In the 1980's Howard McCurdy was a feisty Member of Parliament from Windsor, the the first black NDP MP and the only black in the House of Commons at the time. He was known for his interest in civil rights, for people of all races and colors. It's a passion he inherited from many McCurdys before him.The first to arrive in Canada was Nasa McCurdy, who came from the United States to settle in the small town of Amherstberg, Ontario in 1856. He became an important figure in the Underground Railroad movement, helping black slaves escape from America. Nasa McCurdy was a church leader and a school trustee, a man at the center of the oldest black community in Canada. But life was hard. Nasa's grandson George, like many black men of the day, worked on the ships that sailed the Great Lakes. Jobs in town were menial and demeaning, shop owners refused to serve them, schools were segregated and white homeowners often would not sell to black people. One of the biggest employers around, the Ford Motor Company did not hire blacks into full time jobs until the Second World War. Howard McCurdy learned about civil rights from his Uncle George McCurdy, who led the family. He led the family on sit ins in restaurants and barber shops, and fought for equal schooling. George McCurdy eventually became the director of the Human Rights Commission in Nova Scotia. Young Howard was the first in the family to go to university, went on to obtain a doctorate in microbiology, and turned down a job at NASA before settling in as a professor at the University of Windsor, and head of his department. Today Howard is happily retired from political life, but is still involved in human rights issues, hopes the family's history will inspire his young grandchildren to continue the birthright.