Building Social and Community Life: Violet King and Theodore King
This is an excerpt from the Hillhurst Sunnyside Historical Context paper, ‘Building Social and Community Life (pp. 80-81). For more on the history of our neighbourhood, check out the full paper: https://www.hsca.ca/historical-context-paper.
Two Sunnyside residents played an important role in the movement towards change, notable Canadian racial equality pioneers, Violet and Theodore (Ted) King. Violet (1929-1982) broke barriers for both gender and racial equality. In 1954 she became the first Black person to obtain a law degree in Alberta and the first to be admitted to the Alberta bar, the latter being a feat that would not be repeated for another decade. She was also Canada’s first Black female lawyer. Her brother Ted was an early human rights advocate who served as president of the Alberta Association for the Advancement of Coloured People. This was a time when hotels and motels could refuse accommodation to people of visible minorities, and Ted used the courts to fight this discrimination.
Violet and Ted’s parents Stella, a seamstress and cook, and her husband John moved to Sunnyside in 1929 to raise their family. John worked as a sleeping car porter, one of the few occupations available to Blacks prior to the First Work War. John’s parents, African Americans who emigrated in 1911 from Oklahoma to a small farming community in Alberta, had also faced discrimination when in the early 19th century politicians were attempting to implement policy that would restrict the number of Black immigrants to the Canadian Prairies. Fortunately, these policies were never adopted.
February is Black History Month
Did You Know…
• On February 1, 1996 – The first Black History Month in Canada was declared.
• On January 31, 2017 – The Government of Alberta officially proclaimed February as Black History Month in Alberta.
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