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This man was a personal role model for me, and a father figure for the black community in Toronto, and perhaps Canada.
i met him when i was in my late teens - he was executive director of the Universal African Improvement Association (a Garveyite association started by the black community, including significant numbers of Canadian blacks).
back in those days he was a force, a big belly man very different from the slim man he came to be after he had his stroke (in the early 90s I think). The UAIA years in the late 70s earlyl 80s did not end happily for Dudley, and for a while we were on opposing sides,.but in our community those times, there were too many other bigger issues to tackle for us to keep grievances with each other.
Dudley was a fearless man, never afraid to speak bluntly about racism, and he called out the Toronto Police for their trigger-happy ways of dealing with black men. It seemed that no black man ever had a confrontation with police and lived to tell about it.
i marched with Dudley in the streets of Toronto, and defended him among members of our own community who were frightened by his boldness, and willing to believe the smears police tried against him - you can read about some of their dirty tactics in this obituary from today's globe and mail:
Dudley and some other black community members (inlcuding Trini lawyer Charlie Roach and the fierce, unforgettable and departed Sherona Hall) founded BAD-C - the Black Action Defence Committee, which I believe they patterned after the Jewish Defence League. They were unapologetic and they would not go away, and their leadership and activism continued the community work that led eventually to reforms in police race relations.
Dudley later turned his attention to black on black violence. The incidence of young black men killing each other grieved him deeply. i don't know that he ever found solace on that persistent and pestilential issue.
I hadn't seen him in a while before he died, but always thought of him. in fact, i'm on a community health facility board and we are having an event and i made sure that his name was added to the invitation list. I'm truly sad that he will not be there.
I will miss the way he used to add the H to my name. always pleasant and ready to chat whenever i bucked him up.
RIP Duds.
Dudley with Linda Morowei, whose mentally ill brother was shot and killed by police.
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