Talk:Paul Lewis (London, Ontario)

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This particular wiki bio was up for more than a year after I first created it. Someone deleted it.

It's my position that this person is a notable Londoner and notable generally, particularly as a co-founder of the Canadian League for the Advancement of Coloured Peoples in 1925. Barry Wells (talk) 02:43, 18 February 2008 (UTC)

I see that there was a prior discussion -- that I was unaware of -- about this page.

Comments such as Paul Lewis is a "dead black guy" -- typical of presumably young white people who have no understanding of the struggle for equality by African Americans and Canadians.

Paul Lewis was a co-founder of a national organization in this regard, the Canadian League for the Advancement of Coloured Peoples, which subsequently morphed/ consolidated with the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NCAAP). Its organ in Canada was the newspaper The Dawn of Tomorrow, founded in 1923 in London, Ontario, by James Jenkins. It's still published today, albeit only twice a year. Barry Wells (talk) 03:51, 18 February 2008 (UTC)

It was to my surprise that in this articule they did not mention that the church that he attended on Grey street is still an operational location and that it tends to the homeless and the needy of the London South. As for the comment "dead black guy" is truly disrespectful. —Preceding unsigned comment added by 64.201.173.189 (talk) 22:50, 28 February 2008 (UTC)

I have concerns about this article. It may well be that Lewis is a notable person and should have an article in Wikipedia, but there is little in the article so far to substantiate this. What does it say? He was "a popular figure". So what? He did a variety of jobs (barber, janitor) but there's no suggestion he achieved fame for his work! He was a member of a church. Not a claim to notability. He played one part in a drama production (amateur dramatics?), so not a notable actor. He was photographed by some photographers, but it is they who are notable, not he. The dedication of a museum room to him starts to be impressive but needs more backup.

The comments in this discussion do not help, but read as an attempt to shower him with notability that cannot stick. Some comments include "Paul Lewis was a co-founder of a national organization". What does this mean? One of the leaders who played an instrumental part in organising the association or just one of 1000 or so founding members? The comments about the newspaper and its history are totally irrelevant; there is no suggestion he had any connection with it. Similarly, the fact that the church he belonged to still exists is totally irrelevant - it would do so, I suspect, if he had never existed.

I cannot tell from the article why it should be here. There may be reasons, but if Paul Lewis is really notable this article does not show why and does him no justice. (And the comment 'dead black guy' is not so much disrespectful as ignorant.) Emeraude (talk) 23:07, 10 March 2008 (UTC)