Not for Ourselves

As a child attending church in Toronto with her mother, Rosemary Sadlier (BA ’75) always heard the motto, “Not for ourselves but for others.” It’s something she thinks she has “over-internalized,” and which has influenced her lifelong work to ensure that Black history is recognized throughout the city, the province and the rest of Canada.

The former president of the Ontario Black History Society (OBHS), author and advocate against anti-Black racism continues to do Black history work beyond the organization. She views her work as a legacy to the community. “If you don’t see it, then you have to create it; if you don’t see it, you have to be it.”

Starting out as an English major, but not seeing herself reflected there, she switched to sociology, which she thought at the time would be important, “but unfortunately Toronto was still Toronto, so that didn’t make a particular amount of difference.”

“I think what I left York with was more of a global perspective, and also much more a sense of the nature of societal factors on individual expressions, which was very important to what I think I went on to do,” says Sadlier, who studied as an undergraduate at Glendon Campus.

She did a master’s degree at the University of Toronto and completed the course work for her PhD at the Ontario Institute for Studies in Education (OISE). However, she didn’t do her thesis because she was unable to pay the tuition, and the full-time job she was hoping to secure did not materialize. But she continues to contribute to the department, sometimes participating in conferences or writing articles.

Sadlier said most people know her as having headed the OBHS for 22 years – the only provincial heritage organization in Canada with a focus on Black history – a position for which she was not paid. “I was holding place and space for the Black community through this organization,” she said, noting that it aimed to address anti-Black racism.

In total, she was with the organization for 25 years, visiting schools and making Black history presentations – something she did before becoming the president, and continued to do as the OBHS’s leader.

Sadlier is proud of the work she did to rally support for the City of Toronto to designate February as Black History Month, and for the provincial government to do the same. She was also instrumental in the federal government officially recognizing the month. Jean Augustine, then the member of Parliament for Etobicoke—Lakeshore, brought the motion to the House of Commons that was passed unanimously in 1995.

“That was the reason I was the only non-elected person on the platform in Ottawa when the first celebration of February as Black History Month was held,” she says.

While Black History Month was finally recognized, the historian felt that, for many Canadians, there seemed to be an unawareness of some of the challenges and atrocities that had taken place in Canada.

This led her to work on the recognition of Emancipation Day, which connected Canada with the transatlantic slave trade, and to the diaspora in a way that Black History Month didn’t seem to do in its expression. “Black History Month says we’re here, we exist, and Emancipation Day says that in that existence, we also have resisted and survived a 200-plus year experience of enslavement in this country.”

In 2023, OCAD University presented her with an honorary degree, and this past summer, the University of Toronto did the same, says Sadlier, who was honoured by York University by being included on the Glendon Campus Wall of Recognition in 2023. The republication of her book The Kids Book of Black Canadian History, which has been updated with new illustrations by Arden Taylor and a slight name change, The Kids Book of Black History in Canada, was released in June.

“It’s very important that the effort that I have extended, that I think some people may be unaware of, is being recognized,” she says, hoping it will be inspirational for people involved in social justice advocacy.

As Chair of the Linc Committee, Sadlier recently realized the fruition of several years of commitment, when a bust in honour of Lincoln Alexander, the first Black Lieutenant-Governor of Ontario and Canada’s first Black member of Parliament and cabinet minister, was unveiled inside Queen’s Park.

Funding from the Black Opportunity Fund, RBC Foundation and individual donations resulted in the creation and instalment of the bust in the west wing of the main floor, looking toward the entrance of the lieutenant-governor’s suite.

“We do these commemorations because it is a way of honouring the past, but it’s also with an eye to the impact that this has for the future. Sometimes it’s a reminder that we plan to be here.” ■