Voters in Dresden, Ont., rejected a bylaw in 1949 that would have barred restaurants from refusing service because of race, colour or religion, defeating it by a margin of five to one, according to the Canadian Encyclopedia.
The vote exposed what Black residents of the southwestern Ontario town had known for years. The Canadian Encyclopedia reports that Dresden restaurants refused to serve Black customers.
Hugh Burnett, a Black carpenter born in Dresden in 1918, spent the next seven years turning that defeat into provincial law and a court record. The Canadian Encyclopedia reports he died in London, Ont., in 1991.
His campaign began with a personal refusal. In 1943, Burnett was wearing his army uniform when a Dresden restaurant declined to serve him, the encyclopedia said. He wrote to federal Justice Minister Louis St-Laurent. Ottawa did not act on the complaint, according to the Foundation for Social and Workplace Concerns’ account of the Dresden story, and Burnett went on to form the National Unity Association (NUA).
The NUA lobbied Dresden town council for an anti-discrimination bylaw. After council put the question to a vote, townspeople rejected it in 1949. The same year, Maclean’s magazine published an exposé of the town titled “Jim Crow Lives in Dresden,” written by journalist Sidney Katz, according to the Canadian Encyclopedia’s biography of Burnett. The foundation’s account said the article made Dresden “a national scandal.”
Burnett found allies beyond the town. The Jewish Labour Committee, led nationally by Kalmen Kaplansky, backed the NUA, the foundation said. Sid Blum of the Toronto Labour Committee organized visits by Black and Chinese patrons to document who was turned away.
Provincial law moved first on jobs. Ontario passed the Fair Employment Practices Act in 1951 under Premier Leslie Frost, forbidding employment discrimination, the Canadian Encyclopedia said. The act did not cover restaurants.
In 1954, Ontario passed the Fair Accommodation Practices Act, which made it illegal to deny public services and housing on grounds of race, religion or ethnicity. The foundation said Burnett’s delegation had pressed Frost on the issue. Passing a law, however, did not change who got served.
Activists then tested the law. Later in 1954, Bromley Armstrong and Ruth Lor were refused service at Kay’s Café in Dresden in a test case that drew significant media coverage, the Canadian Encyclopedia said. The activists invited journalists to document the refusals.
Further test cases followed in November 1955, including one involving Jake Alleyne and Percy Bruce. Early in 1956, restaurant owner Morley McKay was found guilty under the act, according to the Canadian Encyclopedia’s biography of Burnett. The foundation said a key offender was fined and forced to end discriminatory practices that year.
On Nov. 16, 1956, NUA members were served at Kay’s Café for the first time, the biography said. Another account, published by ByBlacks, said an NUA delegation was “quietly served” that month in Dresden restaurants that had excluded them for years.
The sources reviewed for this article differ on some details, including the exact date the 1954 act was passed and the precise vote count in 1949. This article uses only the points on which they agree.
The Ontario Heritage Trust unveiled a provincial plaque in 2010 commemorating Burnett and the NUA, the Canadian Encyclopedia said.
The Dresden case is often read as a story about one town. The record suggests something broader: a provincial law that existed on paper for two years before a handful of test cases, a magazine exposé and a coalition of Black, Jewish and labour organizations made it real.
Pictured: File photo of a small-town Ontario main street (Bracebridge, Ont.). The photo does not show Dresden.
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Sources: The Canadian Encyclopedia (Hugh Burnett; Dresden), thecanadianencyclopedia.ca; Foundation for Social and Workplace Concerns, “The Dresden Story”; ByBlacks, “What happens when 83% of a town votes against your humanity.”
