Caribbean Heritage

THE MONTHLY GLEANER | MAY 17 - JUNE 16, 2021 | www.jamaica-gleaner.com | NEWS 4 ‘O UR STORIES’, as told by Jamaican pioneers in Georgia, was presented as a virtual event on Saturday, February 20, in celebration of Black History Month by Dr Elaine Bryan, Jamaica’s honorary consul to Atlanta, in collaboration with Jamaicans and Partners of Georgia, and as one of four community events through November this year. The project, a first of its kind, highlighted some of the Jamaican pioneers who relocated to the United States and in particular, Georgia, from as early as the 1950s. The honourees were Basil Smith, a structural engineer who led the design of the Atlanta Olympic Stadium; Lilieth Jones, an entrepreneur and medical technologist; Margaret Marshall, who initiated an early online radio show, ‘Backyard Labrish’; Dr Noel Erskine, a professor of theology at Emory University; Tele Holt, investor and former educator; Cecelia Smith, author and co-founder of the Atlanta Jamaica Association (AJA); and Errol Ritchie, who retired from IBM as a senior systems analyst. Posthumous tributes were accepted by the grandchildren of Elsada Miriam Duncan, an evangelist and clothing designer who passed away in 2019, at age 111; and Denzil Dixon, an AJA co-founder who died in 2020. Event sponsors were Victoria Mutual Group, GraceKennedy Money Services, GraceKennedy Foods, Jamaica National Bank, Jamaica Tourist Board, Elaine Bryan Realty, Layne Law Group, Elaine Bryan Foundation, Westside Gastro, MD Consulting, Jamaicans & Partners of Georgia. Neil Armstrong/Gleaner Writer TORONTO: LILLIE JOHNSON, founder of the Sickle Cell Association of Ontario, cel- ebrated her 99th birthday in March and is still as strongly committed to education about sickle cell disease as she was at the inception of the organisation. “I have not regretted one minute of these things,” she says about her ad- vocacy for sickle cell education and starting the SCAO in 1981. In 2011, she was invested into the Order of Ontario, the province’s highest honour, for her work with the organisation. Johnson was born onMarch 16, 1922 in St Ann, Jamaica and, after complet- ing her education at Wolmer’s High School for Girls and at Shortwood Teachers’ College, she worked as a teacher in Jamaica. She left to study nursing in England in December 1950, arriving in January 1951, and travelled to Edinburgh, Scotland to start her training. After completing her studies in Britain, Johnson returned to Jamaica where she worked at the University College of the West Indies Hospital in Kingston. From there, she went to New Jersey in the United States in 1958 and worked at the Beth Israel Hospital in Newark. Johnson travelled by train fromNew York to Canada, in August 1960. Diana Burke, president PACE Canada, says Johnson has been a member of the registered charitable foundation since 1992, and has been honored as a Life Member. Johnson has also been a member of the Jamaican Canadian Association (JCA) since its inception in 1962. “She is a pioneer and a trailblazer in every re- spect. Our community owes her a debt of gratitude; in fact, many of us owe her our lives,” says Audrey Campbell, a former president of the JCA. DECADES OF ACTIVISM Karen Flynn, an associate profes- sor in the Department of Gender and Women’s Studies and the Department of African-American Studies Program at the University of Illinois, Urbana- Champaign, is the author of Moving Beyond Borders: A History of Black Canadian and Caribbean Women in the Diaspora, which features Johnson on the cover. “To fully grasp Lillie’s contribution to Canadian society means thinking about sickle cell disease (SCD) in the 1970s, when, unfortunately, so very little was known about the disease,” says Dr Flynn. That babies weren’t being tested for the SCD had serious implications for the infants, including death, says Flynn, and it is these factors, in conjunction with Johnson’s encounter with sickle cell patients, that led to the birth of the SCAO. She says Johnson’s contribution to Canada is that her over three decades of activism eventually led to Ontario’s Ministry of Health and Long-TermCare including sickle cell disease on the list of 28 genetic diseases for newborn screening. “This is an incredible and noteworthy accomplishment.” In March 2015, one day before her 93rd birthday, Johnson launched her memoir, My Dream, part of the Canada 150 Memoirs Project. Lillie Johnson, advocate and pioneer Community hails J’can born nurse for outstanding work in sickle cell education Lillie Johnson with the 28th Lieutenant Governor of Ontario, David Onley, after she was invested with the Order of Ontario in 2011. CONTRIBUTED Event honours outstanding J’cans in Georgia LILIETH JONES Lilieth E. Jones is