By RON FANFAIR
A Halifax Street in a new housing development will bear the name of one of the city’s first Black doctors.
Born in Trinidad & Tobago, Alexander Waddell graduated from Dalhousie University Medical School in 1933. He lived, worked and volunteered in the new Cogswell District.
“By naming a street after Dr. Waddell, we hope to highlight the history, cultural significance and contributions of the African Nova Scotian community in this neighbourhood,” the Halifax Regional Municipality said in a statement.
Waddell’s grandson, Dr. Ron Milne, said the honour is overdue.
“I think it is overdue that the city and the province should recognize him because of all the work he did in civil rights and advocacy as well as medicine,” he said.
A documentary film, ‘Before His Time’, was released in 2001.
“He was way ahead of his time in terms of all his social activities and how much he cared for people and what he contributed,” said Lalita Krishan, the film’s writer/director.
The film shows a photo of his classmates from his graduation at Dalhousie where Waddell faced being denied an internship because of his skin colour.
“But his classmates stood up for him and basically protested, saying that they would not do their residency either if he was not allowed to graduate,” Krishan added.
Waddell died in 1953 at age 57.
