Artistic Fraud of Newfoundland’s Oil & Water

Oil and Water is based on the true story of Lanier Phillips, a young African American officer, who in 1942 was one of 46 men who survived the wreck of the naval ship Truxtun off St. Lawrence on the isolated south coast of Newfoundland. Taken to shore, Phillips was cared for with great generosity and humanity by the people of the community. As the story goes his skin was scrubbed raw by a local woman, Violet Pike, who was mystified as to why the black oil of the wreck would not come off. Growing up in such an isolated area, Mrs. Pike had never seen a person of colour before. As a son of the racially segregated south, Phillips was blown away by the apparent absence of racism. His encounter with the residents of St. Lawrence had a massive and lasting effect on him, spurring him on to be a well-known civil rights activist in the US. He continued to have a relationship with the people of St. Lawrence up until his death just last year.