Rella Aylestock Braithwaite (January 29, 1923 – July 23, 2019) was a Canadian author. She was born in

Mapleton, Ontario Mapleton is a rural township in the Canadian province of Ontario, located within Wellington County. Communities The largest and central community in Mapleton is the village of Drayton, which contains the township offices and has the largest ...

, a descendant of Black pioneers who settled in the

Queen's Bush The Queen's Bush was an area of what is now Southwestern, Ontario, between Waterloo County, Ontario and Lake Huron that was set aside as clergy reserves by the colonial government. It is known as the location of communities established by Black s ...

area, and was educated in

Listowel, Ontario Listowel is an unincorporated community in Ontario, Canada, located in the Municipality of North Perth. Incorporated as the Town of Listowel in 1875, it was dissolved in 1998 following amalgamation with several other communities in the northern ...

. In 1946, Braithwaite and her husband Bob settled in the

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 anch ...

suburb of Scarborough Township; she served on the local school board. She wrote a column on Black history for the ''Contrast'' newspaper. In 1975, Braithwaite published ''The Black Woman in Canada'' on outstanding Canadian Black women. She also helped the

Ministry of Education An education ministry is a national or subnational government agency politically responsible for education. Various other names are commonly used to identify such agencies, such as Ministry of Education, Department of Education, and Ministry of Pub ...

in Ontario develop a Black Studies guide for use in the classroom. Her daughter is singer

Diana Braithwaite Diana Braithwaite is a Canadian electric blues singer, songwriter and screenwriter. She is a multiple Maple Blues Awards, Maple Blues Award winner. More recently she has teamed up with Chris Whiteley and they have been acclaimed as "blues icons" ...

References

1923 births 2019 deaths Black Canadian writers Canadian women journalists Journalists from Ontario Canadian women historians Black Canadian women writers {{Canada-nonfiction-writer-stub