William A. White
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
The Reverend Captain William Andrew White, D.D., was born on June 16, 1874 to former slaves in King and Queen County, Virginia, U.S.A. Reverend White came to Nova Scotia, Canada, in 1900 after a Canadian school teacher in Baltimore impressed him with descriptions of this Canadian province.
Rev. White pictured this land as his key to freedom. He became the second black man accepted by Acadia University and the first to be later honoured with a Doctorate of Divinity. Rev. White graduated from Acadia in 1903 with an arts degree in Theology, was ordained a minister, and spent the next two years as a travelling missionary for the African Baptist Churches of Nova Scotia.
Rev. White met and married Izie Dora White (coincidentally she had the same last name) of Mill Village Nova Scotia, and together they raised a family of twelve children. One of their children, Portia White, grew to become a world famous singer. Another, Bill Jr., became the first Black Canadian to run for political office in Canada when he stood as a candidate for the Cooperative Commonwealth Federation in the 1949 election. A third, Jack, was a noted Canadian labour union activist and the second black candidate to run for election to the Legislative Assembly of Ontario.
In 1916, Rev. White enlisted in the No. 2 Construction Battalion, an all black segregated unit in World War I. He was the only black officer and chaplain for the entire British Army. Following the war Rev. White returned home to Halifax and was called to Cornwallis Street Baptist Church, a position he held for over 17 years.
Rev. White died of cancer in 1936.
His grandchildren include Senator Donald Oliver, politician and activist Sheila White and folk musician Chris White. Novelist and playwright George Elliott Clarke is his great-grandson.
