In this episode, Shaking The Foundations: The Lyle Emerson Talbot Story, we’ll be joined once again by Melody Hamilton Blondel, who was featured in our special interview episode, How Music Connects You to Ancestry (S2: Ep4), in which she spoke about her connection to her African heritage through music and other means. In fact, this episode was inspired by our conversation with Melody, who is the granddaughter of Lyle Talbot, who was a Black Canadian Activist. Melody will also be reading excerpts from her grandfather’s memoire throughout the episode.
The title, Shaking the Foundations, is taken from Lyle Talbot’s book about his faith journey, but it is apropos to all of his life’s work.
RESOURCES
Memoir of a Black Canadian Activist by Lyle Talbot (Amazon.ca link; or search your favourite bookseller)
Growing Up Black in Canada by Carol Talbot (Porchlight Books link; or search your favourite bookseller)
Racial Segregation of Black People in Canada by Natasha Henry (Canadian Encyclopedia)
Newspaper Clippings – 1954-55 Dresden Affair (Finding Christ Church; online access free)
National Unity Association (Chatham-Kent Museums)
How activists fought racist restaurateurs in southwestern Ontario by Genelle Levy (TVO)
Dresden Story: Racism in 1950s Canada | Curator’s Perspective (National Film Board; includes link to video)
Dresden Story (National Film Board; YouTube)
Jim Crow Lives in Dresden by Sydney Katz (Maclean’s Magazine; 1949)
Fred Christie, Hugh Burnett and the Fight Against Canadian Jim Crow Practices Needs to Be Acknowledged (Teaching African Canadian History)
Privilege and Oppression: The Configuration of Race, Gender, and Class in Southern Ontario Auto Plants, 1939 to 1949 by Pamela Sugiman (Canadian Committee on Labour History; pdf)