Violet King: Canada's First Black Female Lawyer

When we talk Black history, we often think of Rosa Parks, Malcom X, Martin Luther King Jr. and many other American figures. Since being put on the $10 bill, many more people are becoming familiar with Viola Desmond, a Black activist from Canada. What a lot of people don’t know is the rich Black history of Alberta. Most of what The Victoria Voice is doing for Black History Month revolves around contemporary Black artists and businesses in Edmonton. So I wanted to take the time to take you back to 1911 when there was a major call for American farmers to immigrate to Canada to occupy land. What the Alberta government didn’t expect was Black farmers to respond to this call. Among those Black farmers is the grandparents of Violet King Henry who settled in Keystone, Alberta (now Breton). Almost immediately after they arrived, the provincial government began to go through the process of making Black immigration to Alberta illegal making it a mostly white province. 

Violet King was born in 1929 in Calgary and grew up in a family with four siblings. She attended Crescent Heights High School where she was president of the Girls’ Association and her yearbook caption was “Violet King wants to be a criminal lawyer.” And become a criminal lawyer she did. She attended the University of Alberta’s law program, where she became the first Black person to earn a law degree in Alberta. Throughout university (which she paid for by teaching piano lessons) she was highly decorated, she was Vice President of the student union, one of three women in her class of 142 and the only woman in her graduating class from which she graduated within the top four. Her friends recalled her as being incredibly hardworking, stating that at sleepovers when all of the girls would go to sleep, King would stay up and study. 

Her impeccable hard work clearly paid off to an impressive career. She quickly became the first Black person admitted to the Alberta Bar, the first Black lawyer in Alberta, and the first Black woman to become a lawyer in Canada. King practiced criminal law for two years before becoming a non-practicing member of the law society of Alberta and taking a job in federal government. 

In her activism, she was treasurer of the Calgary Brotherhood Council, a council for Black  sleeping car porters. King was a second wave feminist who expressed a desire for a future with gender equality. Frequently, she spoke of racism in the workplace saying “it’s too bad that a Japanese, Chinese or coloured girl has to outshine others to secure a position.”

After her career in federal government, King moved to New Jersey with her husband Godfrey C. Henry. There she became executive director of the Newark YMCA’s community branch where she helped Black citizens looking for employment. This, of course,was another first as she was the first woman in an executive position in a YMCA in the United States. Later, in Chicago, she continued her work in the YMCA in several positions. 

In 1982, at the young age of 52, King passed away of cancer in New York. Basically, her life was far more awe-inspiring than every slightly interesting old white guy you’ve ever learned about combined. She shattered glass ceilings and opened doors for women and Black people across Alberta. 

Works Cited

Macfarlane, Bill. “Alberta's First Black Lawyer Remembered by Childhood Friends.” Calgary, CTV News, 21 Feb. 2020, calgary.ctvnews.ca/alberta-s-first-black-lawyer-remembered-by-childhood-friends-1.4821385.

“Violet King.” The Canadian Encyclopedia, www.thecanadianencyclopedia.ca/en/article/violet-king.

“Violet King.” Ryerson University, www.ryerson.ca/criminaljusticefirsts/courts/Violet-King/.