Carrie Mae Best (born March 4, 1903, in Nova Scotia, and died July 2001) | Black History Month | Seneca Students

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Carrie Mae Best, activist, journalist, broadcaster and publisher, was the co-founder of The Clarion, one of the first newspapers in Nova Scotia to be owned and operated by Black Canadians (McLeod, 2016). The decision to start a paper was in protest to Ms. Best’s treatment at racially segregated Roseland Theatre where her and her son were not allowed to sit on the main floor. This would be the same theatre that Viola Desmond would find herself hauled out of five years later in 1946. A story The Clarion would support and share with its readers, when Ms. Best heard about a group of girls who had been forcibly removed from the all white section at the Roseland Theatre (McLeod, 2016). She was outraged and sent letters arguing against the policy. Getting nowhere, Ms. Best and her son purchased tickets and sat on the first floor against the wishes of the manager and were subsequently arrested, convicted and fined for disturbing the peace. This allowed her to take legal action against the Roseland (McLeod, 2016). She would ultimately lose in a court that was never going to be in her favour. This spurred her to create The Clarion, which ran for 10 years, a beacon of information and hope for the Black community, before going national under the new name The Negro Citizen (McLeod, 2016). In 1974, Ms. Best was made a Member of the Order of Canada and was promoted to Officer in 1979 and was posthumously awarded the Order of Nova Scotia in 2002. She was commemorated on a postage stamp on Feb. 1, 2011. (McLeod, 2016, para. 25).

Reference:

McLeod, S. (2016). Carrie Best. In The Canadian Encyclopedia. https://www.thecanadianencyclopedia.ca/en/article/carrie-best