Harold Lee Jackson:

A History of Radiotelegraphy, Race, and Resistance in Chatham

 Nikesh Mehta-Spooner

On April 11, 1922, Roy H. Cole sent a telegram message from Oklahoma City to Harold Lee Jackson in Chatham, Ontario.[1] As a historical researcher, Cole’s telegram message poses an interesting question: why would Cole, a stranger to Jackson, send a postcard with telegraph metrics to Chatham? I was surprised to learn from a Chatham-Kent Black Historical Society curator that Cole’s message was part of a larger collection of telegram messages archived in the society’s museum. As I read through Jackson’s archive, this historical mystery became more complex. I saw postcards from Maine, Michigan, Ohio, Missouri, and even Puerto Rico that were delivered to Jackson’s residence. Why was Jackson receiving so many postcards? Was he a telegraphy professional? When did Jackson’s interest in telegraph communication begin? As I continued researching Jackson’s past in its historical context, I learned such questions reveal only part of the more significant history behind these postcards.

By examining the origins of Jackson’s interest in radiotelegraphy through the material history of Jackson’s wireless telegraph machine, researchers can write a fascinating story about race, resistance, and social power in Chatham. In doing so, historians can complicate their understanding of Jackson’s past. This past addresses what it means to be a Black man living in a community with deep connections to slavery, racism, migration, and abolitionism. More specifically, the machine’s material history reflects three historiographical themes in Black micro-histories of Southwestern Ontario. First, Jackson’s machine symbolizes the Black community’s resistance to racial barriers in institutional structures through social power. Second, the machine represents Jackson’s innovative intellectualism and, by extension, the Black community’s role in advancing its economic empowerment in Chatham. Third, Jackson’s wireless machine and postcard notes illustrate a transnational history that continues to shape the interconnectedness between Chatham and American histories. Ultimately, the machine’s past demonstrates how Jackson’s telegraphy career challenged racial oppression in Southwestern Ontario and, in the process, promoted social and economic empowerment in Chatham’s Black community in the early 20th century.

Before I explore Jackson’s telegraphy career in detail, it is essential to situate his past in a historical context. Harold Lee Jackson was born on January 12, 1901, to William and Effie Jackson in Chatham, Ontario.[2] The future telegrapher grew up in the Southwestern Ontario town, alongside his siblings Theora, Dorothy, and Madeline.[3] Jackson was raised in Chatham’s early 20th century segregated society rooted in discriminatory 19th century laws.[4] Despite these racial barriers, Jackson continued his daily life. For example, he married Hattie Lucas on 251 King Street, Chatham, Ontario. According to a local newspaper story, the young couple left Chatham for an “automobile trip” after the ceremony and returned in the evening to host a reception with a “dainty repast.”[5] Harold and Hattie welcomed four children into their family: Harold Jr., Virginia, Ada, and Charles. In addition to his familial duties, Jackson spent significant time learning telegraphy. Captivated by radiotelegraphy’s commercial opportunities, Jackson purchased a customized wireless “Key on Board” telegraph machine to further his career. This customized machine transformed Jackson’s life, as outlined below.

Jackson’s telegraphy capabilities attracted the attention of local Chatham residents and the wider North American radiotelegraphy profession. The young adult became a symbol for the Black community’s social progress in the early 20th century. For example, in 1922, Jackson was registered as the first Black licensed ham radio operator in Canada.[6] This impressive accomplishment suggests that Jackson was a professional, accredited radio operator. Then, in 1923, Jackson secured a position as a city correspondent for the Ontario Division of the American Radio Relay League – an American organization designed to connect amateur radio groups.[7] In this position, Jackson co-operated with radio amateurs in Ontario to advance the profession’s interests and build a telegraphy community.[8] Jackson’s growing interest in telegraphy coincided with the North American radio industry’s post-First World War expansion.[9] During this period, radio enthusiasts recognized the industry’s ability to expand their scientific curiosity. In short, radio transitioned from a government apparatus to an inclusive activity people could use to communicate with friends and family, though men often dominated the corporate telegraphy sector.[10]

