On November 7, 2024, members of the Trinity community and special guests came together to celebrate the unveiling of a portrait of Dr. Alexander Augusta at Trinity College. Alexander Augusta completed his medical degree at Trinity Medical College in 1860 and became the first Black medical student in Canada West. But his story wasn’t known to current generations until a more recent Trinity graduate became involved.
by Jennifer Matthews
Dr. Nav Persaud ’02 UC, MD ’09 and Provost Nicholas Terpstra co-hosted the celebratory unveiling of the portrait of Dr. Augusta, by Gordon Shadrach. This beautiful portrait now hangs in Seeley Hall, and adds to efforts to make the artwork at Trinity more fully reflect the diversity and impact of our alumni and community. The evening was an opportunity to honour Dr. Augusta’s courage, and to reaffirm Trinity’s longstanding commitment to inclusivity and diversity.
Dr. Persaud, a former Trinity Don and Rhodes Scholar, first learned about Augusta and Abbott after reading African American Medicine in Washington, D.C.: Healing the Capital During the Civil War Era, by Heather Butts, an associate professor at Columbia University. In an effort to increase awareness of Dr. Augusta’s contributions closer to home, Dr. Persaud later co-authored a paper about Augusta with Butts and Toronto-based historian Alanna McKnight, published in the Canadian Medical Education Journal in 2021.
After completing his education here at Trinity in 1860, Dr. Augusta worked for several years as a physician in Toronto and advocated against racism. He then returned to the U.S. and used his skills during and after the Civil War to promote civil rights.
“Playing a short but significant role in the life of this extraordinary person is surely one of our proudest moments,” says Trinity’s Rolph-Bell Archivist, Sylvia Lassam (view Lassam’s 2023 Reunion presentation on Trinity’s YouTube channel; her coverage of Dr. Augusta begins at 4:40). “Perseverance and an uncompromising adherence to his principles links Alexander Augusta to many Trinity College graduates throughout the years.”
Dr. Augusta’s legacy
“Augusta’s experience here in Canada can help us understand the disparities that exist today in Canadian medicine,” Persaud said in a 2022 interview. “Even today, medical schools don’t represent the populations that they serve, and if you want to understand why, part of that means going back to Augusta’s time … I hope his story might inspire other physicians, healthcare providers and trainees to combine a focus on clinical work with making bigger changes that affect everyone in our profession, our patients and society at large.”
“We’re all at a disadvantage when we don’t know the complete telling of our history,” says Butts. “Dr. Augusta was a courageous man who fought valiantly, who was someone to be proud of,” she added in an interview with CBC Radio’s Metro Morning about her book on the day of the portrait unveiling.
Heritage Toronto plaques
As part of his awareness campaign, Dr. Persaud brought Dr. Augusta’s story forward to Heritage Toronto. On February 9, 2023, Heritage Toronto plaques were unveiled at Trinity to honour Canada’s first Black doctors—Dr. Augusta and his mentee and friend, Dr. Anderson Abbott, the first Black Canadian-born graduate of the Toronto School of Medicine. The commemorative plaques were later installed near the U of T campus (northwest corner of College Street and University Avenue, near Queen’s Park).
The Dr. Alexander Thomas Augusta Award
Dr. Augusta has been honoured by the College and connected to today’s students in another concrete way: In 2023, Trinity renamed the Black, Indigenous or a Person of Colour (BIPOC) Student Award to The Dr. Alexander Thomas Augusta Award. The award (one or more awards, each valued at up to $5,000) is awarded to a Trinity student identifying as Black, Indigenous or a Person of Colour on the basis of financial need and demonstrated or planned community contributions on or off campus. The BIPOC Award was created in 2020 as a way to increase in financial aid available to BIPOC students. The award was in response to one of the recommendations of the Trinity College Task Force on Anti-Black Racism and Inclusion, which called for an increase in financial aid available to BIPOC students with a particular focus on bursaries and needs-based awards. In addition, through the generosity of the College’s donors, the Trinity College BIPOC Bursary Fund was also created to support students solely based on financial need. Please visit the Trinity website to learn more or donate to the fund.