Educational Media Reviews Online

Produced primarily for broadcast on cable television in an ongoing series entitled, A Scattering of Seeds:The Creation of Canada, this 32nd episode of the series, in its third season, examines the life of Reverend William Andrew White, an American born in Virginia to former slaves.

It is a very personal biographical sketch as some of his children are still alive and were interviewed for this program. Their warm memories and family photographs provide more depth to his character than one would expect from this rather superficial made-for-cable-television series. In fact, one of the most moving and historically important moments arises from the inclusion of what appears to be an archival television interview with his oldest daughter, but it lacks supporting documents. Although, no credit is given, the footage is black and white and dates back to the mid-1960s, most likely. In this interview, Helena White Oliver recalls the day that her father took her to a movie theater in Halifax, Nova Scotia, and convinced the management to allow them to sit downstairs with white people. He was apparently instrumental in integrating movie theaters all over Halifax, although the year is sadly not mentioned. It is merely treated as an anecdote and no further research was done about this clearly monumental event.

There is also a disturbing discrepancy between the liner notes and the program content. For instance, the notes claim that White was the first black man to attend Acadia University in Nova Scotia, while the program mentions that he was the second black man to be admitted. Both statements could be true, if the first man decided not to attend, but it is the apparent sloppiness of the written and narrated text, that causes one to question the accuracy of the whole program. The liner notes claim that he was the first black man to broadcast his sermons on radio across the United States and Canada, while the program mentions that his monthly radio broadcasts were heard only across Canada and the Northern United States. Unfortunately, no dates are ever provided to situate the viewer historically. The liner notes also point to the fact that archival recordings are heard in the program. In the one possible instance where this could be true, images of radios and electrical wires are shown on the screen while a sermon is heard on the soundtrack. The sound appears to be manipulated in such a way to imitate the canned resonance of radio, but it truly sounds too clear and perfect to have been recorded anytime prior to 1936, the year Reverand White died, unless it was expensively digitally remastered. There is of course, no credit for digital remastering and furthermore, although there is a special thanks to CHFX Radio in the credits, it could certainly be for the written material used in the shot. This material is the exact handwritten sermon being spoken on the soundtrack, rather than the audio record of it. The voice giving the sermon is most likely the same as the one reading the text of a non-radio-sounding sermon earlier in the program. Nitpickings about historical and archival accuracy aside, the manipulations and recreations of reality are distracting from the value of celebrating an important man who contributed to the evolution of the black community in Nova Scotia.

As with a much earlier episode on Mary Ann Shadd, Breaking the Ice: The Story of Mary Ann Shadd, this program is best viewed by junior high school history students in conjunction with the series' Web site which contains additional information and lesson plans for teachers. (http;//www.whitepinepictures.com/seeds/episodes/teachers.html). The program briefly alludes to the history of the discrimination of blacks in Canada and, specifically in Nova Scotia. Three excellent National Film Board of Canada documentaries span this history of blacks in Nova Scotia. They are: Speak it! The Heart of Black Nova Scotia, Remember Africville, and Black Mother Black Daughter. Although Captain of Souls recognizes the importance of William Andrew White, it does not sufficiently explore his historical impact. Not recommended for African-American Studies and Canadian History academic use beyond grade 10 although it is of some value as a popular black history biography for public libraries.