Portia White

Portia White,was a teacher and musician, she was born in Truro in 1911, the third child in a family of 11. Her father who was a Baptist minister. Portia joined the choir at her father's church when she was six years old, along with her brothers and sisters. In the early 1930s, Portia White began teaching school in Lucasville, a black community. Her first recital in June 1939, and during the war she performed often in concerts and on radio, Between 1945 and 1948 she toured in Canada, the United States and Latin America .In 1946, she had problems with her voice, which lead to her of having vocal problem . By 1952 Portia White had quit up the concert stage and retired to Toronto to teach music.

She gave performance for Queen Elizabeth II at the Confederation Centre in Charlottetown, Prince Edward Island,in 1960. Portia White is also known as Canada's Marian Anderson. Portia wanted to preform in Nova Scotia, New Brunswick and Ontario, but they didn't allow her because they didn't allow black people. Sadly she died in Toronto in February 1968.