More importantly, Jackson’s radiotelegraphy career is rooted in Chatham’s Black history. Traditionally, Canadians embrace “colour-blind” histories that neglect how race informed people’s lived experiences.[11] In fact, Chatham’s role in the Atlantic world is often presented as a “safe haven” for Black people. However, this view overlooks how racial violence and segregation informed the Black Canadian experience, particularly in the twentieth century.[12] My analysis shows that race was central to Jackson’s history, and that his telegraphy accomplishments illustrate that he was not a passive victim of racial oppression. Instead, he became a local symbol for Chatham’s legacy of Black resistance to segregation and economic inequalities in Canada. Through radiotelegraphy, Jackson used his social power to shape the Black community’s activist role in Southwestern Ontario in the 20th century.

Jackson’s entrepreneurial and education careers also display his economic power and active intellectualism in the broader Chatham-Kent region. In 1925, Jackson opened a radio repair shop, where he helped amateur radiotelegraphers send radio signals across Canada and the United States. Drawing on his mother’s entrepreneurial spirit as an ice cream parlour manager, Jackson continued the tradition of promoting Black economic power in Chatham. This entrepreneurial spirit was not uncommon in Chatham’s Black community. Since the community’s initial 19th century settlement in the region, Black doctors, lawyers, and teachers actively participated in the professional community to advance their economic positionality in Southwestern Ontario, such as the notable pan-Africanist medical doctor Martin Delany.[13] Moreover, Jackson taught at Chatham’s Woodstock Industrial School at the newly founded “Wireless Telegraphy” department. The Woodstock Industrial School was established in 1908 as an integrated institution designed to educate children in the skilled trades.[14] As a teacher, Jackson shared his knowledge in telegraphy, empowering Black children to seek trades careers. In doing so, Jackson continued Chatham’s history of Black intellectual engagement that is traditionally overlooked in Canadian histories.[15] In short, Jackson’s telegraph machine symbolizes his entrepreneurial spirit and teaching career that shaped the Black community’s economic and intellectual prowess in the early 20th century.

Jackson’s telegraphy career also sheds light on Chatham’s transnational history. As noted earlier, Jackson received telegraph messages from across the Atlantic world. For example, on July 31, 1922, Jackson received a postcard from Cleveland native Milton Fruebouf. Fruebouf notes that Jackson’s telegraph signal is “very good” and asks the Chatham local what telegraph system he uses.[16] Like many messages sent to Jackson, Fruebouf is grateful to work with the Chatham telegrapher. Although Fruebouf likely did not know Jackson, the two men were collegial. Another message sent from Puerto Rican Luis Rexach on January 29, 1923, highlights a friendly transatlantic conversation between Jackson and telegraphers. Rexach writes to Jackson, “Vy [sic] glad indeed to learn that you copy me so well.”[17] Although Rexach’s message is short, he expresses his collegiality by telling Jackson, “Bet its cold over there [Chatham] now.”[18] While most messages sent to Jackson focus on telegraphy metrics, they also reflect a sense of community and inclusiveness in the telegraphy movement. These messages illustrate Chatham’s historic role in blurring American and Canadian borders that began with Black migrations from the United States to Southwestern Ontario in the 19th century.[19] Evidently, Jackson connected Chatham to a historic transatlantic network that influenced Chatham’s legacy as an important centre for scientific and economic development outside Canada’s major metropolitan centers. 

In the late 1940s and 1950s, Jackson’s business career continued to grow. He even created a television set during his spare time.[20] In recognition of these accomplishments, Jackson was awarded a life membership to the Chatham Kent Amateur Radio Club in 1960.[21] Clearly, Chatham locals noticed Jackson’s importance in defining the Black community’s legacy in the mid 20th century. However, as Jackson’s health declined, he had to close his radiotelegraphy enterprise. Jackson passed away on July 8, 1964 – he was 63 years old.

