Daniel Grafton Hill III – A Symposium on his Life and Work on September 25, 2010.

Daniel Grafton (Dan) Hill III was the first Director of the Ontario Human Rights Commission, a pioneer in the field of African Canadian history, and a social activist. In the post-war period, he and his wife Donna Hill helped build a social movement of Black, Jewish, labour and religious communities in the struggle for racial equality which led to the enactment of Ontario’s Human Rights Code. Their offspring — Dan Hill, Lawrence Hill and Karen Hill — today are making a remarkable contribution to Canadian music, songwriting, literature and poetry, and are representative of the socially aware generation that reaps the benefits of their parents’ life work.

In keeping with its mandate of “Spotlighting and Promoting African Canadian Experiences” (S.P.A.C.E.), The Tubman Institute, in cooperation with other institutions and organizations, hosted a one day symposium on the life and work of Daniel Grafton Hill III and its relevance to African Canadian issues today.

The symposium included four sessions, each of which analyzed a specific aspect of the life and work of Daniel Grafton Hill III and the relevance today. The first session includede reminiscences of his personal life, with commentaries and readings from his children and anecdotes from friends and family. The second session was a dialogue about the post-war activist campaign that led to the outlawing of racial discrimination in Ontario and its relevance to activism today. The third session presented a retrospective on the study of African Canadian history, from the pioneering work of Daniel Grafton Hill III and the Ontario Black History Society, to the state of African-Canadian history today. The final session was a round table discussion on racism, human rights and activism from the work of Dan and Donna Hill to the present.

Friends and acquaintances of the Hill family, human rights scholars and activists, scholars of African Canadian history and activists within African Canadian and other equity-seeking communities were invited to attend and contribute to the day’s programme.

The symposium took place at Founders College, York University on Saturday, September 25, 2010, beginning at 9:00 am.

For the event poster, click here.

For the symposium Programme, click here.

For directions to York University and Founders College, click here.