Millicent Carey Burgess (born 1923) is a Canadian educator. She may have been the first black teacher for the

Toronto District School Board The Toronto District School Board (TDSB), formerly known as English-language Public District School Board No. 12 prior to 1999, is the English-language public-secular school board for Toronto, Ontario, Canada. The minority public-secular franco ...

Biography

The daughter of James and Doris Carey, she worked as a substitute teacher for several years after completing high school. She began studying at Hamilton Teachers' College in Canada in 1950 after receiving a scholarship from the Bermuda government and completed the last two years of her studies at Toronto Teachers' College. Burgess then returned to Bermuda and taught for three years. She married Edward Leroy Burgess there in 1954; the couple moved to Canada the following year. She worked as a clerk for Blue Cross in

Toronto Toronto ( ; or ) is the capital city of the Canadian province of Ontario. With a recorded population of 2,794,356 in 2021, it is the most populous city in Canada and the fourth most populous city in North America. The city is the ancho ...

for one year and then began looking for a teaching position. Burgess was an elementary schoolteacher. During this time, she earned a BA from the

University of Toronto The University of Toronto (UToronto or U of T) is a public research university in Toronto, Ontario, Canada, located on the grounds that surround Queen's Park. It was founded by royal charter in 1827 as King's College, the first institution ...

by attending night classes. She retired in 1989.

Other roles

*1958-: member of the Canadian Negro Women's Association (CANEWA), later the Congress of Black Women of Canada *1957-1989: Consultant with the

Toronto Board of Education The Toronto Board of Education (TBE; commonly known as School District 15), officially known as the Board of Education for the City of Toronto, is the former secular school district serving the pre-merged city of Toronto. The board offices were l ...

Prizes

*2012: Recipient of the Reverend Addie Aylestock Award from the Ontario Black History Society

References

1923 births Living people Bermudian emigrants to Canada Black Canadian women Canadian schoolteachers University of Toronto alumni {{Canada-bio-stub