This year’s four-part Black History Month blog series is all about community. In previous blogs we have often focused on the stories of Freedom Seekers and their descendants in St. Catharines. We have heard about the incredible journeys these people made to this city, how their lives changed, and how a local faith community was forged. But what is the story of the Black St. Catharines community outside of grand historical moments and formal institutions like work, school, and church? It is often what happens in between all this that really makes a community hum – the joy and laughter, the sadness, the togetherness and fun, the leisure, the weekends, and the warm home-cooked meals. In the hopes of sharing a small glimpse of all this vibrance, this year’s blog series will explore three community cornerstones: sports, music, and food!  

Part 3 of 4

Throughout the 20^th century, North American popular music was turned on its head with the emergence of several music genres that were originated by Black communities. These include blues, jazz, reggae, and hip-hop, among others. All these music styles and their influence have been well represented in St. Catharines. Unlike during the era of spirituals and plantation songs, however, the presence of these later genres, which are now fully blossoming, were not always immediately obvious. 

During the years of the Underground Railroad, the Black population of St. Catharines was quite significant – about 15% of the total.¹ It now sits around 5%.² However, in the early 20^th century, this city’s Black population had shrunk to less than 0.5% – only a few hundred people out of tens of thousands.³⁴ So while it is very likely that the exciting new blues and jazz sounds making waves south of the border in the 1930s were also being enjoyed and replicated in the living rooms and dens of St. Catharines’ Black community, and perhaps even playing from time to time at community dances downtown, there is little evidence of a commercialized “scene”. The only venue in town that specifically catered to a Black audience at this time was the BME Church, and they were not hosting Louis Armstrong concerts.⁵

It is worth noting that Canada’s first Black radio DJ and foremost first-wave bluesman, Jackie Washington (1919-2009), lived his whole life down the road in Hamilton. Jackie was the grandson of a Freedom Seeker who had settled in Niagara by way of the Underground Railroad. Although Jackie was based in Hamilton, he and several of his brothers formed a band that toured around the area in the 1930s and ‘40s. He also worked for a time as a shoe shiner at the Fort Erie Race Track. Jackie and his eclectic mix of blues and jazz were probably common visitors to St. Catharines in the mid 20^th century, but supporting evidence has been frustratingly elusive. Jackie himself wrote in the liner notes to his 1976 album Blues and Sentimental that he was the opening act at the St. Catharines Carnaby Club some time in the 1960s, but I have been unable to find any information on this club or even confirm its existence. If you have any memories of seeing Jackie Washington play in St. Catharines, we want to hear from you! 

Big John “T-Bone” Little is another legendary Black Niagara blues musician. Little, the great-grandson of a Freedom Seeker, was born in 1929 in Niagara Falls and now lives in Port Colborne. Little has had a 75-year music career and has shared the stage with such greats as Oscar Peterson and Bo Didley. At the age of 94, he still plays regularly around the Niagara Region. Little has fond memories of attending the annual Emancipation Day celebrations at Lakeside Park in Port Dalhousie when they were at their peak in the 1930s. He has visited St. Catharines often since that time, including in 2018 when he himself graced the Emancipation Day stage. 

The growing appetite for blues, jazz, funk, and soul in the Niagara Region is further evidenced by the fact that several African American musicians immigrated to the area to advance their careers in the 1970s and ‘80s. Soul guitarist Leroy Emmanuel was born in Detroit in 1946 and got his start in the Motown scene. He moved to Niagara Falls in the 1980s and continues to be a staple at clubs and festivals in and around St. Catharines. Bassist Thomas Nelson was born in Alabama and moved to Niagara Falls, New York as a child during the Great Migration. He made the jump across the border in 1970 and has been playing steady gigs since. More recently, jazz vocalist Juliet Dunn made the move to Niagara after having lived in the U.K. and France. Once here, she got to work founding the TD Niagara Jazz Festival.  

Since the 1960s, St. Catharines has also seen an influx of Caribbean music styles, including steel drums, reggae, and ska. In 1962, race-based discrimination was removed from Canadian immigration policy, encouraging more Black immigrants from places like Jamaica and Trinidad. The Seasonal Agricultural Worker Program was implemented in 1966, increasing Caribbean immigration even further. Finally, in 1968 St. Catharines was ceremonially twinned with Port of Spain, the capital of Trinidad and Tobago, inspiring exchanges of people and culture. One result is that a contingent of Trinidadian steel drummers began appearing at the annual Niagara Grape and Wine Festival – a tradition that has continued nearly every year since. Since 2019, the still active St. Catharines Twinning Association has been hosting an annual parang festival, a form of Trinidadian folk Christmas caroling.   

The story of Black music in St. Catharines is always growing and evolving. But an appropriate place to leave this story for today is with Sammy Jackson. Jackson is an up-and-coming vocalist and songwriter whose album With You won the 2021 Juno Award for Vocal Jazz Album of the Year. She was born in Jamaica but grew up in Canada, living in both Toronto and St. Catharines. Jackson’s music has been described as jazz, rhythm and blues, and pop, but draws on diverse musical influences. Her unique blend of musical traditions and her personal story are a perfect analogy of the broader musical journey that has taken place within St. Catharines’ Black community. We can’t wait to hear where the journey heads next! 

1. Drew, Benjamin. A North-Side View of Slavery. 1856. ↩︎
2. Statistics Canada, 2021 census. ↩︎
3. Statistics Canada, 1931 census. ↩︎
4. St. Catharines Standard Newspaper, February 6, 1937. ↩︎
5. The nearby Zion Baptist Church had already closed its doors in 1927, with the shrinking congregation relocating to a house on Raymond Street. This left the BME Church as the only public gathering place specifically serving a Black audience. While the church was not hosting blues and jazz, it did host gospel groups, including the Madrigal Singers in… 1930s gospel groups evolved out of the spiritual music tradition discussed in Part 2 of this series, but, along with blues and jazz, would later become a major influence on the development of doo-wop and rock and roll in the 1950s.    ↩︎

Sean Dineley is a Public Programmer at the St. Catharines Museum and Welland Canals Centre.