As we reach the end of Jackson’s life story, I hope that we, as historical researchers, can appreciate his role in Canadian history. The famous British historian E.H. Carr once asked: “What is History?”[22] Through this research project, I have learned that Jackson’s history has been largely forgotten outside the Chatham community. In fact, many Black Canadian histories are regularly silenced in the historical record. Nonetheless, by addressing these silences through grassroots research methods, I think we can answer Carr’s question. History, as a discipline and professional practice, extends beyond political and military accounts. History is also about ordinary people and their lived experiences – these narratives give us a glimpse into Canada’s past. Without these stories, we overlook how ordinary people, including Jackson, led extraordinary lives. As this blog demonstrates, Jackson’s history reveals how the Black community in Chatham invoked social power, sought economic development, valued education, and connected Southwestern Ontario to the broader Atlantic world throughout the 20th century. Indeed, history is a dialogue between us and the past – a continuous conversation that unravels historical silences forgotten in the public sphere. What is history, you ask? I reply: “Study the small things in the archive.” In doing so, perhaps we can learn how Harold Lee Jackson’s history provides an answer to Carr’s question.

Bibliography

“African Canadian Workers: From 1900 to the Second World War: Harold Lee Jackson.” Private collection of Chatham-Kent Black Historical Society, accessed October 1, 2021.

Carr, E.H. What is History? London: Penguin UK, 2018.

Cole, H. Roy. “Postcard addressed to H. Jackson.” Private collection of Chatham-Kent Black Historical Society, April 11, 1922.

Este, C. David. “Black Canadian Historical Writing, 1970-2006: An Assessment.” Journal of Black Studies 38, no. 3 (2008): 388-406.

Fruebouf, Milton. “Postcard addressed to H. Jackson.” Private collection of Chatham-Kent Black Historical Society, July 31, 1922.

Henry, Natasha and Adrienne Shadd. “‘…and still I rise:’ A History of Black Workers in Ontario, 1900 to Present: Teacher’s Guide.” Workers Arts and Heritage, August 2003.

Hepburn, Roger Sharon. Crossing the Border: A Free Black Community in Canada. Urbana: University of Illinois Press, 2007.

“Honor Amateur Radio Operator.” Private collection of Chatham-Kent Black Historical Society, accessed October 1, 2021.

“Jackson Family Tree.” Private collection of Chatham-Kent Black Historical Society, accessed October 1, 2021.

Paul, Heike. “Out of Chatham: Abolitionism on the Canadian Frontier.” Atlantic Studies 8, no. 2 (2011): 165-188.

“Picture of Jackson Family.” Private collection of Chatham-Kent Black Historical Society, accessed October 2, 2021.

Reid-Maroney, Nina. “‘A Contested Mind Is a Continual Feast’: Tracing Intellectual Migrations through the Promised Land,” in The Promised Land: History and Historiography of the Black Experience in Chatham-Kent’s Settlements and Beyond, ed. Boulou de b’Beri, Nina Reid-Maroney, and Handel K. Wright. Toronto: University of Toronto Press, 2014, 106-128.

Rens, Jean-Guy. The Invisible Empire: A History of the Telecommunications Industry in Canada, 1846-1956. Montreal & Kingston: McGill-Queen’s University Press, 2001.

Rexach, Luis. “Postcard addressed to H. Jackson.” Private collection of Chatham-Kent Black Historical Society, January 29, 1923.

Shadd, Adrienne. “No ‘Black Alley Clique’: The campaign to desegregate Chatham’s public schools, 1891-1893.” Ontario History 99, no. 1 (2007): 77-95.

Slotten, Richard Hugh. “Universities, public service experimentation, and the origins of radio broadcasting in the United States, 1900-1920.” Historical Journal of Film, Radio and Television 26, no. 4 (2006): 485-504.

“The American Radio Relay League, Inc: Harold Jackson Certificate.” Private collection of Chatham-Kent Black Historical Society, accessed October 1, 2021.

Tilloston, Shirley. “‘We May All Soon Be First Class Men’: Gender and Skill in Canada’s Early Twentieth Century Urban Telegraph Industry.” Labour/Le Travail 27 (1991): 97-125.

