Montreal's black pioneers: They paved the way for others

he systemic racism was the dangerous thing,” Gwen Lord said. “Because it was so undercover that you didn’t even really know that it existed.” She went on to become a star teacher, and in 1977, the first black principal in the Protestant School Board of Greater Montreal.

When Gwen Lord applied to become a teacher with the Protestant School Board of Greater Montreal in 1961, she was relieved the interviewer was someone she knew well, the father of a best friend. She hoped graduating top of her class with a bachelor’s degree in science and a specialty in education from Sir George Williams University (now Concordia) would trump skin colour.

It would not.

“Gwen, you know we don’t hire coloured,” her friend’s father said. Seeing her dejection, he backtracked, and told her she couldn’t be hired without a teaching certificate. She knew this to be a lie — they were hiring teachers out of high school back then. But she played along.

“I went to Macdonald College (and) took this little Mickey Mouse course. Got this piece of paper only to find that the PSBGM came to our campus and hired everyone! … People who couldn’t teach worth a damn.”

Everyone but her, that is, and the two other black students in her class. Until the class protested, and forced the board to hire her.

Lord went on to become a star math and science teacher, and in 1977, the first black principal in the PSBGM (now the English Montreal School Board), at Northmount High School. She stayed 11 years before becoming a senior board administrator.

Lord is one of four pioneers of Montreal’s black community the Montreal Gazette is profiling as the city celebrates its 28th edition of Black History Month. A teacher, a police officer, a hairdressing entrepreneur, and a city council speaker. Those who overcame the unspoken but pervasive institutional racism of their day and weathered the pain of intolerance and injustice. All of whom paved the way for others.

“Gwen was a role model and a trailblazer in the education field,” wrote Montreal historian Dorothy Williams. “She was amongst a small group of Blacks who moved into restricted job areas and pushed open many doors. … Their trailblazing achievements served as inspirations to a generation of Black Montrealers....”