Stanley G. Grizzle

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Stanley G. Grizzle is a retired Canadian citizenship judge and labour union activist. Born in 1918 in Toronto to Jamaican immigrants, he was the oldest of seven children.

1 Early work
2 Union experience
3 Political career
4 Awards and acknowledgment
5 References
6 External link

[edit] Early work

Grizzle worked at several jobs while attending school as a teenager, and at the age of 22 joined the Canadian Pacific Railway (CPR) as a railway porter -- a menial job then held almost exclusively by black men.

As he details in his autobiography, My Name's Not George, "Why did I get a job as a porter on the railway? I couldn't get anything else -- and I didn't want to starve...the City didn't hire African Canadians. Eaton's, Simpson's, none of the department stores hired Blacks. For many African Canadians, service jobs were the (only) ones they could get."

The job of a porter was double-edged: black porters were often mistreated on the job and forced to act out a stereotypical, "Stepin Fetchit" role of servitude. They were often the target of racial comments by white passengers. The hours were long and the wages small. Conversely, in the black community of the 1940s, "porters were well respected and looked up to by many in the community because they had steady employment," said Grizzle in his autobiography. "In essence they were the aristocrats of African Canadian communities." Steady wages also meant they could often send their children to university, and several leading African Canadians, including pianist Oscar Peterson, were the children of porters.

[edit] Union experience

While working as a porter, Grizzle became active in the Brotherhood of Sleeping Car Porters (BSCP), a trade union whose leader was the charismatic African American A. Philip Randolph.

Upon his return to Canada after serving in Europe during World War II, Grizzle became more active in the union. He was elected president of his union local, and pushed the CPR to open the management ranks to blacks. He also plunged into other causes and was a leader in Canada's nascent civil rights era of the 1950s, working with the Joint Labour Committee to Combat Racial Intolerance.

[edit] Political career

In 1959, Grizzle and Jack White were the first Black Canadian candidates to run for election to the Legislative Assembly of Ontario. Grizzle ran in East York, Ontario, for the Cooperative Commonwealth Federation, placing third with 9,122 votes.

In 1960, Grizzle went to work for the Ontario Labour Relations Board, and in 1978 he was appointed a Citizenship Judge by Prime Minister Pierre Trudeau.

[edit] Awards and acknowledgment

In recognition of his work with the BSCP and his civil rights work, Grizzle received the Order of Ontario in 1990 from Lieutenant-Governor Lincoln Alexander. As further recognition, he received the Order of Canada in 1995 from Governor General Romeo Leblanc.

[edit] References

My Name's Not George: The Story of the Brotherhood of Sleeping Car Porters: Personal Reminiscences of Stanley G. Grizzle, by Stanley G. Grizzle with John Cooper.