Walcott, Rinaldo. Black Like Who? Toronto: Insomniac Press, 2003.

“Weddings: Jackson-Lucas.” Private collection of Chatham-Kent Black Historical Society, accessed October 1, 2021.

Winks, W. Robin. The Blacks in Canada. Montreal & Kingston: McGill-Queen’s University Press, 1997.

Harold Jackson’s Telegraph Machine

[1] Roy H. Cole, “Postcard addressed to H. Jackson” (Private collection of Chatham-Kent Black Historical Society, April 11, 1922).

[2] “Jackson Family Tree” (Private collection of Chatham-Kent Black Historical Society, accessed October 1, 2021).

[3] “Picture of Jackson Family” (Private collection of Chatham-Kent Black Historical Society, accessed October 2, 2021).

[4] Robin W. Winks, The Blacks in Canada (Montreal & Kingston: McGill-Queen’s University Press, 1997), 149.

[5] “Weddings: Jackson-Lucas” (Private collection of Chatham-Kent Black Historical Society, accessed October 1, 2021).

[6] “African Canadian Workers: From 1900 to the Second World War: Harold Lee Jackson” (Private collection of Chatham-Kent Black Historical Society, accessed October 1, 2021).

[7] Hugh Richard Slotten, “Universities, public service experimentation, and the origins of radio broadcasting in the United States, 1900-1920,” Historical Journal of Film, Radio and Television 26, no. 4 (2006): 485-504, 492.

[8] “The American Radio Relay League, Inc: Harold Jackson Certificate” (Private collection of Chatham-Kent Black Historical Society, accessed October 1, 2021).

[9] Jean-Guy Rens, The Invisible Empire: A History of the Telecommunications Industry in Canada, 1846-1956 (Montreal & Kingston: McGill-Queen’s University Press, 2001), 195.

[10] Shirley Tilloston, “‘We May All Soon Be First Class Men’: Gender and Skill in Canada’s Early Twentieth Century Urban Telegraph Industry,” Labour/Le Travail 27 (1991): 97-125, 124.

[11] David C. Este, “Black Canadian Historical Writing, 1970-2006: An Assessment,” Journal of Black Studies 38, no. 3 (2008): 388-406, 401.

[12] Sharon Roger Hepburn, Crossing the Border: A Free Black Community in Canada (Urbana: University of Illinois Press, 2007), 10.

[13] Rinaldo Walcott, Black Like Who? (Toronto: Insomniac Press, 2003), 34.

[14] Adrienne Shadd, “No ‘Black Alley Clique’: The campaign to desegregate Chatham’s public schools, 1891-1893,” Ontario History 99, no. 1 (2007): 77-95, 82.

[15] Nina Reid-Maroney, “‘A Contested Mind Is a Continual Feast’: Tracing Intellectual Migration through the Promised Land,” in The Promised Land: History and Historiography of the Black Experience in Chatham-Kent’s Settlements and Beyond, ed. Boulou de b’Beri, Nina Reid-Maroney, and Handel K. Wright (Toronto: University of Toronto Press, 2014), 106-128, 107.

[16] Milton Fruebouf, “Postcard addressed to H. Jackson,” (Private collection of Chatham-Kent Black Historical Society, July 31, 1922).

[17] Luis Rexach, “Postcard addressed to H. Jackson,” (Private collection of Chatham-Kent Black Historical Society, January 29, 1923).

[18] Ibid.

[19] Heike Paul, “Out of Chatham: Abolitionism on the Canadian Frontier,” Atlantic Studies 8, no. 2 (2011): 165-188, 166.

[20] Natasha Henry and Adrienne Shadd, “‘…and still I rise:’ A History of Black Workers in Ontario, 1900 to Present: Teacher’s Guide,” Workers Arts and Heritage, August 2003, 23.

[21] “Honor Amateur Radio Operator,” (Private collection of Chatham-Kent Black Historical Society, accessed October 1, 2021).

[22] E.H. Carr, What is History? (London: Penguin UK, 2018).