century, followed by larger numbers of runaway American slaves during the American Revolution, many of them Loyalists whose flight was facilitated by the British. Many of these former slaves settled in Nova Scotia and had for generations raised their families in relative quiet. However, Canadian laws had long institutionalized segregation, separating blacks and whites in public places such as restaurants, theaters, and schools. Thus, Best grew up in an era when black people in Nova Scotia were routinely treated as second-class citizens. However, her parents instilled in their daughter a sense of pride in black identity.
Best was precocious—she began writing poetry at four. She was a voracious reader and bothered her mother about what she perceived to be stereotypes of black people in literature. She sent letters to the editor of the local newspaper while still in high school that raised questions about race relations in Nova Scotia. She completed her high school education, which was at the time the terminal degree for a black girl in Nova Scotia, as no Canadian university accepted black applicants.
Civil Rights Activism
Three weeks before Christmas, 1941, Best decided to take her son Calbert to the Roseland Theatre in New Glasgow to see a movie. At the time, the Roseland Theatre, like all movie theaters in Canada, restricted their seating: black people sat in the balcony, with main floor seating reserved for whites only. Best bought her tickets, but she and her son attempted to sit down in the whites-only section. Ushers quickly directed them to the balcony. Best refused. More than a decade before Rosa Parks would make a similar stand in the American South and refuse to move to the back of a city bus in Montgomery, Alabama, Best decided to challenge the Canadian segregation laws. She and her son were arrested for disturbing the peace. They lost in court, eventually paying a fine; Best in turn filed a civil lawsuit against the theater, charging assault and battery.
Although she lost in court, in 1946, Best started the first black-owned newspaper in Nova Scotia, the Clarion. For the next decade, her paper, in addition to news and sports, covered the struggle for black Canadians to achieve equality, most famously covering the 1946 arrest and trial of Viola Desmond (1914–1965), a successful beautician from nearby Halifax who, while her car was being repaired in New Glasgow, decided to take in a movie in the Roseland. Like Best, she refused to sit in the balcony and was forcibly removed from the theater, then arrested for trespassing and disturbing the peace. The Clarion took up her case in scathing editorials that denounced the Jim Crow laws in Nova Scotia. Desmond lost in court (indeed, the Canadian appellate court would not officially pardon her until more than forty years after her death), but the case made the Clarion (and Best herself) the de facto voice of the civil rights movement in the province. In 1956, Best sold the Clarion; it later became, briefly, the Negro Citizen, a national newspaper focused on civil rights initiatives.
Best, now in her fifties, sought a quieter forum. In 1952, she agreed to host a weekly radio show called The Quiet Corner. In between classical and gospel musical selections, Best read listeners inspirational poetry and stories designed to teach lessons of civility and kindness. The show was carried on four stations in the Maritime Provinces, running until 1964. In addition, Best maintained a presence in the civil rights movement, writing spirited columns for the Pictou Advocate from 1968 to 1975. Her column was titled simply, "Human Rights," covering issues pertaining to Aboriginal rights and civil rights generally. In 1977, she published her autobiography, That Lonesome Road, which quickly became not only a national best seller but a landmark memoir in the civil rights movement.
Best was named to the Order of Canada in 1974, which annually recognizes the highest achievement dedicated to community service. In 1975 she received an honorary doctor of law degree from St. Francis Xavier University School of Law in Antigonish, Nova Scotia, and, in 1992, an honorary doctorate of civil law from the University of King’s College in Halifax. Best died in New Glasgow at the age of ninety-eight on July 24, 2001.
Impact
Like Rosa Parks, Best was moved to challenge what she knew in her heart was an unfair system. In doing so, in refusing to be a second-class citizen, she inspired a generation of black Canadians to demand equality and, more importantly, dignity. Best became one of the most eloquent and tenacious voices in the Canadian civil rights movement, crusading for equality not only for black people but for women, immigrants, and First Nations Aboriginal Canadians.
Personal Life
In 1925, Best married Albert T. Best, a porter for the Canadian National Railway. For the next two decades, the couple raised their son, James Calbert, and four foster children, Berma, Emily, Sharon, and Aubrey Marshall. James Calbert Best became a public servant, union activist, and diplomat, and served as high commissioner to Trinidad and Tobago.
Bibliography
Backhouse, Constance. "‘I Was Unable to Identify with Topsy’: Carrie M. Best’s Struggle against Racial Segregation in Nova Scotia, 1942." Atlantis 22.2 (1998): 16–26. Print.
"Carrie M. Best: A Digital Archive." Pictou-Antigonish Regional Library. PARL, n.d. Web. 8 Aug. 2016.
Clément, Dominique. Canada’s Rights Revolution: Social Movements and Social Change, 1937–82. Vancouver: U of British Columbia P, 2008. Print.
Graham, D. G. "Carrie Best." Section15.ca. Nancy’s Very Own Foundation, 25 Feb. 1998. Web. 8 Aug. 2016.
Lambertson, Ross. Repression and Resistance: Canadian Human Rights Activists, 1930–1960. Toronto: U of Toronto P, 2005. Print.
MacLennan, Christopher. Toward a Charter: Canada and the Demand for a National Bill of Rights, 1929–1960. Kingston: McGill-Queen’s UP, 2003. Print.
McLeod, Susanna. "Carrie Best." The Canadian Encyclopedia. Historica Canada, 10 Feb. 2016. Web. 8 Aug. 2016.
Nunn, Jim. "Civil Rights Activist Carrie Best." CBC. CBC, 26 July 1991. Web. 8 Aug. 2016.