After 5 decades, Eddie Carvery says his Africville protest is 'back at square one'

Eddie Carvery defied eviction orders over the course of 50 years to force him from his birthplace.

Now the trailers and hand-painted sign, symbols of his fight forreparations for the destruction of Africville, have vanished.

Carvery, 73, has agreed to end his stubborn protest because he's now also fighting a second battle againstage, illness and poverty.

"I don't think I've got that much gas left in the tank, but I'm still willing to go the nine yards," he said.

Carvery'son-again and off-again occupation at Africville,located on the Bedford Basin shore in Halifax,started in 1970 when he was 24.

That was the year the final home in Africville was bulldozed by the city, following years of the same thing happening to the other housesand the churchthat formed thetight-knit black community.

Africville was home tosome400 residents from 80 familieswho tookpride in their school, post office, dance halland church.

After the destruction of his community, Carvery was so angry he "wanted to blow up city hall."

However,followinghis mother's adviceto keep his demonstrationpeaceful,hestarted one of Canada's longest civil rights protestsby returning to the land where he was born, and livedin a trailer.For a while, he was accompanied byhis brother, Victor, and at times, his cousin, Nelson.

Throughout the years, Carvery kept up his crusadedespite municipal attempts to quash it.

In 2010, former Africville residents and their descendents received an apology and $3 million from the city, one hectare of land and areplica church, which is now a national historic site.

But there was no offer of individual compensation, which Carvery had demanded along with a public inquiry. He rejected the settlementand refused to leave.

However, after several heart attacksand a bout of cancer in recent years, Carvery scaled back his presence at the trailersto every second day.

He also verbally agreed with the AfricvilleHeritage Trust, the non-profit groupoperating amuseum in the replica church,to have most of his protest campdemolished.

Of his four trailers, Carvery said the three "eyesores" could go, but the smaller one with his personal effects was to remain.

"I developed a relationship with my trailersand my animals. That's all I had," he saidwith tears welling up.

Several months ago, the heavy machinery was back,destroying his last stand. He arrived to find a backhoe and a crumpled heap of debris. He said the fourth trailer was in the rubble.

"It hurt more than anything," Carvery said.

He said the Africville Heritage Trust offeredto recognize his protest at the museum, but he saidthat's not enough to ease his pain.

The executive directorof the non-profit organizationdeclined to comment onthis story.

No longer the 'fierce lion'

Lindell Smith, the city councillor for Halifax Peninsula North, the area thatincludes Africville, ran intoCarvery recently. He wasn't the "fierce lion" Smith was accustomed to seeing.

"[He was] somebody who was just sad at the fact that, you know, all the work in the activism that he's done was kind of just gone with a swipe," Smith said.

He calledCarvery the "most significant activist" to emerge from Africville.While others assumedan educational or advocacyrole, Carvery was the visible agitator whose protest camp prompted people to ask questions.

Now, it's gone.

"There's no other Eddie Carvery, there was no other protest," Smith said.

Carveryhopesto resume hiscampaign for redress, but he needs a solid, comfortabletrailer, which he can't afford.

"Now, I'm back at square one, again," Carvery said.