Some error occured while loading the Quick View. Please close the Quick View and try reloading the page.
From an early age, Lance B. Dixon had heard about his grandfather George Dixon, one of six hundred men who served in the only Black battalion in Canadian history — the No. 2 Construction Battalion of the First World War. Sadly, his knowledge about George’s war experiences stopped there. In fact, much of his life remained a mystery. It has been left to Lance’s father, Blair Dixon (also a veteran), to tell their story while reliving the shame they were taught to feel about being Black bodies in “a white man’s world.”
In A Footnote to Freedom, through intimate conversations with his father, Dixon grapples with the effects of racism across three generations. He also brings to light the painful irony of the Black battalion’s struggle: that these men had to fight their own country to fight for the freedom of others in a distant land. This is the tale of his grandfather’s redemption and the legacy he leaves behind.
A wonderfully told story of justice and recognition.
A complex and nuanced story about the impact centuries of racism and discrimination can have—not only on a soldier in Canada’s segregated Black Battalion—but on the generations of family that followed. By having painful and difficult conversations with his father, Lance Dixon brings history to life in vivid detail, while exercising ghosts from the past, leaving behind empathy, compassion and a deep understanding of the power of forgiveness.
This is a book about a battalion, a community, a country, and a family; it is also a book about silence–how it can hide, suppress, and wound, and how that silence can be engaged with love. A Footnote to Freedom shows that speaking about the past can be an act of care, both for our ancestors and for ourselves.
A touching and human view of a part of our history that has long been ignored in Canada. A Footnote to Freedom reminds us that behind historical events lie the families and people that have survived them, and continued to build lives for themselves despite hardship and struggle.
- Preface
- Introduction: Reckoning with Race
- 1. Life at the End of Campbell Road
- 2. The Feeling of Freedom
- 3. In Search of Home
- 4. Black in Indiantown
- 5. Band of Brothers
- 6. The Will to Fight
- 7. The Silent War
- 8. Life as a Footnote
- 9. A Father's Confession
- 10. One Hundred Years
- Conclusion: A Future for My People