Remembering the legacy of trailblazing Black Calgarian

Violet King Henry was a woman of many firsts, and she broke down racial barriers for Black Canadians working with the country’s legal system.

As a woman of colour, she was told there was no place for her within the legal profession.

This fuelled her even more to become the first Black person to graduate law school in Alberta, the first Black person to be called to the bar in Alberta in 1954, and the first Black woman to serve as a lawyer in Canada.

Henry was born in Calgary in 1929 and attended the University of Alberta from 1948 to 1953. She died of cancer in 1982 at the age of 52.

Her daughter, Jo-Anne Henry, says her mother faced many challenges in her lifetime.

“The defiant spirit — and this is too important not to do it … are all just incredible and admirable, and I know that it was also very hard for her,” Jo-Anne Henry told CityNews.

However, her mother refused to take no for an answer.

“She was told there was no place for me or even a woman. And then she just stopped, and she said, ‘so I went on, and I did it,'” Jo-Anne explained.

“She actually like had this [mindset], that ‘everybody’s telling me no, and I’m absolutely going forward, and I’m saying yes to myself.’ And even though she lived that, and I’m not surprised that that was her thinking, I didn’t actually know that like that was literally how her mind worked.”

Read More: Alberta government honours Canada’s first Black woman lawyer

The elder Henry was an advocate of women’s rights and worked with women’s groups in Alberta to promote equal pay legislation.

The province honoured her in 2021 by renaming Edmonton’s Federal Building Plaza the Violet King Henry Plaza, which views the Alberta Legislative Building.

The Alberta Legislature Building in Edmonton. (CityNews photo)

And her legacy continues to break down barriers today for black students looking to practice law at the University of Alberta.

Barbara Billingsley, the dean at the University of Alberta’s Faculty of Law, explains the qualifications behind a scholarship for students made in Henry’s honour.

“The Violet King Henry scholarship is a $20,000 scholarship annually awarded to a Black law student who, on the basis of their academic standing, their demonstrated leadership and commitment to the advancement of equity, diversity and inclusion,” she said.

The application deadline for continuing students is March 31.