Eddie Carvery Africville,Nova Scotia Obituary, Death:Long-Standing Africville Activist Has Passed Away
The long fight for Africville justice has lost its most steadfast soldier. Eddie Carvery, the iconic activist who spent decades protesting the racist destruction of his Nova Scotia community, has passed away.
In the 1960s, the city of Halifax razed the historic Black settlement of Africville, displacing its residents. While many were scattered, Carvery returned. For over 50 years, he maintained a solitary protest on the former Africville lands, living in a trailer as a permanent rebuke to the injustice.
In the annals of Canadian social justice, few protests embody perseverance like that of Eddie Carvery. For over five decades, his name has been synonymous with the fight for recognition and reparations for Africville, a historic Black community in Halifax, Nova Scotia.
Born in 1946, Carvery grew up in Africville, a tight-knit, predominantly Black settlement that thrived despite systemic neglect from the city. Denied proper roads, sewage, and clean water, the community’s resilience was met with a devastating blow in the 1960s. Under the guise of “urban renewal,” the City of Halifax demolished Africville, displacing its residents and scattering a century-old community.
In 1970, a young Eddie Carvery returned. Driven by a profound sense of injustice, he began a lonely protest on the now-barren land where his home once stood. What started as a solitary act of defiance living in a makeshift trailer on the site became a lifelong vigil. Through harsh winters, legal battles, and decades of municipal indifference, Carvery remained Africville’s on-site conscience.
His unwavering presence forced the story of Africville back into the public eye, a crucial catalyst for the eventual 2010 apology from the City of Halifax and a symbol of the long, unfinished road to reconciliation. Now 80, Eddie Carvery’s legacy is etched into the very soil he refused to abandon. He stands as a testament to the power of one individual to hold history accountable, ensuring that Africville is remembered not as a slum cleared, but as a home destroyed, and a community whose spirit endures.
His unwavering vigil became a powerful symbol of resilience and the ongoing demand for atonement. Carvery’s passing marks the end of an era, but his lifelong stand ensures the story of Africville and the fight for reparations will never be forgotten.
