Portrait of Stanley Grizzle, Harry Gairey, Bromley Armstrong, and Donald Moore, Toronto, Ontario, 1986. Courtesy of Ed Clarke. Multicultural History Society of Ontario, BLA-200526.jpg.
Porters were drawn from every segment of Black communities in Canada and abroad. As a result, porters reflected the characteristics of the breadth of Black life in their personal lives. Porters had their individual ambitions, tastes, values and ways of thinking. What united these diverse individuals was their job as porters and that for Black men, working as porters was the only employment readily available to them. They were united in the fight to change these circumstances. Out of the wide array of characters that worked on the “roads”, there were many notable porters that stand out for leading the fight for change and for citizenship rights for Black and other peoples of colour.
