Rufus Nathaniel Rockhead was born in Maroon Town, Jamaica in 1896. In 1916, at the age of 20, he migrated to Canada and settled in Montreal. He worked at a munitions factory, and joined the Canadian Expeditionary Force in 1918, serving with the Canadian Forestry Corps in France. Rufus was honourably discharged and returned to Montréal in 1919, where he worked as a railway porter with the Canadian Pacific Railway until 1927. In recognition of his service during the First World War, Rufus was awarded the British War Medal and the Victory Medal. That same year, he established a shoeshine and hat cleaning business in Verdun. He later married Elizabeth “Birdie” Weeks and the couple had three children.

In 1928, Rockhead bought the Mountain Hotel, located at the corner of Mountain (now de la Montagne) and St-Antoine streets in Montreal’s St. Antoine district, a hub for the Black community. The three-storey building featured a tavern and lunch counter on the ground floor, a dining room, and nightclub on the second floor, and a hotel on the third floor. The nightclub on the second floor became Rockhead’s Paradise in 1929, a renowned Black nightclub in Montreal’s entertainment scene. It was the only club owned by a person of African descent at that time.

The club became a must-see travel destination for tourists visiting the city, as well as a space for emerging Black musicians. Rockhead’s Paradise, which operated from 1929 to 1980, launched the careers of jazz musicians such as Oscar Peterson, Oliver Jones, Harold “Steep” Wade, and the Sealey Brothers. Jazz legends such as Louis Armstrong, Cab Calloway, Ella Fitzgerald, and Billie Holiday visited the club, making it an important stop on Montreal’s jazz circuit.

Rufus endured racist and discriminatory policies as a Black business owner, making it difficult to obtain a liquor license. In a 1973 interview with the Toronto Star, Rufus mentioned that “[m]y wife and I went to see the liquor commissioner at the time and asked about it personally. He said, “You know we don’t give licenses to colored people.” Despite the hostility, Rufus was still able to obtain the license. However, the club was forced to close for nine years and reopened in the 1960s. By then, the music scene had changed, and Rufus struggled to keep the club open.

In 1936, Quebec Premier, Maurice Duplessis passed the Padlock Law, which made disseminating Communist propaganda illegal. Although Rockhead’s Paradise was not connected to Communist movements, it became a site of suspicion and surveillance.

Rufus Rockhead immigrated to Canada at a time when Black immigration was restricted, and settled in a city that disapproved of Black people owning businesses. Not only did Rockhead establish a successful business, but he also nurtured the careers of many young Black musicians who did not have the opportunity to showcase their talents elsewhere. Rufus passed away on September 23, 1981 at the Sainte-Anne-de-Bellevue veterans hospital in Quebec. In 1989, Montreal honoured his legacy by naming a street, Rue Rufus-Rockhead, after him in the Little Burgundy neighbourhood.

On September 19, 2024, Parks Canada recognized Rufus Nathaniel Rockhead as a person of national historic significance.