The writer and researcher Carolyn Whitzman discusses her new book Clara at the Door with a Revolver: The Scandalous Black Suspect, the Exemplary White Son, and the Murder That Shocked Toronto (On Point Press, 2023), with Joseph Planta.

Clara at the Door with a Revolver: The Scandalous Black Suspect, the Exemplary White Son, and the Murder That Shocked Toronto by Carolyn Whitzman (On Point Press, 2023). Click to buy this book from Amazon.ca: Clara at the Door with a Revolver

Text of introduction by Joseph Planta:

I am Planta: On the Line, in Vancouver, British Columbia, at TheCommentary.ca.

There’s a new book out that is such a fascinating tale of murder, mores, class, racism, rumor, sex, and history. It takes place in the Parkdale neighbourhood of Toronto in 1894. Clara Ford, a seamstress, also Black, queer, and a single mother, is accused of murdering her wealthy white former neighbour. Toronto then had seven daily newspapers, and they soon took on an oversized role in the investigation and trial. A media frenzy visited up on Ford, and soon there was all sorts of suspicion about her motive, and character, and it went on all through the publicised trial where she was the first woman to successfully defend herself in court. The book is called Clara at the Door with a Revolver: The Scandalous Black Suspect, the Exemplary White Son, and the Murder That Shocked Toronto. Its author Carolyn Whitzman joins me now. She paints such a captivating portrait of Toronto of this late Victorian era, and illuminates the hypocrisy that would come to illustrate Toronto the Good, and how society hasn’t that much changed in over one hundred and twenty-five years. Carolyn Whitzman is a professor of Urban Planning, and a housing policy researcher, who lives in Ottawa, where I reached her one week ago. She is the author of Suburb, Slum, Urban Village: Transformations in Parkdale, Toronto 1875-2000. I’ll ask her about what sparked her interest in this story, and the research process. The book is published by On Point Press, which is an imprint of UBC Press. Please welcome to the Planta: On the Line program, Carolyn Whitzman; Professor Whitzman, good morning.

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