Cleta Brown vividly remembers the “joyful” night her mother, Rosemary Brown, became the first Black woman elected to a provincial legislature in Canada.
She was a young girl at the time, but recalls the explosion of tears and applause as the results came in on Aug. 30, 1972.
“I remember delirium, just a lot of shouting and clapping and crying,” said Brown, standing in the Vancouver park named after her trailblazing mother. “Exuberance.”
New Democrat Rosemary Brown won in Vancouver-Burrard 50 years ago — a landmark moment for women and racialized people in Canadian politics. She was re-elected three times.
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According to her daughter, Rosemary faced many obstacles in her path to success, including some suggestions at the time that running for office was “going above her station.”
As a feminist, university counsellor, social worker and Jamaican immigrant, however, Rosemary was determined to improve the lives of women and minority groups in Canada.
“She always said she thought she was going to win, but you don’t know. It was a new thing,” Brown recalled. “I think it was an incredible achievement … she really burst through the ceiling.”
In the legislature, Rosemary spearheaded many efforts to improve the social and working conditions for marginalized peoples, including legislation to prohibit gender-based discrimination. In 1975, she ran for leadership of the federal New Democrats and came second in the race after Ed Broadbent.
Prior to life in politics, she had helped found the B.C. Association for the Advancement of Coloured People…
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