ANN CARROLL, "HERITAGE ACTIVIST IN COUNTDOWN TO SAVE LANDMARK BLACK SCHOOL," MONTREAL GAZETTE  (JULY 25, 2003).

Copyright Montreal Gazette 2003

A roofless one-room schoolhouse in the Eastern Townships might not seem a promising squat.

But Dominic Soulie, who today begins the "peaceful occupation" of stone ruins in the border town of St. Armand, about 80 kilometres southeast of Montreal, is not your typical squatter.

Soulie is setting up his tent on the grounds of the 1831 school - believed to have been built by blacks in the area - to raise money to buy and preserve the site.

"Our backs are to the wall, and it's hard as stone," said Soulie, 40, president of the Centre historique de St. Armand. "If we hope to save the building, we need help."

The non-profit heritage group has until Aug. 1 to make good on an offer to buy the property for $25,000. With the deadline only days away, the group has raised less than $3,000.

"With each hour that passes, there could be another person who decides to make an offer and who has no intention of preserving the site," Soulie said, his voice hoarse from talking up the project to anyone who will listen.

He is appealing to Montreal's black community to get involved. "It's a golden opportunity to bring multiculturalism to the countryside."

The property owner, an Ontario woman, has agreed to let Soulie look after the grounds and hold fundraisers until the deadline.

The former schoolhouse stands within a kilometre of a limestone outcrop in a farmer's field, still officially known by the perjorative name Nigger Rock, where black slaves are believed to have been buried in the early 1800s.

Oral tradition has it that the slaves were brought here by United Empire Loyalists fleeing the American Revolution.

The unmarked burial ground has been declared a site of historic interest by the town of St. Armand. In February, then provincial immigration minister Andre Boulerice gave the town a plaque honouring the victims of slavery and commemorating the 170th anniversary of the abolition of slavery in the British Empire.

Boulerice donated $1,000 toward the schoolhouse purchase; another $1,000 is yet to come.

Quebec has also offered the heritage society $5,000 to research local black history. But the money cannot be used to buy the school, Soulie noted.

Yet the site, which could serve as an interpretation centre, has strong ties to black history, he said. "The history of blacks is linked to the community here from 1794 to the 1950s. They plowed the fields, excavated the quarries and worked on the train lines.

"We want to honour their role in the development of Canada."