Walter Perry

Walter Perry single-handedly ran the Emancipation Day celebrations in Windsor from the 1930s until his death in 1967, earning him the nickname of “Mr. Emancipation.”[1]Perry was born in 1899. He attended Walkerville Collegiate Institute, participating in basketball and rugby, where, inboth of his sports, his teams became the Western Ontario Secondary School champions in 1920.[2]Despite his athletic achievements (and as the only black player on both the rugby and basketball teams), Perry found most of his fame with his work in the Windsor community.

Perry began the annual event in order to celebrate the abolition of slavery, to recover the historical memory of emancipation, and to forge community spirit throughout Windsor-Essex County.[3]This event, held annually in Jackson Park on August 1^st, brought in thousands of people to celebrate the anniversary of abolition – at the 1959 celebrations, over 35,000 people attended.[4]

Perry personally invited many notable black figures from Canada and the United States to attend the Emancipation Day celebration, including: Mary McLeod Bethune, civil rights pioneer and advisor to President Franklin Delano Roosevelt; congressman Clayton Powell; composer W.C. Handy; actress Dorothy Dandridge; Olympian Jesse Owens, whose achievements at the Berlin Games decimated Germany’s theory of Aryan superiority; the Primettes, a female vocal group from Detroit who would later become known as the Supremes; Steveland Morris, a musician who would later take the name Stevie Wonder; and a then-unknown Baptist minister by the name of Martin Luther King Jr.[5]Perry’s ability to identify talented individuals helped the event to succeed for over 30 years. 

After Perry’s untimely death in 1967, the Emancipation Day celebrations went to the grave with him. However, his legacy still lives on, not just in Jackson Park, but throughout Windsor-Essex County as a model of African-Canadian achievement and activism. 

Researched and written by Devon Fraser, University of Windsor.