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1896: William Peyton Hubbard, the city's first Black alderman, is born in Toronto in 1842, the son of free Black parents. A baker and inventor, he's encouraged by George Brown to run as alderman in Ward 4; an area without a black constituency. He wins and serves until 1908.
Hubbard works for the little man. When rich laundry owners try to drive the city's new Chinese laundries out of business by charging exorbitant license fees, Hubbard is the single voice that defends them. Hubbard's argument isn't only with those in the community who want to see the demise of Chinese laundries, but also with certain members of council whose prejudice towards the Chinese borders on hatred. As for any racial prejudice aimed against himself, Hubbard states: "I always felt that I am a representative of a race hitherto despised, but if given a fair opportunity would be able to command esteem."
Hubbard also proves prophetic in the cause of public utilities. He lobbies for cheap, publicly owned electricity, insisting on provincial legislation to wrestle control of electrical power from private industry. It is a fight he eventually wins. It is William Hubbard's sense of fair play and racial tolerance that guides Toronto into the future.
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1851: George Brown watches with horror as the Americans enact their brutal Fugitive Law. It is a cruel law that allows for the hunting down of escape slaves in free American states. Fifty thousand Black refugees hurry into British Canada for protection in the "lion's paw." While black citizens had been living peacefully in York for over fifty years, the flood of refugees from the Underground Railroad sends shudders down some white spines. George Brown, founder of the Globe newspaper in 1844, embraces the Black cause. In 1851, Brown and his family found the Canadian Anti-Slavery Society, using their newspaper to attack intolerance. At a meeting at St. Lawrence Hall, with the mayor in the chair, Brown launches the new organization with a view to ending "the common guilt of the civilized and Christian world."He goes on to become the father of Confederation
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1852: Egerton Ryerson is a lifelong opponent of John Strachan's efforts to make Toronto education singularly Anglican. A Methodist minister and educator, Ryerson is appointed superintendent of schools in the newly created Canada West in 1844. Eight years later he introduces Ontario's first free public schools, which becomes a model copied across Canada. He believes children fourteen and under have to go to school and that teachers have to be qualified. With a rural population moving to the city and streams of immigrants arriving, children are hanging out on the streets. In fact, 11% of Toronto's workforce is made up of children.
It is Ryerson's upper class opinion that school keeps poor children from running wild, who, he believes tend to be criminal and destructive by nature. Methodist Ryerson is also the founder of Ryerson Press, a second generation Family Compact member, and a contemporary of Robert Baldwin.
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