- Calvin Ruck
Calvin Woodrow Ruck (
September 4 1925 –October 19 2004 ) was an anti-racismactivist and a Canadian senator. He was born inSydney, Nova Scotia , his parents immigrants to Canada fromBarbados .Professional Life
Ruck left school after Grade 10 and worked as a labourer in Sydney and then as a porter on the
Canadian National Railway from 1945-1958. Later Ruck owned and operated a corner store in Halifax. From 1968 to 1981, he worked as a Community Development worker with the Government of Nova Scotia.Associations and Activism
He held a number of positions within the
Nova Scotia Association for the Advancement of Coloured People and was a member for most of his adult life. In the 1950s and 1960s, he organized campaigns against businesses in the Dartmouth area, includingbarber shop s, which refused to serveblack people . He worked with theNova Scotia Human Rights Commission from 1981 to 1986.Awards
1979: Received diploma from the
Maritime School of Social Work atDalhousie University . The School of Social Work now awards a Calvin W. Ruck scholarship yearly.1992: Awarded the Governor General's Commemorative Medal in 1992 for his work in the community.
1994: Named to the
Order of Canada . [ [http://www.gg.ca/honours/search-recherche/honours-desc.asp?lang=e&TypeID=orc&id=3391 Governor General of Canada: Honours] . Retrieved Jan 26, 2007]Political Life
In 1998, he was appointed to the
Senate of Canada by Prime MinisterJean Chrétien where he served until reaching the mandatory retirement age of 75 in 2000.He died at his home in
Ottawa on Oct 19, 2004 at the age of 79.Books Published
Ruck published two books about Canada's
No. 2 Construction Battalion , the only all-black battalion to serve inWorld War I :
*"Canada's Black Battalion: No. 2 Construction, 1916-1920" (ISBN 0-921201-00-1)
*"The black battalion : 1916-1920 : Canada's best kept military secret" (ISBN 0-920852-92-0)External links
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Notes
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