http://www.metafilter.com/tags/stlawrence Posts tagged with 'stlawrence' at MetaFilter. Tue, 28 Aug 2007 14:53:57 -0800 Tue, 28 Aug 2007 14:53:57 -0800 en-us http://blogs.law.harvard.edu/tech/rss 60 http://www.metafilter.com/64234/Lanier%2DPhillips%2Dsurvivor It sounds like a bad Newfie joke: <a href="http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=1149406" title="NPR documentary 'Survivor'">the Newfoundlanders who had never seen a black person before and tried to scrub the colour off his skin</a>. But the story is real: in 1942, <a href="http://www.cbc.ca/national/blog/video/internationalus/the_ambassador_or_st_lawrence.html" title="CBC's The National documentary 'The Ambassador of St. Lawrence'">Lanier Phillips was the only black survivor of the wreck of the USS Truxton off the coast of Newfoundland.</a> Like the white survivors, he was half-dead and covered in oil when he arrived on shore, and the women nursing the survivors were puzzled when they could not clean the black colour off his skin. What happened next affected Phillips' self-perception and prompted him to push for equal treatment in the US Navy. <a href="http://www.military.com/Opinions/0,,Edwards_022805-P1,00.html" title="Jeff Edwards article 'Quiet Hero'">He went on to become the first African American US SONAR technician</a>, and continues today, at the age of 84, to speak across the US about his experience with the people of St. Lawrence. [<a href="http://www.metafilter.com/13462/#197792">previously</a>] tag:metafilter.com,2007:site.64234 Tue, 28 Aug 2007 14:53:57 -0800 africanamerican kindnessofstrangers lanierphillips newfoundland racism shipwreck stlawrence survivor hurdy gurdy girl