Public school named after Rita Cox
August 17, 2023
Not too many people are alive to witness public institutions bearing their names.
Hours after a school in Parkdale was officially unveiled in Rita Cox’s name on June 9, she could not sleep that night.
Though exhausted after the celebration, the octogenarian was thinking about the accolades that she has received in her lifetime.
Just down the street from the school at 100 Close Ave. is Rita Cox Park that opened in October 2008.
“How did this all happen was what was on my mind during that restless night,” said Cox. “To see these things happening when I am still alive is truly a blessing. I am overwhelmed.”
Queen Victoria Public School, founded in 1887, was renamed Dr. Rita Cox-Kina Minagok Public School.
Rita Cox stands outside the school bearing her name (Photo by Ron Fanfair)
An Indigenous term, Kina Minagok means ‘all is growing well’.
Cox, who was born in Trinidad & Tobago, joined the Toronto Public Library in 1960 and was promoted to Head Librarian at Parkdale Library in 1972.
“In those days, I visited each school in the community twice a year, telling stories to the students,” she recalled. “Even after I retired, I went back to Queen Victoria and other schools during the last week of the school term in June. What I like about this institution is that it is a model inner-city school and very community-oriented, attracting newcomers from all over the world.”
Canada’s first Black woman Member of Parliament Jean Augustine who has a Brampton secondary school bearing her name, Trinidad & Tobago’s Acting Consul General in Toronto Tracey Ramsubagh-Mannette and Toronto District School Board Director of Education Colleen Russell-Rawlins attended the unveiling.
“It is wonderful that students can talk with Dr. Rita Cox to learn about her life and the ways in which she has made change in the community they are living in now,” Russell-Rawlins said. “I know these students will find inspiration from her and learn how to make productive change in the Parkdale community so that their families and their children will benefit from the positive growth and change I know they want for their families and the community.”
TDSB Director of Education Colleen Russell-Rawlins (r) & Rita Cox (Photo by Ron Fanfair)
Bookstore co-owner and raconteur Itah Sadu said it is important that Cox is appreciated while she is still alive.
“Today is a good day for me because this is happening in Rita’s lifetime,” she noted. “Rita Cox represents education, community and being the keeper of stories. That is what education is all about. What is more fitting than to have a woman who excelled in community development, bringing people together and opening doors and books where people can hear their stories, write their stories and have a greater awareness of each other. The whole purpose of education is to make us understand change, be prepared for change, create change and impact change. Rita represents all of those things.”
The school was dedicated to the memory of Queen Victoria who ruled the British throne for 63 years.
“Queen Victoria’s reputation was international because of the greatness of Africa,” added Sadu. “I think she is smiling today that this community of people had the bold vision to do a simple thing and work with change as it is happening in real time. What she has done is to uplift Rita Cox’s name to another level just like how Africa and the Caribbean uplifted Queen Victoria.”
Cox launched several literacy programs for seniors, adults and children that promoted multiculturalism and pioneered the library’s Black & Caribbean Heritage Collection that is the largest circulating collection of its kind in Canada since 1998.
In the spring of 2006, the collection that features almost 16,000 print and audio-visual materials on the Black & Caribbean historical and cultural experience was renamed after Cox who taught a course, ‘Children’s Literature: An Intercultural Perspective’, at York University and was a consultant to the Sao Paulo Public Library in Brazil in 1992.
Former Trinidad & Tobago Consul General in Toronto Michael Lashley said Cox’s significant body of work in this city in the last six decades is no mean feat.
“As a librarian, activist, storyteller, project supporter and initiator of many community organizations, her impact is very noteworthy,” he said. “Having seen Rita in many facets of life, I am overjoyed that a school bears her name and she was able to hear and see what people felt about having to work with her over the years.”
A member of the Order of Canada and the holder of honourary degrees from York and Wilfrid Laurier universities, Cox established ‘Cumbayah’, a Black heritage and storytelling festival.
In 2019, the Caribbean Tourism Organization recognized her with a Lifetime Achievement Award.
