First racially integrated preschool in Halifax to be subject of documentary

Halifax filmmaker Ann Verrall is working on a two-part documentary about the city's first racially integrated school.

The Brunswick-Cornwallis Pre-school was started in the city's north end in the 1960s and ran for almost 30 years.

Verrall's family moved to Halifax in 1961.

Her father, Arthur Verrall, became the minister at the Brunswick Street United Church.

Verrall told CBC Radio's Information Morning Nova Scotia that she asked her mother, Catherine, what led to her decision to start the preschool. Catherine died in 2021.

"She said that when we moved there, she was just so shocked and depressed by how racist it was in Halifax," Verrall said. "She just felt that she had to do something."

Segregated schools

Her mother joined forces with Juetta Coleman, wife of the pastor at the nearby Cornwallis Baptist Church — now New Horizons Baptist Church. After meeting with mothers in the community, it was decided that an integrated school was a good idea and members of both churches came together to form a board, Verrall said.

That led to the creation of the Brunswick-Cornwallis Pre-school.

"So it was it was kind of like a gradual kind of process of reaching out to both communities and and then deciding that both together that this was a good idea," said Verrall. "It was through those church communities that the children kind of came to the the preschool."

Segregated schools were the norm in Nova Scotia at the time. But Verrall said the new pre-school wasn't just integrated — it established a model of equal representation of Black and white students, staff and board members.

New school was 'revolutionary' 

Sheryl Grant, Verrall's collaborator and the co-producer of the documentaries, grew up in the north end. She said the idea for an integrated school was "revolutionary at the time."

Grant said her mother was a teacher in the segregated school system and her conversations with Catherine Verrall were instrumental in the creation of the school.

Grant said the preschool influenced the province's Africentric Four Plus program. That program, launched in the 1990s, prepares four-year-olds for Grade Primary. 

Verrall said the first part of the documentary explores the relationship between her mother and Grant's mother.

She said it looks at the historical context of the preschool and the stories of both women leading up to when they met in 1961.

The second documentary will look at the history of the preschool, Verrall said.

Research ongoing

The research on the school is ongoing, she said, and the group has set up a Facebook page.

In her research, Verrall said she has found a number of former teachers at the school, including 90-year-old Muriel Cromwell, then Muriel Desmond. Desmond was a co-founder of the school alongside Catherine Verrall and Juetta Coleman and served as the first assistant director.

Verrall said they will have a table at the Africville reunion this weekend to gather any stories that people may have.

Some surviving teachers from the school will be with them, Verrall said.

"A lot of the records have been lost so we're hoping to find the people who have gone to the preschool," Verrall said.

"Over 600 students went through that school and so we're we're trying to recreate the records."

For more stories about the experiences of Black Canadians — from anti-Black racism to success stories within the Black community — check out Being Black in Canada, a CBC project Black Canadians can be proud of. You can read more stories here.