Portia White (Plain-Language Summary)

Family Background

Portia White was the third of 13 children. The parents of her father, William A. White, had been enslaved in Virginia. Her mother, Izie Dora White, was the child of Black Loyalists in Nova Scotia.

William White was the second Black Canadian to attend Acadia University. He was the first Black Canadian to receive a Doctorate of Divinity from Acadia University. He also helped form the No. 2 Construction Battalion. It was the first and only all-Black battalion in Canadian history. During the First World War, he was the only Black chaplain in the British army. Following the war, he moved the family to Halifax. He became pastor of the Cornwallis Street Baptist Church.

Portia White’s brother Bill White was a composer and social activist. He was the first Black Canadian to run for federal office. He represented the Co-operative Commonwealth Federation (CCF) in the Toronto riding of Spadina in 1949. He was made an Officer of the Order of Canada in 1970. Another brother, Jack White, was a labour union leader. He was one of the first Black Canadians to run for provincial office in Ontario.

Early Years and Education

Portia White began singing in the church choir at age six. Her mother was the choirmaster. By the age of eight, Portia was singing the soprano parts from operas. She made up her mind to become a professional singer. She walked 16 km a week for music lessons.

White started her teacher training at Dalhousie University in 1929. After graduating, she became a schoolteacher. She worked in Black Nova Scotian communities such as Africville and Lucasville.

Career Highlights

In the 1930s, White took voice lessons at the Halifax Conservatory of Music. She also sang on radio broadcasts hosted by her father. She competed in the Halifax Music Festival and won the Helen Kennedy Silver Cup in 1935, 1937 and 1938. The Halifax Ladies' Musical Club gave White a scholarship to study at the Halifax Conservatory of Music in 1939.

White gave a handful of recitals at Acadia University and Mount Allison University in 1940. She made her formal debut at age 30 at Toronto's Eaton Auditorium in 1941. Hector Charlesworth of the Globe and Mail wrote that she sang “with pungent expression and beauty of utterance.” Writing in the Evening Telegram, Edward Wodson said White had a “coloured and beautifully shaded contralto… It is a natural voice, a gift from heaven.”

White quit her teaching job in 1941. She continued to give concerts in Canada. But she had a hard time booking performances because of her race. (See Racism; Prejudice and Discrimination.) She reached the high point of her career with a widely acclaimed recital at New York’s Town Hall on 13 March 1944. She was the first Canadian to perform there.

The Nova Scotia Talent Trust was founded in 1944 to allow White to focus on her singing career. She gave two more Town Hall concerts in 1944 and 1945.

In 1945, White signed with Columbia Concerts Inc. and toured North America. But following a tour of Central and South America in 1946, she began to have vocal problems. She also had trouble with her management. In 1948, she toured the Maritimes and sang in Switzerland and France. But she soon retired from public performance. In 1952, she moved to Toronto to study at the Royal Conservatory of Music.

Later Career and Teaching

White began teaching voice in Toronto. She taught both privately and at Branksome Hall, a school for girls. Her private students over the years included Dinah Christie, Anne Marie Moss, Lorne Greene, Don Francks and Robert Goulet.

By the mid-1950s, White had resumed singing on occasion. She sang only a few concerts in the 1950s and 1960s. One was for Queen Elizabeth II and Prince Philip at Charlottetown’s Confederation Centre of the Arts on 6 October 1964. White’s last public performance was at the World Baptist Federation in Ottawa in July 1967.

Recordings

Portia White did not record any albums. Her voice can be heard in several concert recordings, including the song recital Think on Me (1968). Library and Archives Canada holds recordings of her performances in New York and Moncton, New Brunswick, in 1944 and 1945. From these, Analekta released two songs on Great Voices of Canada, Volume 5 (1994).

Legacy and Tributes

In 1995, Portia White was named a “person of national historic significance” by the Government of Canada. Canada Post issued a stamp in her honour in 1999. A documentary by Sylvia Hamilton, Portia White: Think on Me, was broadcast on CBC TV in 2001. In 2004, a life-sized sculpture of her was carved from a tree in front of Truro’s Zion Baptist Church.

The Portia White Prize is awarded each year by the Nova Scotia Arts Council to an outstanding Nova Scotian in the arts. The first person to receive the award in 1998 was White’s great-nephew, the writer George Elliott Clarke. The Nova Scotia Talent Trust presents the Portia White Scholarship Award to singers. It also named its annual gala concert in her honour. At the East Coast Music Awards in 2007, White was awarded the Dr. Helen Creighton Lifetime Achievement Award.

In 2016, White was one of the women on the Bank of Canada’s longlist to be featured on a new $10 banknote. The honour ultimately went to fellow Nova Scotian Viola Desmond. (See also Women on Canadian Banknotes.)

In February 2018, an exhibit was launched at the Don Heights Unitarian Congregation in North York, Ontario. It marked 50 years since White’s death. The exhibit, Celebrating Portia White... 50 Years On, had portraits, photographs, recordings and personal items. The exhibit was also held at the Colchester Historeum in White’s hometown of Truro. It is now housed at the Black Cultural Centre for Nova Scotia.

A version of this entry originally appeared in the Encyclopedia of Music in Canada.