John Cooper - Season of Rage. Hugh Burnett and the Struggle for Civil Rights

nce, there was a southern Ontario town called Dresden. Of its couple of thousand people, a few hundred were African-Canadians. In theory, these black people had the same rights as every other citizen of the town. But theory is not reality, and the reality of life for black people in this small town was marked by unfair treatment and the denial of many of those rights.

Beginning in 1943, one man made up his mind to change the way black people in his town were treated. Hugh Burnett was a twenty-four-year-old carpenter, but he had already been away from his hometown to take basic training as a soldier. World War II saw men and women both black and white fighting and getting killed in defense of liberty and democracy around the world. Hugh Burnett figured that if freedom was worth fighting for on the battlefields of Europe, then it was worth standing up for at home. So when the white owner of a restaurant refused to let him eat there just because of the color of this skin Burnett decided to make a stand.

More than half a century has passed since then, and many things have changed. Wars have been fought and brought to an end. Presidents and prime ministers have been elected and defeated. Children have grown up, gone to school, found jobs, been married, and had children of their own. Hugh Burnett's struggle against the prejudice he found in the town of Dresden might seem like no big deal. But history is made up of stories like his, little stories put together to become our shared story our history. About the same time that Hugh Burnett was trying to have the law changed in Dresden, Ontario, a black woman in Montgomery, Alabama, refused to give up her seat to a white man on a bus; four African-American college students sat down at a whites-only lunch counter in North Carolina; and nine black kids walked into an all-white high school in Little Rock, Arkansas.

Each of these stories may seem like no big deal. But taken together they make up an important part of the history of the civil-rights movement in North America, one of the most powerful and important stories of the 20th century.

Like all stories, it's hard to say when exactly it begins. Some people might say that Hugh Burnett's story began when his ancestors came to Canada to escape from slavery. Others might start the story even further back in time, when slavery was introduced to the North American colonies. Without doubt, the history of slavery helps to explain some of what happened later, not just in Dresden, but also in Alabama, North Carolina, Arkansas, and all the American states and Canadian provinces where black people now live.

The journey from slavery to full equality was a long and difficult one. African-Americans, sometimes supported by white allies, had to fight for freedom. Even after they had won their freedom in legal terms, they had to fight for recognition of their rights as citizens. This timeline marks some of the significant stages of the journey leading to the beginning of the civil-rights movement in the 1950s and '60s.

The first African slaves are transported to the Virginia settlement.

American Revolution: Thirteen colonies in North America fight the British to win their independence. During the struggle, the British promise freedom and land to blacks who fight against the American rebels.

Vermont is the first state to abolish slavery. It is followed in 1783 by Massachusetts. Over time, the northern states all outlaw slavery, while the southern states continue to give legal protection to slave owners.

Treaty of Paris marks independence of the United States of America (U.S.). About 5,000 black people emigrate to Canada, chiefly to the Maritime provinces.

The Underground Railroad is founded in Philadelphia.

The Underground Railway

A group of mainly white Quakers living in Philadelphia in the late 1700s were deeply opposed to slavery, and decided to help slaves escape from the South to the northern states where slavery was illegal. They called the escape route the Underground Railroad. It was not a real railroad, but a system of safe houses or stations where different people conductors would hide escaped slaves and show them the way to the next safe place on the route. Over the years, thousands of slaves made their way to freedom with the assistance of members of this dedicated secret organization.

Slavery is ended in Upper Canada (now Ontario).

British slave trade is made illegal.

War of 1812: armed conflict between the U.S. and Great Britain. The British again promise freedom and land to escaped slaves who join the war against the U.S.

First European settlers in what is to become Dresden, Ontario.

Wilberforce, a segregated community (in which black and white people are separated), is founded in Upper Canada.