Dr. Rita CoxI am doing my assignment on Dr. Rita Cox, a community activist and leader in the black and Caribbean community. Rita Cox joined the Toronto Public Library as a children's librarian in 1960. Then, in 1974 she became the head of Parkdale Branch, another Toronto library. She stayed there until her retirement in 1995.
During her occupancy, Rita Cox started literacy programs and other developments that urged multiculturalism and literacy all through Toronto. Rita Cox and her worked touched the lives of many, especially youth and newcomers.
Rita Cox created the "Black Heritage and West Indian Resource Collection" in 1973. This collection was later renamed "Black and Caribbean Heritage Collection" in 1998. It quickly became one of the most broad collections of its sort in Canada.
Dr. Cox is a distinguished story teller who has delighted and entertained people across North America, in Europe, Brazil and the Caribbean. She has performed on stage, on the radio and on television. She also trained a whole new generation of story tellers so that the library's legacy of storytelling wouldn't die.
Rita Cox has won numerous awards. Among them is the 1996 Canadian Library Association Public Service Award and the Black Achievement Award. In 1997, she was chosen to be a member of the Order of Canada for her amazing work in storytelling and literacy. She has also received honorary degrees from York and Wilfrid Laurier universities.
Dr. Rita Cox is a fascinating woman with the awards to prove it. She is definitely a history making African-Canadian.
Thanks to the following websites for information: http://www.torontopubliclibrary.ca/uni_bch_who.jsp
http://www.storytellingtoronto.org/Directory_Pages/Dir_RitaCox.html
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