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Scarborough author, Sheila White, will give an illustrated talk about her biographical novel, “The Letters: Postmark Prejudice in Black and White” (2023, Yorkland Publishing). Drawn from diary accounts, familial correspondence, photos, and artefacts, the story revolves around a community’s opposition in the 1940s to the interracial courtship and marriage of the author’s white mother, Vivian Keeler, and Black father, “Billy” White, who went on to become a decorated Canadian.
Their wedding took place in Toronto in June 1947. In the lead-up, an extensive letter-writing campaign, orchestrated by Vivian’s mother, tried to stop the union on racist grounds, but failed.
Vivian, an intelligent, attractive and determined woman from a tight knit, Nova Scotia family defies convention to marry the man she loves - a charismatic and gifted member of a prominent and historically famous Black family from Halifax.
A slide show is followed by Q&A. Books will be available for sale and signing. “The Letters” is available at Toronto Public Libraries, from the publisher and at all major online booksellers.
https://www.sheilawhiteseminars.com/
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SHEILA WHITE BIO:
Scarborough-born author Sheila White is an award-winning community leader whose background includes local news reporting and editing, political and media work, and environmental activism. She is Music Director at Don Heights Unitarian Congregation, and a licensed Lay Chaplain. Sheila is a published songwriter and leads an open choir that performs mostly her original material. Sheila’s awards include an African Canadian Achievement Award, a Canada 125 Medal, an Urban Hero Award, a Queen's Platinum Jubilee Medal and a King Charles III Coronation Medal. A lifelong Toronto resident Sheila lives in Agincourt with husband Alex. “The Letters” is her debut novel. It was taught in the African-Canadian Literature course at the University of Toronto in October 2025.
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