THE ADVOCATE 297
VOL. 80 PART 2 MARCH 2022
ENDNOTES
1. Discussion in this piece of Abraham Beverley Walker,
as well as more general background, is based on
sources including JB Cahill, “Walker, Abraham Beverley”,
Dictionary of Canadian Biography, vol XIII
(1901–1910), online: <www.biographi.ca/en/bio
/walker_abraham_beverley_13E.html>; Peter Little,
Abraham Beverley Walker: Lawyer, Lecturer, Activist
(Halifax: New World Publishing (Canada), 2018–
2019); New Brunswick Black History Society, “Abraham
Beverley Walker”, online: <www.nbblack
historysociety.org/research/professionals/abraham-
beverley-walker>; “Abraham Beverley Walker”,
Wikipedia, online: <en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Abraham
_Beverley_Walker>; Mary Stokes, “Who Was the
First Black Lawyer in Canada?”, The Osgoode Society
for Canadian Legal History (9 July 2015), online:
<www.osgoodesociety.ca/did_you_know/threefirst
black-lawyers-in-canada-robert-sutherlandabraham
walker-delos-davis/>; Esmeralda M.A.
Thornhill, “So Seldom for Us, So Often Against Us”
(2008) 38:3 Journal of Black Studies 321; Philip
Girard, “The Maritime Provinces, 1850-1939:
Lawyers and Legal Institutions” (1995) 23 Man LJ
379; Steven Webb, “Efforts Underway to Mark the
Grave of First Canadian-Born Black Lawyer”, CBC
News (4 April 2021), online: <www.cbc.ca/news/
canada/new-brunswick/grave-marker-first-blacklawyer
1.5973269>; Nojoud Al Mallees, “Grave of
First Canadian-Born Black Lawyer Finally Gets
Headstone in Saint John”, CBC News (25 June
2021), online: <www.cbc.ca/news/canada/newbrunswick/
abraham-walker-headstone-1.60791
17>; Kevin Bissett, “Ground-Breaking Canadian
Black Lawyer Abraham Beverley Walker to Finally Be
Honoured in New Brunswick”, Toronto Star (27
October 2019), online: <www.thestar.com/news/
canada/2019/10/27/ground-breaking-canadianblack
lawyer-abraham-beverley-walker-to-finally-behonoured
in-new-brunswick.html>; Timothy Christie,
“Abraham Beverley Walker: A Lawyer Never to
Receive Justice”, CBC (16 February 2021, updated
17 February 2021), online: <www.cbc.ca/news/
canada/new-brunswick/abraham-beverley-walkerwe
were-were-1.5911191>; Robert W Winks,
Blacks in Canada: A History, 50th anniversary ed
(Montreal and Kingston: McGill-Queen’s University
Press, 2021).
2. Discussion in this piece of Delos Rogest Davis is
based on sources including Owen Thomas, “Davis,
Delos Rogest”, Dictionary of Canadian Biography,
vol XIV (1911–1920), online: <www.biographi.ca/
en/bio.php?BioID=41444>; Lance C Talbot, “The
History of Blacks in the Law Society of Upper
Canada” (1990) 24:1 Law Society of Upper Canada
Gazette 65; Christopher Moore, The Law Society of
Upper Canada and Ontario’s Lawyers: 1797–1997
(Toronto: University of Toronto Press, 1997); “Delos
Davis”, The Canadian Encyclopedia (4 March 2015,
updated 27 January 27, 2014), online: <www.the
canadianencyclopedia.ca/en/article/delos-davis>;
“Delos Davis”, Wikipedia, online: <en.wikipedia.
org/wiki/Delos_Davis>; “First Black Lawyer in
Canada”, Walkerville Times, online: <www.walker
villetimes.com/black-lawyer.htm>; Amherstburg
Freedom Museum, “Davis Family”, online: <amherst
burgfreedom.org/davis-family/>; “From Athlete to
Judge”, online: <www.uwindsor.ca/law/234/athlete-
judge>; Jae Jones, “Delos Rogest Davis: Second
Black Lawyer in Canada & First to Be Appointed
to the King’s Counsel” (29 December 2019), online:
<blackthen.com/delos-rogest-davis-second-blacklawyer
canada-first-black-appointed-kings-
counsel/>.
3. The first Black lawyer in Canada was Robert Sutherland.
Sutherland was born in Jamaica in around
1830, likely to a relatively affluent “white Scottish
father and a free black mother”. His family sent him
to Queen’s University (possibly because it, like his
father, was Presbyterian) and he graduated in 1852
as the first Black university graduate in Ontario. He
studied law at Osgoode Hall and was admitted to the
bar of Upper Canada in 1855. Sutherland practised
initially in Berlin (Kitchener), Ontario before moving
to Walkerton. He died of pneumonia in 1878, leaving
his entire estate to Queen’s College (apparently
in financial straits at the time), where he said he “had
always been treated like a gentleman” (with the
implication, of course, that this had perhaps not
always been the case). One of his executors was his
friend and one-time classmate, James Maclennan,
who sat as a justice of the Supreme Court of Canada
from 1905 to 1909. See Deirdré Rowe Brown,
“Robert Sutherland: Celebrating the Legacy” (2009)
35:1 Queen’s LJ 401.
4. “Kingston Peninsula”, Wikipedia, online: <en.wiki
pedia.org/wiki/Kingston_Peninsula>; Envision Saint
John, “Black Loyalists in New Brunswick” (March 23,
2019), online: <www.discoversaintjohn.com/blackloyalists
new-brunswick>.
5. Cahill, supra note 1.
6. Black men had the right to vote, though sometimes
faced practical and legal restrictions in doing so:
Natasha L Henry, “Black Voting Rights in Canada”,
The Canadian Encyclopedia (20 January 2016),
online: <www.thecanadianencyclopedia.ca/en/
article/black-voting-rights>.
7. Winks, supra note 1 at 399.
8. Moore, supra note 2 at 177–78.
9. Ibid at 178.
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