'She was a visionary': N.S. pioneer nurse overcame racial discrimination to pave path for generations

When Kendrick Douglas reflects on his mother’s life, he’s simply in awe.

“She was really a visionary ahead of her time,” said Douglas.

Born to Bajan parents, Clotida Douglas-Yakimchuk grew up in the Whitney Pier neighbourhood of Cape Breton. Finding her calling in life was somewhat of a happy accident, said Douglas.

“She went to an appointment with her mother and saw a nurse in their garb and thought, sort of tongue in cheek, ‘I would look good in that,’” said Douglas with a laugh.

In 1954, Douglas-Yakimchuk became the first Black graduate of the Nova Scotia Hospital School of Nursing. Specializing in psychiatric care, she encountered racial barriers.

Douglas recalls an incident with one particular patient she cared for at the Nova Scotia Hospital in Dartmouth, N.S.

“She was adamant that our mother was not going to take care of her because of the colour of her skin,” said Douglas. “However, that did not deter my mom at all from giving her the best care.”

The patient would later apologize for her actions. She gifted a Royal Dalton teacup to Douglas-Yakimchuk which still remains in the family.

“It was [the patient’s] way of saying to my mother, 'Thank you for putting up with my ignorance and not giving up on me,'” said Douglas.

During her 50 years in the profession, Douglas-Yakimchuk would serve as the only Black president of the Registered Nurses’ Association of Nova Scotia, now known as the College of Registered Nurses of Nova Scotia.

In an interview with CTV News in 2006, Douglas-Yakimchuk described the vital role nurses play in the health-care system.

“Nursing, over all these years, I don’t think has changed,” she said. “I don’t think it ever should change that we provide comfort and care to people that are really in need.”

Douglas-Yakimchuk was awarded the Orders of Canada and Nova Scotia. In 1991, she was presented with the Harry Jerome Award which recognizes excellence and achievements in the African-Canadian community.

Former Lieutenant Governor Mayann Francis, who also grew up in Whitney Pier, spoke of Douglas-Yakimchuk’s generous and giving spirit in a recent interview with CTV Atlantic.

“She was somebody who cared about people,” said Francis. “She was always active about equality.”

An advocate for education and social justice, Douglas-Yakimchuk was the founding president of the Black Community Development Organization which helped provide housing for low-income families and seniors in the province.

A pillar of the community and her family, Douglas-Yakimchuk’s five children are all accomplished in their own right - including Douglas, a human rights lawyer in Halifax who was recently awarded the Queen Elizabeth II Platinum Jubilee Medal.

“She firmly believed that everyone in the community had a role to play and a voice,” said Douglas.

Douglas-Yakimchuk passed away in 2022 at the age of 89. Her obituary was featured in the New York Times. Douglas says her legacy lives on and will never be forgotten.

“People tend to become greater in death for some reason,” explained Douglas. “However, the same things that people said about [my mother] when she was alive, they said about her when she was dead. She was an authentic person.”