Putting Name to Face: Clarence Munford
The Clarence Munford Student Centre is the dedicated space where the Guelph Black Students Association gathers to talk, educate themselves, commiserate, or simply frolic!
But whose name does the Centre bear?
Clarence Munford is Professor Emeritus in the Department of History at the University of Guelph. He was one of the faculty members instrumental in organizing courses on various aspects of Black history throughout Ontario. A prolific scholar, Prof. Munford has authored numerous books and articles about the Black experience, both globally and within Canada.
In addition to several articles, Prof. Munford wrote four full length books on Black History:
American Crucible: Black Enslavement, White Capitalism, and Imperial Globalization; An Interpretation of Western Civilization since 1441 (Africa World Press, 2009)
Race and Civilization: The Rebirth of Black Centrality (Trenton, NJ: Africa World Press, 2001).
Race and Reparations: A Black Perspective for the 21st Century (Trenton, NJ: Africa World Press, 1996).
The Black Ordeal of Slavery and Slave Trading in the French West Indies, 1625-1715, 3 volumes (Lewiston: Mellon Publishers, 1991-1992).
On May 30, 1965, Stanford Reid unsettled him and his wife from Montreal and joined the nascent Wellington College at the University of Guelph. He was a full Professor of History at McGill University with experience in expanding university infrastructure including dorms. Reid’s sojourn at the University of the Guelph would later result in the hire of Clarence Munford to bring ‘diversity’ to the Department of History in Wellington College. Although Reid’s focus on defense John Knox as a research interest may rightly gain him a reputation as a conservative and traditionalist, his ideation about why he left McGill for the University of Guelph also at least provides a hint of progressive thought too (See Chapter 12 –“Heady Years at Guelph” 182&185). Reid as the Head of Department had full control over Department hires. Clarence Munford, born in Ohio, U.S.A was only the third Black recipient of a Fulbright Fellowship. No wonder Munford was on Reid’s radar as the latter searched for Faculty for his new Department at Guelph. Perhaps it is one of the only times that government bureaucracy ended in a desirable outcome! It is said that Monford’s visa was delayed in Ottawa on suspicion that he was communist but by the time Munford was figured out he was already a landed immigrant working at the University of Guelph for two years. (Macleod 188).
Clarence Munford’s courses were very popular with students at the University of Guelph. He also did speaking engagements across Canada and further abroad.
Further Readings Vist: W. Stanford Reid
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