Halifax naming street after civil rights champion and ‘unsung hero’ Dr. Alfred Waddell

Halifax is paying tribute to a doctor who dedicated his life to helping people who had limited access to medical care — while fighting racial injustice — by naming a street in his honour.

Dr. Alfred Waddell Street will be part of the new Cogswell District, the area where he used to work, live and volunteer through the 1930s until his death in 1953.

“It’s great,” said Dr. Ron Milne, Waddell’s grandson. “I think it’s overdue that the city and the province should recognize him because of all the work he did in civil rights and advocacy as well as in medicine.”

Milne’s mother and Waddell’s daughter, Winifred Milne, who is now 98, is also pleased with the news, he said.

Waddell, who was born in 1896 in Trinidad and Tobago, moved to Halifax to study at Dalhousie University, where he became one of the first Black doctors to graduate in 1933.

Paying tribute to a hero

The street that will be in his name will be off Brunswick Street, where Proctor Street is now. It is a few blocks from where Waddell established his first practice in what is now the Black Educators Association.

“I think this is a fitting way to honour him,” said Ron Milne, 73. “He made a big difference. He’s an unsung hero.”

Milne, who was three when his grandfather died, said Waddell is credited as one of the only physicians during his time to provide house calls to historically Black communities such as the Prestons, Africville and Beechville.

During the polio outbreak of the 1930s, he also helped immunize people in those communities. He did all this in vehicles he had to borrow to get there.

“They didn’t have a car in the early days because they were poor and people couldn’t pay for services. They paid him with chickens and eggs,” Milne said.

Waddell is perhaps best known for treating Viola Desmond for her injuries following her arrest when she refused to leave a whites-only section of a theatre in New Glasgow, N.S., in 1946.

“He was very upset about what had happened to her,” Milne said. “He helped her by writing several letters to the provincial government and the federal government, trying to get her conviction overturned.”

Waddell was also instrumental in desegregating the swimming pool at the Halifax Common after one of his sons was asked to leave in the 1930s.

In addition to his work as a physician, Waddell contributed articles for the Clarion and the Negro Citizen, two Black newspapers he helped set up and fund.

Waddell ‘was way ahead of his time’

Waddell’s name was in the running to replace Cornwallis Street in Halifax before Nora Bernard was chosen.

Proctor Street is a block away, in the area of a former community where many Black families lived until their homes were torn down to make way for the Cogswell Interchange.

“By naming a street after Dr. Waddell, we hope to highlight the history, cultural significance and contributions of the African Nova Scotian community in this neighbourhood,” the Halifax Regional Municipality said in a statement.

Waddell’s achievements were highlighted in the 2001 documentary film Before his Time.

“He was way ahead of his time in terms of all his social activities and how much he cared for people and what he contributed,” said Lalita Krishna, the film’s writer and director.

The film shows a picture of his classmates from his graduation year at Dalhousie, where Waddell faced being denied an internship on the basis of his race.

“But his classmates stood up for him and basically protested and said that they wouldn’t do their residency either if he was not allowed to graduate,” said Krishna.

Milne is continuing his grandfather’s legacy as a physician. He is part of the team offering culturally specific health care to Black men with the Nova Scotia Brotherhood Initiative.

It is one part of his efforts to carry on Waddell’s advocacy.

“There are still inequities, disparities in income and health care and housing, so many areas of life,” said Milne. “So it’s still a battle going on.”

For more stories about the experiences of Black Canadians — from anti-Black racism to success stories within the Black community — check out Being Black in Canada, a CBC project Black Canadians can be proud of. You can read more stories here.