In the wake of Black Lives Matter protests across the world, Max Martin with The London Free Press spoke to our very own Marlene Thornton and her uncle Ed Butler about the deep roots of Black history in our region. Marlene and Ed are descendants of one of the original families to settle the Wilberforce Colony that existed decades before the village of Lucan was founded.
Pictured: Ed Butler, 94, is a descendant of Peter Butler, an early settler in the Wilberforce Colony, who arrived around 1840 in the settlement for escaped Black slaves in the precursor to today's Lucan. Butler, pictured with his wife Annelies, left, and niece Marlene Thornton, has lived in Lucan on the original Butler land his entire life. (MAX MARTIN, The London Free Press)