Growing up Black in Lacombe: A Black History Month story

Now in central Alberta, Miriam is a long way from where she spent time as a child in British Guiana and throughout the West Indies.

A Black woman, Haynes’s mother and father moved their family to Lacombe in the 1950s, when she was but 12. Her father became a local optometrist, with her mother teaching elementary grades in Clive.

“I did not know I was any different from anybody else until I got to Alberta. Then all of a sudden, I became Black,” she says.

Haynes was always Black, of course, but never was it so evident than when she arrived in Canada, the first country she’d spent extensive time in where the population was predominantly white.

“I’ll never forget that feeling of having to get accustomed to the people being all white. It was difficult. We get to Alberta, and it’s, ‘Oh, you’re Black.’ I often said to myself, ‘What the hell is this all about?’”

“Throughout my life, I’ve tried my best to not behave or act in a way socially or otherwise that will cause people to say, ‘Oh, she’s Black, she doesn’t know what’s different.’ But when we came here, the racism was actually very subtle,” she says of her early experience.

“I’ve had a very different life, let me just put it that way. It’s been hard, but when our parents, who were previously missionaries, got pulled away by their work, my siblings and I got to appreciate what they were doing for the community.”

Miriam Haynes, 78, sits at the piano at her Lacombe senior’s apartment building. (rdnewsNOW/Josh Hall)

Mom and Dad, who were married for almost 70 years, passed away in 2006 and 2008, respectively.

“I still have memories of them. Every day, my sister and I talk and come up with something Mom or Dad did. I didn’t catch onto everything right away, but looking back, I’m proud of the time they took to re-educate themselves and get into the positions they held,” she shares.

“They also instilled in us that we had to get a good education.”

Haynes is currently onto her seventh correspondence course, studying – which she describes as a hobby — international transportation.

“I’ve picked up a few things along the way,” she jokes. “I also worked 25 or 30 years as a practical nurse, working inside homes with clients. I worked at an auxiliary hospital two times in Edmonton.”

Haynes’s parents also attended what’s now known as Burman University, situated in Lacombe’s northwest.

You could probably count on one hand the number of Black students who went to that school all those decades ago, she says. Now, as she points out, it’s much different.

“Back then, we had to basically do things very differently because we were Black. If you wanted to succeed, you had to work twice as hard.”

Miriam is asked about Black History Month, a North American-originating observance which, every year, celebrates the likes of Martin Luther King Jr., Rosa Parks, Nelson Mandela, Desmond Tutu, Viola Desmond and countless other Black icons, idols and revolutionaries who paved the way for racial equality in its various forms.

“I remember one time watching Reverend Tutu who was in South Africa. They were nine hours ahead and I had gotten up at 3 a.m. to hear him,” Haynes recalls. “I admire all those people who made a stand and who are making a stand. They went and still go through a lot, and it wasn’t easy for them. I admire them for sticking it out and doing something about what was happening, regardless of how hard it was. They were smart enough to try and do something to change the situation.”

Through her life, Haynes has volunteered at her church, worked in Indigenous communities, and fostered a local Indigenous teenager for one year in the 1970s, among other things.

She isn’t sure what became of that young Indigenous woman, but at the heart of her countless acts of service was attempting to live up to the example set by her parents.

“Mix with other people. Get involved in the community when you have the opportunity to do so,” she says is her message to young people. “See what you can bring to it, and what it can do for you.”

And to the broader community, she says sternly: “Get along with each other.”

“Have you ever watched Parliament and see how wildly they get offended sometimes?” she asks. “Yeah, well, I would encourage people to work better with one another.”

Haynes never had a husband, or just, “Not yet,” she quips to laughter.

“Maybe I’ll find one, who knows? But I am going to be 79 soon. I should have a party.”

She adds: “When I pass on, I just hope they’ll say, ‘She was a good person.’ That’s it.”

by Josh Hall (Twitter: @Vancan19)

Growing up Black in Lacombe: A Black History Month story

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