Bromley Armstrong

Who is Bromley Armstrong?

Bromley Lloyd Armstrong, CM OOnt is a black Canadian civil rights leader. He was active in the nascent civil rights era in Canada, beginning with his arrival in 1947. Armstrong was a committed union activist who worked to improve conditions for workers in industry. He was also active in promoting equal rights for African-Canadians and was involved with the National Unity Association in sit-ins in Dresden, Ontario restaurants that refused to serve blacks. Armstrong travelled to Dresden following the activities of Hugh Burnett and the NUA—the NUA had been urging the local town council to create laws that would put an end to discrimination against blacks in the town. In response to delegations to the Ontario Legislature at Queen's Park in the provincial capital of Toronto, in the early 1950s Ontario Premier Leslie Frost brought two laws into place, the Fair Employment Practices Act and the Fair Accommodation Practices Act. The first outlawed discrimination in the workplace, the second outlawed it in businesses that served the public. Enacted in April 1954, the Fair Accommodation Practices Act stated: "No one can deny to any person or class of persons the accommodation, services or facilities usually available to members of the public." The Act triggered the repeal of the largely ineffective Racial Discrimination Act of 1944, which outlawed "the publication or display, on lands, premises, by newspaper or radio, of any notice, sign, symbol, emblem or other representation indicating racial discrimination."