Africville receives long-awaited apology, settlement

Halifax Mayor Peter Kelly apologized Wednesday for the "terrible upheaval" experienced by the former residents of Africville – an all-black Halifax community torn down in the 1960s to make way for the construction of a bridge.

"On behalf of the Halifax Regional Municipality, I apologize to the former Africville residents and their descendants for what they have endured for almost 50 years, ever since the loss of their community that had stood on the shores of Bedford Basin for more than 150 years," Kelly said in an official apology.

"You lost your houses, your church, all of the places where you gathered with family and friends to mark the milestones of your lives. For all that, we apologize."

The apology is expected to be accompanied by a settlement package that includes $3 million in compensation and a parcel of municipal land to be given to the Africville Genealogy Society, which has spearheaded apology efforts in recent years.

No compensation for individual families is likely.

"It’s a little surreal for us right now. It’s been such a long struggle to get to where we are today but we are extremely happy, extremely pleased that we will be able to move on," Irvine Carvery, president of the society, said on Wednesday. "The dark chapter in the history of this city will finally be closed and the new beginning for Africville begins today."

The Halifax regional council voted in favour of the apology and settlement Tuesday night at a weekly council meeting.

Carvery said the funding will be used to build a replica church of one destroyed during the relocation, which will be followed by further development of the site – currently home to a national historic site in the form of a park – that will promote tourism to the area through an interpretive centre.

Many of the former residents and descendants gather at the site each year during an "annual pilgrimage" to commemorate the community, added Carvery, who spent the first 13 years of his life in Africville.

"I go back out to the site and I still feel the houses, I still feel the people," he said. "My recollections of Africville are very vivid and sustaining."

Africville was located on the northern tip of the Halifax peninsula, and on the southern shore of Bedford Basin. It was ordered destroyed in the 1960s to allow Halifax to move forward on the A. Murray MacKay suspension bridge – linking Halifax and Dartmouth – as well as other harbour developments.

Nearly 100 black families were evicted and relocated as a result.

"We realize that words cannot undo what has been done but we are profoundly sorry and apologize to each and every one of you," Kelly said. "Our history cannot be rewritten, but thankfully, the future is a blank page and starting today we hold the pen with which we can write a shared tomorrow."