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Local residents rallied to have a new Grand Erie school named after Blanche E. Williams, one of the first Black women in Canada to attend university on the same terms as white students.

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Now, they’re searching for the rest of her story.

“She sort of completely disappeared, like her family disappears … we don’t know what happened,” Angel Panag told The Spectator.

Historian Sarah Clarke happened upon Williams’ trail-blazing accomplishment while researching the Black community in Brantford in her spare time.

“It’s not super well-known, I don’t think, that there was a very early Black community in Brantford, many of whom would come up here during slavery,” she told The Spectator.

Clarke was searching an African American newspaper database while she was at Western University and typed in “Brantford.” A story popped up in the Huntsville Gazette in Alabama.

“OK, how does the U.S. have an article about this person from Brantford, Ontario, that we’ve never heard of?” Clarke recalled thinking.

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The clip, dated 1885, named Williams as the first Black woman accepted to University of Toronto with the same privileges as white students. From there, Clarke found other articles noting her accomplishment.

“There was all this coverage … And I’m like, ‘how did that story not continue?’” Clarke said.

The search took on a greater purpose after the Grand Erie District School Board put out a call for names for a new school in West Brant.

Along with Clarke and Amanda Mersereau — fellow members of the grassroots organization Unite Against Hate — and community members, Panag brought Williams’ name forward.

“I was talking to some people around Brantford who thought that the name should be reflected in the community,” Panag said.

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He began a community campaign to elevate Black and Brown voices in the naming process, something he felt was particularly important in West Brant — a diverse area with many newcomers.

Panag knows firsthand the power an inspirational name can have for kids — especially if they’re the first generation of their family attending post-secondary school. He completed law school in 2023 and is working toward his masters of law.

“I remember living in Brantford, I used to hear about a young guy who became a lawyer and was a hip-hop artist and went to North Park (Collegiate and Vocational School), where I went too, and it just made it sound like that was possible,” he said, referencing Salman Rana, who is also known as YLook.

The group was successful in its efforts.

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“With education as the path to transformation, Blanche Williams interrupted racial barriers and showed us what’s possible,” GEDSB superintendent of education Liana Thompson said in a news release announcing the name.

“Naming our school after her is a celebration not only of her groundbreaking achievements, but her story inspires all of us to be courageous, strong and to persevere to achieve our dreams,” it said.

The $34-million school is expected to open September 2026 at Shellard Lane and Strickland Avenue. The project is a partnership with the City of Brantford and will include a library and recreation centre.

What happened to Blanche E. Williams?

Census records indicated Williams’ family came to Brantford from the United States after the Civil War, around 1867.

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“I imagine at that time, they probably were living in the northern states because slavery had ended, but there was still a lot of (racism). So I think maybe they came up for more opportunities,” Clarke said.

They found baptism records for Williams and her mother, Josephine, at First Baptist Church in Brantford around 1870.

They learned her father, Charles, transferred his barber position from the Kerby House Hotel in Brantford to the affiliated Palmer House Hotel in Toronto the year Williams started at U of T.

But from there, they lost track of the family.

“From what we can tell, she did not finish her studies at U of T,” Clarke said.

“Maybe she got married and was studying under a married name,” but her folks seemed to disappear from local records too, Clarke said.

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They pursued a number of potential theories of where Williams ended up.

The name turned up on a land record in Michigan. A hairdresser advertisement in Vaughan or Markham.

“One of them is a church and jazz singer in Philadelphia,” Panag said.

An obituary for a fellow who was “beloved by his sister Blanche Williams.”

But in any of the cases “it’s hard to know if that’s the same person,” he said.

“The interesting thing, believe it or not, is that there are many Charles, Josephine and Blanche (Williams) families,” Clarke said.

However, Blanche’s middle initial seems to be a distinctive feature.

“We’re hoping that when people read this article, they might know something” and reach out, Mersereau said.

Anyone who has information about Blanche E. Williams or her family can email uniteagainsthatebtfd@gmail.com.

Celeste Percy-Beauregard is a Local Journalism Initiative Reporter based at the Hamilton Spectator. The initiative is funded by the Government of Canada.

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