Daniel G. Hill

It was the early 1950s, in Toronto.

A young couple was looking for an apartment. He was Black. She was white. Their names were Daniel and Donna.

They knocked on doors. The landlords stayed polite. But each time, there was nothing for them.

Then Donna would come back with a white friend. And, as if by magic, the apartment was available again.

Daniel Grafton Hill had been born on November 23, 1923, in Independence, Missouri. His father was a minister of the African Methodist Episcopal Church.

During the Second World War, he served in the American army. Then he studied at Howard University, in Washington. It was in that city that he met Donna Bender, a civil rights activist.

In 1950, he left for Canada. He wanted to study sociology at the University of Toronto. He also wanted to leave behind the harsh segregation of the United States.

In Toronto, he found something else: doors that closed with a smile.

For his doctoral thesis, "Negroes in Toronto," he did research in bars, in pool halls, among poor Black families. In 1960, he earned his doctorate.

Donna and he became Canadian citizens. They had three children: Dan, who would become a songwriter, Lawrence, who would become a writer, and Karen, who would become a poet.

In 1962, Daniel G. Hill became the first full-time director of the Ontario Human Rights Commission.

One day, in Chatham, the owner of a boathouse refused to rent to Black customers.

Daniel G. Hill held a public hearing. The room filled with Black people.

The owner finally gave way.

In 1968, Daniel G. Hill described in one sentence what he saw around him:

Polite, but real.

In 1971, he became the Commission's first full-time chair. In 1973, he left to found his own human rights consulting firm.

He also turned to the history of Black Canadians.

In 1978, with Donna and friends, he co-founded the Ontario Black History Society.

In 1981, he published The Freedom Seekers, about Black people in early Canada.

In 1984, he became Ontario's Ombudsman. He wanted the office to look like the "new Ontario." In his speech, he spoke of racism and apathy weakening our bonds.

He held the post until 1989.

He received the Order of Ontario in 1993, then the Order of Canada in 1999.

He died on June 26, 2003, in Toronto.

His life echoes Ubuntu, without being the same: you cannot protect the rights of one without protecting the bond between all.

A couple had found closed doors in Toronto. Daniel G. Hill spent his life opening them again, one by one, for those who would come after.