Good to remember anti-racism efforts

I was just eight years old and a grade three student in New Glasgow on the day in 1946 when Viola Desmond challenged the Roseland Theatre’s regulation that only whites were allowed to sit downstairs.
I’m sure I wasn’t old enough at the time to understand the ramifications of the incident. But I’ve never forgotten the discussions I heard at home and at school about the black woman who was taken out of the theatre because she wouldn’t move up to the balcony.
We lived on Temperance Street, only two blocks up the hill from the Roseland, so it was certainly a situation that occurred close to home. And it was a story that obviously had a lasting impact on my young mind, even though I didn’t immediately understand the racial overtones of what happened. Nonetheless, I never forgot about it as I was growing up.
It was about that time that I was becoming a sports fan, particularly of baseball and hockey, professional and local. It was just a year later that Jackie Robinson broke the colour barrier in major league baseball.
It was also when my father started taking me to sports events in Pictou County, including boxing cards. That’s when I became familiar with fighters like Keith and Percy Paris, and boxing trainer Sparky Paris, three men I would get to know later in my life when I ventured into journalism.
Even before that, though, I knew the young fellows from my age group who were playing sports, especially when we reached New Glasgow High School in 1952, just six years after the incident at the Roseland.
In my high school years that followed, I don’t particularly recall any racial problems. But that doesn’t mean they didn’t take place. Some of the black students in the school were among the top athletes and popular with everyone.
There was no better athlete, male or female, than Willena Borden, who excelled in girls basketball and did well in track and field. Francis and Clarence Desmond were on the rugby team, Chuck Borden and Nathan Paris played basketball, while Francis and Ditty Desmond and Leo Paris were on the hockey team.
Meantime, I loved attending local professional boxing cards, and I remember cheering for Keith and Percy Paris. I can recall Buddy Daye in his early days in the ring, and you couldn’t live in New Glasgow without knowing Sparky Paris, one of the friendliest men in the community.
Unfortunately, as we grew older we learned about racial discrimination, in places across the country, and more particularly south of the border in the United States. It was always sad and frustrating to think that such incidents could occur because of people’s colour.
My thoughts on the subject were revived a couple weeks ago when, reading the Feb. 1 issue of The Advocate, I saw two different stories.
The first article was about a stamp being issued by Canada Post to salute the late Viola Desmond, six and a half decades after her theatre ejection. She had stood up for her rights, and it’s only too bad she died without realizing her actions were not in vain.
The other article referred to the Pictou County Sports Heritage Hall of Fame marking Black History Month in Nova Scotia. How nice to see an accompanying photo of Ruth Paris, Sparky’s wife.
Sparky, as was noted, is now 89 years young. It was seven years ago when I spent time with him to recount his many years in boxing. I was impressed then by how clearly he could recall getting into the sport as an 18-year-old, how with little training he won his first match by a knockout.
He last fought in 1958, but he loved the sport so much that he stuck around the ring for a much longer time. While fighting, he was already helping other boxers in the gym, so becoming a trainer was the natural thing to do.
He didn’t have to go far to find fighters. Percy was his brother, Keith was a nephew, and with his help both won championships. Percy won Maritime and Canadian titles in the lightweight division while Keith later captured the Maritime crown in the same weight class.
You can name a lot of fighters who came under Sparky’s wing. Fellows like Nathan Paris, Joe Borden, Bearcat Jackson, Jo Jo Jackson, Gary MacLean, Raymond Jackson and Gary MacNeil were among them.
Sparky Paris’s work didn’t go unnoticed. He was inducted into the Canadian Boxing Hall of Fame, and was later enshrined as a builder in the Nova Scotia Sport Hall of Fame and the Pictou County hall.
Sparky was always a personable man – one of my favourites actually.
I don’t want to discuss Black History Month, however, without also mentioning Henderson Paris. Yes, another Paris!
I would be remiss if I addressed racism without applauding Hennie’s efforts. For he was the one who started the annual Run Against Racism in the county, an event that deserves everyone’s support.
Also, one of my favourite classmates in high school sat across the aisle. Gus Paris was Hennie’s older brother, and played rugby and basketball for school teams. He was a class act, just like Hennie.
I mentioned not seeing serious racism incidents in school, but Hennie Paris was surrounded by them all his life. A runner at heart, that’s why he decided to hold races to bring attention to racial discrimination. What he’s done in recent years has been a marvellous undertaking.
As The Advocate’s story on Viola Desmond said, the incident at the Roseland Theatre a lifetime ago was “a very dark day in our history and a terrible wrong occurred.”
That’s why it’s important to remember not only that incident so long ago, but to keep the anti-racism efforts of people like Sparky Paris and Hennie Paris in the forefront too.

Hugh Townsend, a New Glasgow native and Nova Scotia sports journalist for over 55 years, can be reached by email at ght1967@gmail.com