It was only after Valerie Jerome’s own running career was over that she came to realize the impact of her grandpa, Army Howard. Canada’s first-ever black Olympian was born John Armstrong Howard, but everyone called him “Army.”
Jerome represented Canada herself as a sprinter at the 1960 Rome Olympics, along with her brother, Harry. Both of them were born years before Army died of tuberculosis, but they heard very little about their grandpa, likely because Jerome’s mother, Elsie, was ashamed of her half-black heritage and never spoke of her dad.
Following Harry’s death, in 1982, Jerome, now 74, began to write a manuscript about her family. During that process she uncovered many of the details she now knows about her athletically gifted grandpa.
Sportsnet: How did you first become aware of your grandpa’s place in history?
Jerome: When we were children, my mother owned these two huge silver cups that had my grandfather’s name on them: John Armstrong Howard. They were sterling silver, they were heavy and they were shoved to the back of the linen closet. My brother and sister and I would often take them out and look at them. But we didn’t know anything about him.
I remember the word “Champion” written across both cups, 100-metres for one and 200-metres for the other. Although he did win national championships, I think these were Manitoba championships. I thought they were such great things, that they should have been sitting on a counter or something. It was amazing to me when I first saw them. I was very young, probably seven or eight years old.
My father had known Army Howard [before marrying Jerome’s mother]. They had met because they both were railway porters. My father had been a good friend of Army Howard’s, and because my mother didn’t really want to have his name spoken in the house, my father didn’t tell us a whole lot except that he was a wonderful athlete, he was very headstrong, he worked as a porter, and he was devoted to his daughters.
Our mother obviously had no regard or no sense of who he was. I guess to some degree she was ashamed of being black and that was the reason. Her mother had gotten rid of her [Elise’s mother was white, and re-married a white man who was ashamed of her half-black children], so that part of themselves was not a positive thing. Although my father was black and she proceeded to have black children, she was very, very conflicted, and an unhappy person her entire life, in my opinion.
When did you discover he was the first black man to compete for Canada at the Olympics?
Let me tell you, there were so few blacks participating in Canada’s athletic scene, anyway. When Harry and I were on the team in 1960, we were the only blacks. There was a wonderful man named Phil Edwards who won a medal for Canada at the Olympics [Edwards won five bronze medals, from 1928-1936]. So the idea my grandfather was the first black man — yes, of course, I realized from the get go that he had to be the first.
It seems so much of what went on in our lives — especially living here in British Columbia, where there isn’t a large black population — you’re always the odd man out. What thrilled me most was the fact that he was such a great athlete, that he was so remarkable, that he boxed, that he played baseball at a tremendously high level and was so physical. In so many ways that’s who my brother, Harry, was. Harry was so athletic. He loved physical activity and he loved being outside. [Harry won 100-metre Olympic bronze in 1964, in Tokyo].
How did you learn more about Army and what he went through?
A friend found clippings from the newspapers, which showed how very, very racist the newspapers at the time were. He was endlessly referred to as a “boy” — the guy was 20 years old, a very big man. And he was compared to a horse all the time.
I have transcripts of some of those clippings, and I know that when he qualified for Canada’s 1912 Olympics, he had already beaten the Americans who would come first and second in his events. He had apparently been sick when the 1912 Canadian Olympic team mustered in Montreal. He was not allowed to stay in the hotel that the other athletes stayed in.
It’s interesting, because quite a few years later Harry and I mustered with our Olympic team, also in the city of Montreal, in 1960, and nobody was separating us out. They might’ve wanted to, but it certainly wasn’t happening.
It was very difficult [for Army] on the boat ride from Montreal to Stockholm. There are newspaper reports about his relationship with coach [Walter] Knox, who figured he was too uppity and basically a horse and just disparaged him — they called him “smoke” all the time. My father always told us, when Army was in Stockholm [for the Olympics], he had a bad stomach flu, he was ill and he wasn’t doing well and this was not really taken into account by the coach. Anyway, he did not make the finals of the 100 or the 200.
He came home from those Olympics and the reason I have his participation medal is because in 2010 I had run the Olympic torch and there was an article in the newspaper here. Somebody read this article and they saw that I was related to John “Army” Howard, so I got this phone call from this man who said, “My grandfather and your grandfather were best friends, and I have Army’s Olympic participation medal.”
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Not only did he give me Army Howard’s Olympic participation medal, which is sitting in the Manitoba Sports Hall of Fame right now, but he gave me photographs of Army Howard’s baseball team, and he showed me his grandfather’s photo in this composite photograph… What’s interesting to see is they really took a can of white spray paint to this photograph of my grandfather because he’s as white as everybody else on the team — but you can see it’s him.
He also told me my grandfather was supposed to be best man at his grandfather’s wedding, and he shows me a picture of my grandfather all dressed up before going into the church, and then of course the church wouldn’t allow him in — being good Christians they couldn’t have a black man in the church, right? My grandfather was shocked he couldn’t even go in. He didn’t have much money, I guess, so he gave to his friend this Olympic participants medal [as a wedding present]. It had been in their family for three generations, always with the intention of finding Army Howard’s relatives and passing it along. It wasn’t until 2010, almost 100 years later, that I actually came into possession of this medal.
Incredible. So it wasn’t until you were an adult, then, that you really could appreciate who he was.
I knew a bit about him and I was proud of that fact. There were a couple of newspaper reporters who really demeaned me and Harry [when their own running careers began] for not knowing a lot about Army — they’d say, “their alleged grandfather was an Olympian,” or that we didn’t even know about him. It was hard.
I think my greatest respect for him — I mean it was there just knowing somebody in our family had been in the Olympics. But he himself as a person didn’t become real to me until I started writing this manuscript after Harry died. Seeing all these articles, I realized what he had come through, a lot of those same situations were still in existence for us, but certainly not to the same degree. So that really opened my eyes to who he was.
What was the worst of what he came through?
I just think a lifetime of being thought of as less than a human being, some boy, some horse, some darkie, a thing they called “smoke.” I think to live with that and yet still have that courage and the desire and the passion to go out and run and find some sense of self-worth. I think my admiration for him and my sense of what he endured, it was immense, but it grew with every bit of knowledge I garnered. Even imagining, here’s your best friend, the first baseman on your baseball team, and he invites you to be his best man at his wedding and you can’t even be in the church. I think it’s the accumulation or the continuation of being so devalued. And he endured so much, largely so that he could run. My admiration is enormous.