Charles Daniels (activist)

Charles Daniels was a Black Canadian working as a porter supervisor with the CPR at the beginning of the 20th century.

In 1914, he launched a $1,000 discrimination lawsuit against the Sherman Grand theatre in Calgary, Alberta, Canada, when the management refused to honour his ticket for floor seating in the whites-only section to see a production of King Lear.

Charles Daniels was a civil rights activist that came to the Canadian prairies as part of the poorly documented wave of African-American settlers to Alberta during the early 20th century.

[2] Porters looked after the needs of railway passengers, and were one of the few jobs available to black men in Canada in the early 20th century.

Humiliated and embarrassed in front of fellow colleagues at the CPR who witnessed the altercation, Daniels hired a lawyer and launched a lawsuit with lawyer John McDonald[1] for $1,000 in damages against the theatre, the building owner Senator James Lougheed, and William Sherman for discriminatory segregation practices.