Pearleen Oliver

[1] She founded the Nova Scotia Association for the Advancement of Coloured People and co-led the Cornwallis Street African Baptist Church.

She advocated against the exclusion of Black students from learning nursing, and against racial segregation in education.

Oliver was born into a Church of England-following family as Althea "Pearleen" Borden[2] at Cook's Cove near Chedabucto Bay in Guysborough County, Nova Scotia in 1917.

[2] Oliver was a historian, writer, and an educator[6] who founded the Nova Scotia Association for the Advancement of Coloured People.

[13] Oliver selected Gwenyth Barton and Ruth Bailey, who had been rejected from multiple hospitals due to their race despite their educational qualifications.

[13] Oliver’s church network, public speaking, and written correspondence[15] helped Barton and Bailey become the first Black students to attend and graduate nursing school in Canada in 1948.