Carrie M. Best/A Digital Archive

QUICK FACTS

  • 1903: Born March 4, 1903 in New Glasgow to parents James and Georgina Ashe Prevoe
  • 1925: Married Albert T. Best. Together they had a son J. Calbert Best. (Mrs. Best would later become foster mother to Berma, Emily, Sharon and Aubrey Marshall.)
  • 1940s: Mrs. Best and son Cal are arrested for sitting downstairs in the whites-only seats at The Roseland Theatre in New Glasgow. The pair are charged with disturbing the peace, convicted and fined.
  • 1946: Best founds The Clarion, the first black-owned and -published Nova Scotia newspaper.
  • 1946: Mrs. Best uses The Clarion to publicize the case of Viola Desmond, the Halifax beautician and businesswoman arrested and fined for sitting downstairs in the whites-only seats at The Roseland Theatre in New Glasgow. Best later travelled to Halifax to be in the court when Desmond's case was appealed before the Nova Scotia Supreme Court. Desmond lost that day, but appealed again and won on a technicality, helping topple Jim Crow laws in Nova Scotia.
  • 1952: Best's radio program, The Quiet Corner, hits the airwaves. The show aired for 12 years and was broadcast on as many as four radio stations throughout Canada's Maritime Provinces.
  • 1968: Best is hired as columnist for the Pictou Advocate, a newspaper based in Pictou Nova Scotia. The column ran until 1975 under the heading Human Rights. Best used it as a platform for her crusades against, among other things, substandard conditions on Native Reserves and discrimination against black property owners on New Glasgow's Vale Road.
  • 1974: Best is made a Member of the Order of Canada.
  • 1975: Awarded honorary doctor of laws (LL.D.) by Saint Francis Xavier University, Antigonish, Nova Scotia.
  • 1975: Member of Task Force on the Status of Women, Nova Scotia
  • 1977: Awarded Queen Elizabeth Medal
  • 1977: Autobiography That Lonesome Road is published.
  • 1979: Best is made an Officer of The Order of Canada.
  • 1992: Presentation of Carrie Best Book Collection to Pictou Regional Library
  • 1992: Awarded honorary doctor of civil laws (DC.L.) by University of Kings College, Halifax, Nova Scotia.
  • 2001: Died July at her home in New Glasgow.
  • Other Awards and distinctions

  • 1975: Best founds the Kay Livingstone Visible Minority Women's Society of Nova Scotia. The society, active until 1994, was in Best's words dedicated to interracial understanding and participatory democracy. The society, named for Ontario rights activist Kay Livingston, raised and provided funds for deserving young blacks.
  • 1975: African Baptist Association Award
  • 1980: Inducted into the Nova Scotia Black Wall of Fame
  • 1986: Harry Jerome Award
  • 1987: Harambee Membership Plaque
  • 1989: Black Professional Women's Group Award Certificate
  • 1990: Minister's Award of Excellence in Race Relations - Minister of State for Multiculturalism
  • 1991: Nova Scotia Human Rights Commission Award
  • 1992: Honorable elder award
  • 1992: Town of New Glasgow Award for work in race relations
  • 1993: Congress of Black Women Certificate

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