In honour of Black History Month we focus on two Canadian-born 19^th century graduates of the Trinity Medical College, Alfred Schmitz Shadd (1870-1915) and Arthur J. Thomas (c.1870-1934). Their trajectories led them in quite different geographical directions but in each of their communities they actively engaged as proponents of the rights of Black people.

Alfred Shadd is described in his Dictionary of Canadian Biography entry as an educator, doctor, journalist, farmer, politician, and office holder. The nephew of pioneering lawyer/activist/publisher Mary Ann Shadd, Alfred trained to be a teacher and taught in a racially-segregated school in Chatham. He attended medical school for a time but had to withdraw for lack of funds and returned to teaching in Saskatchewan. In 1898 he graduated from the Trinity Medical College and located permanently to Saskatchewan, where he was known as a “dedicated and tireless physician,” first in Kinistino and then in Melfort. More information about his remarkable, and sadly short life, can be found here:   http://www.biographi.ca/en/bio/shadd_alfred_schmitz_14E.html

Arthur J. Thomas was born around 1870, the son of Jamaican parents in Toronto. He matriculated at Trinity Medical College in 1888 at the age of 22, graduated in 1891, and pursued post-graduate training in Edinburgh and Glasgow. Over the course of his life, he practiced medicine in both Jamaica and Montreal. He served as a District Medical Officer in Jamaica from 1986-1899 and then again from 1922-1932. He was actively involved in the promotion of public health issues within the Black community, advocating for clean water and vaccinations. During his time in Montreal, he practiced as a physician and surgeon, and formed The Colored Civic Association of Montreal in 1917, promoting the civil rights of Black people in Canada.  In 1918 when 11 Black servicemen were refused lodging and meals in Fort William, Thomas wrote to Prime Minister Borden on behalf of the Association, serving notice that discrimination would not go unnoticed. Dr. Thomas returned to Montreal in 1933 and died in 1934. I have not been able to find any photographs of him.

Trinity College admitted a Black student to its Faculty of Medicine in 1853 (Dr. Alexander Augusta) and continued to admit Black students when the Medical School (later Trinity Medical College) opened in 1871.