by Akosua Lowery
Lincoln MacCauley Alexander
“He was already a trailblazer, working as a lawyer in Hamilton — one of the first black lawyers in Ontario — but the African trip awakened him to even greater possibilities. The trip was, he wrote in his book, a journey of self-awareness. ‘I became conscious of my blackness…I had come from a white world. In Africa I was a black man and I was somebody. I started standing tall.’” – Lincoln MacCauley Alexander
January 21, 1922 Lincoln MacCauley Alexander, Canada’s first black Member of Parliament, was born in Toronto, Canada. After serving in the Royal Canadian Air Force during World War II, Alexander graduated from Osgoode Hall Law School in 1953. In 1968, he was elected to the Canadian House of Commons, making him the first black Member of Parliament. Alexander was re-elected in four federal elections, and served in the House of Commons for nearly twelve years. In 1992 he was appointed to the Order of Ontario and was inducted into Hamilton’s Gallery of Distinction. Lincoln MacCauley Alexander died at his home in Hamilton, Ontario on October 19, 2012. He was 90.
The Akosua Report: Facts on The African Diaspora, is written by Akosua Lowery. Follow her on Twitter @AkosuaLowery.
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