a certified medical technologist, who was trained at the University Hospital of theWest Indies in Jamaica. She arrived in Atlanta, in 1979 and secured her first job at the DeKalb General Hospital in Decatur. She later moved to her second position at the Georgia Baptist Medical Center in Atlanta, where she served until her retirement in 1995. After her retirement, she went back to school (DeKalb College) and qualified as a Georgia-certified floral designer. She was a floral design instructor at the LouWalker Senior Center in Lithonia and a successful entrepreneur, operating as LJ’s Flowers & Gifts. She has been very active in her church, the historic Ebenezer Baptist Church, and served as an ambassador with the DeKalb Convention and Visitors Bureau. REV DR NOEL ERSKINE Dr Noel Erskine is a professor of theology and ethics at Emory University, Candler School of Theology in Atlanta, Georgia. He was recruited by Emory University in 1977, and he is still there today as chairperson for his department. He served as president for the Atlanta Jamaica Association and is a foundingmember. Dr Erskine moved to Atlanta with his wife, Glenda Erskine, who is an outstanding educator. FEATURED HONOUREES The former attorney general said no email with the threats outlined by the minister on Friday can be produced. “The senator speaks of an email enti- tled‘Rape, real rape’. I cannot find it no matter how much I have searched on my device, but I have no doubt that I would have sent one such, for that is the very core of my query: How come you had calledme out so loudly about flexi rape, and had even lied publicly, but maintained a sepulchral silence when it came to your colleagues brushing aside issues that had to do with real rape?”Nicholson’s statement read. Nicholson challenged her to provide evidence for the claims she has made. “Emails, just like the in-house cam- eras at Gordon House, do not lie, unless tampered with, but they can expose lies and liars. But tongues do lie from time to time. What inference is to be drawn from this refusal or reluc- tance on her part to allow the public to examine the emails themselves? And even fromwhat she has said in her two recent statements, where does it point to any harassment?” he asked. He repeated that he has threatened no one. CONSCIENCE CLEAR “My conscience is clear. I sleep well at nights and sometimes even in the daytime. I have never been accused of lying and I have no intention of starting now, in these my golden years. Apparently, the foreign minis- ter does not have much work to do,” he charged. Speaking with The Sunday Gleaner following the release of his state- ment, Nicholson said he was visited by the police following the flexi-rape comment. “... A report was made to the police that I was threatening her. I was visited by a senior police officer from the com- missioner ranks, but the conclusion was that there was no threat, and the matter was done,”Nicholson explained. The former minister, who served in the P.J. Patterson and Portia Simpson Miller administrations, said his com- ment that “your time will come” in one of the emails “ was not a threat of any harm to her, but a reminder that karma had a way of catching up with liars”. The last line of that email sent August 6, 2018 at 12:51 a.m., a copy of whichThe Sunday Gleaner has seen, read“Mark my word, just kotch, watch and behold ... KARMA!” The retired politician said he had no doubt as to the reason for a rehashing the issue. “I am accusing her of lying from the beginning about flexi rape. It’s all a big lie!”Nicholson told The Gleaner . “The party has been embarrassed by the alleged actions of one of its members of parliament who was elected last year. All the women in the party have gone silent on an issue that has impacted so many. All this is a diversion from the shame of that issue,”Nicholson said, pointing to the Wright affair. Wright had been sought as a person of interest in a matter after a video surfaced showing a man beating a woman. The MP and Tannisha Singh had both made reports to the police surrounding a confrontation in April 6. The video is believed to be from that incident, although the police deemed it inconclusive and have not laid any charges since the parties wanted to drop the matter. When Johnson Smith raised the issue on April 23 in the Senate, she was bemoaning what she labelled as a “missed opportunity for consensus” on gender-based violence from female parliamentarians. During the sitting of the Lower House on the Tuesday prior, a state- ment was read condemning gen- der-based violence in the wake of the video. However, female senators on the Opposition benches declined to endorse it, stating that it did not go far enough to address the issue. EMAILS CONTINUED FROM 3