Barbara Howard

Barbara Howard (May 8, 1920 – January 26, 2017) was a Canadian sprinter and educator. Growing up in Vancouver, British Columbia, Howard gained national media attention as a sprinter in high school when she completed a time trial that broke the standing British Empire Games record for the 100-yard dash. She was selected as a member of the Canadian track and field team for the 1938 British Empire Games, becoming the first Black woman to represent Canada in international athletic competition. Although she did not place in the 100-yard dash, she helped her team win silver and bronze in the 440-yard and 660-yard relay events. The outbreak of the Second World War meant that most international sporting events over the next decade were cancelled, and Howard's window of opportunity as a sprinter ended before she could compete again. After high school, Howard completed Normal School training and a Bachelor of Education degree, teaching at elementary schools for more than 40 years. She was the first member of a visible minority to be hired by the Vancouver School Board. Howard is an inductee of the Burnaby Sports Hall of Fame (2011), the BC Sports Hall of Fame (2012), and the Canadian Sports Hall of Fame (2015). Early life Barbara Howard was born on May 8, 1920, in Vancouver, British Columbia. She had four older siblings – a brother and three sisters – and her parents were dressmaker Catherine "Cassie" Scurry and American-born stationary engineer Samuel Howard. According to family lore, Scurry's father had owned one of the earliest barbershops in the City of Vancouver, the Abbott Street Shaving Parlour and Baths, and during the Great Vancouver Fire of 1886 he had escaped the flames by taking his barber chair and running to the nearby harbour waters.