After joining Jeremiah Sparks in an onstage conversation about Maurice Ruddick, Evelyn C. White talks with the miner's daughter about racism in Nova Scotia and her father's legacy.
“I am absolutely mortified that an invited guest and an artist on our stage were subjected to such behaviour,” said Lisa Bugden, general manager of the Neptune, who’d witnessed the exchange. “This individual clearly wanted to halt any discussion about the racism that permeates our community and was abundantly clear in the aftermath of the Springhill mining disaster.”
She continued: “Neptune holds Talk Back sessions to encourage open discussions surrounding the topics probed in our productions.”
About the interruption, Sparks later noted that he found it “weird.” “[I] was not happy with that part,” he said. “Was interesting to assess.”
Disinclined to perhaps trigger painful memories, I’d chosen not to interview Ruddick’s family for my 2018 article. But prompted by the theatre incident, I contacted Valerie Ruddick MacDonald, now age 74, and a resident of New Brunswick.
As the character (then age 10), who makes her father delectable honey banana sandwiches, MacDonald featured prominently in Beneath Springhill (via remarks from Sparks in the role of Maurice Ruddick). MacDonald had seen the production.
“Jeremiah did a fabulous job,” she told me in a phone interview. “It was so moving to see Dad’s character come back to life. I was honoured to meet Jeremiah after the show.”
Reflecting on her Dad’s sojourn on Jekyll Island, MacDonald continued: “He felt he’d be holding the others back if he didn’t go. There was no more work after the “bump” and the white miners were excited about the free trip. Dad knew about segregation but he really didn’t understand how awful it would be.”
She continued: “But he was OK with it because the Black community in Georgia treated him like a king. He was with his own people. And that meant the world to him.”
About her upbringing in Springhill — also hometown to the singer born Morna Anne Murray — MacDonald gave voice to the degradation that she and her siblings endured: “We were definitely called the ’N’ word. There was an insidious, invisible colour line in the town that you did not cross. Dad would tell us to put our heads up, walk proud, and don’t let the racists make you feel inferior. He was a good example.”
As for the man who hijacked my chat with Jeremiah Sparks? “I do wish I’d been at the Neptune that evening because I would have absolutely intervened and given him a piece of my mind,” she said. “He really wasn’t interested in Jeremiah. He just wanted to shut down the conversation. The white people who act all shocked about racism in Nova Scotia and like they didn’t know it existed. Well, they didn’t go through it like we did.”
MacDonald added that her father was subject to “jealousy and resentment,” by some folk in Springhill because of the media attention he received after the mining tragedy.
“Dad was accused of grandstanding but he didn’t go looking for the limelight; the reporters came to him,” she explained. “He was a leader, he was personable, and he enjoyed engaging with people. The humble, faith-filled character Jeremiah portrayed on the stage was exactly like my father. That’s why I got teary-eyed watching the show.”
MacDonald said she was also heartened to learn that Georgia officials, in 2016, placed a historic marker on Jekyll Island that pays homage to Maurice Ruddick. “It’s kind of ironic that he’s been acknowledged there,” she ventured.
Added a Halifax resident with family ties to Springhill: “I am intrigued and saddened by the fact that Georgia has a marker to honour Maurice Ruddick but not Nova Scotia.”
Overall, MacDonald told me that she’s thrilled to have recently received footage of an interview (circa 1973) she conducted with her father in which he recounts his experience underground.
