Sculpture Honouring Pioneering Publisher to Grace Windsor Hall

Local artist Donna Mayne BA ’82, will create a sculpture to honour Mary Ann Shadd, an African-Canadian/American, anti-slavery activist, journalist, publisher, teacher, and lawyer, for the newly named Windsor Hall – previously known as the Pitt-Ferry Building.

Shadd was the first Black woman to publish and edit a newspaper — The Provincial Freeman — in North America and the first woman publisher in Canada. The Provincial Freeman was published from March 1853 to September 1857 in Windsor, then in Toronto and after that in Chatham. The newspaper advocated equality, integration, and self-reliance for Black people in Canada and the United States.

She was a role model to many and a powerful advocate to end enslavement. The placement of her sculpture at the former Windsor Star building is intended to remind the campus community of her impact and legacy.

Shadd died in Washington in 1893 and the Canadian government designated her a Person of National Historic Significance in 1994.