Alot of POLITICAL SUCCESS for INDIVIDUALS recently but I am more INTERESTED in the EVERYDAY GENERATIONAL ATTITUDE of AFRICAN-CANADIAN.

Are they REALLY interested in BLACK HISTORY UP THERE or more INTERESTED in OTHER THINGS like IMITATING EVERYTHING AMERICA that is POPULAR.

Canada province principal suggest SEGREGATION needs to be UTILIZED ONCE MORE and also TWO AFRICAN IMMIGRANTS were DENIED SERVICE in a NIGHTCLUB/BAR because they were BLACK.

Also many BLACK PEOPLE there come from the CARRIBEAN and the CONTINENT. Very little indication of North America migration of black people in the United States and descendants of Canada's slave era.

Have they both EMBRACED the African-Canadian TITLE with each generation living upon the soild of O'Canada?

The African Nova Scotian community probably is the most respected amongst Canadians & African Canadians because of history of the community there.



Africville Halifax Nova Scotia:


Africville was a small unincorporated community located on the southern shore of Bedford Basin, adjacent to Halifax, Nova Scotia, Canada. During the 20th century, the City of Halifax began to encroach on the southern shores of Bedford Basin, and the community was eventually included as part of the city through municipal amalgamation. Africville was populated entirely by black families from a wide variety of origins. The community and its dwellings were ordered destroyed, and residents evicted during the late 1960s in advance of the opening of the nearby A. Murray MacKay suspension bridge, related highway interchange construction and related Port of Halifax development at Fairview Cove to the west.

http://archives.cbc.ca/300c.asp?IDCat=69&IDDos=96&IDLan=1&IDMenu=69

http://www.chebucto.ns.ca/Heritage/BHMA/
http://www.halifaxpubliclibraries.ca/ahmonth/

http://auto_sol.tao.ca/node/view/1983

CYPRESS I want to THANK YOU.

This is very good stuff. Excellent.

I am checking out old tales from elders in Africville at its sound like they ENDURE ALL just like our enslaved African ancestors ENDURE ALL especially how the CITY say them as a DUMP even as recent as 1950.

Afriville was a dump for CONTAGIOUS DISEASES from a HOSPITAL on the HILL atop it.

A dump for TOWN SEWAGE.

But still,

The OLD TOWN FOLKS still sound HEALTHY.

A dump for the general TOWN of WHITE MINIONS mostly with some CONCERNED WHITE people nevertheless TRASH and DEBRI.

Again I wish to say thanks for this rich piece.

quote:

Originally posted by Dusty Elbow:
CYPRESS I want to THANK YOU.

This is very good stuff. Excellent.

I am checking out old tales from elders in Africville at its sound like they ENDURE ALL just like our enslaved African ancestors ENDURE ALL especially how the CITY say them as a DUMP even as recent as 1950.

Afriville was a dump for CONTAGIOUS DISEASES from a HOSPITAL on the HILL atop it.

A dump for TOWN SEWAGE.

But still,

The OLD TOWN FOLKS still sound HEALTHY.

A dump for the general TOWN of WHITE MINIONS mostly with some CONCERNED WHITE people nevertheless TRASH and DEBRI.

Again I wish to say thanks for this rich piece.

You're welcome.

quote:

Originally posted by cypress:

quote:

Originally posted by Dusty Elbow:
CYPRESS I want to THANK YOU.

This is very good stuff. Excellent.

I am checking out old tales from elders in Africville at its sound like they ENDURE ALL just like our enslaved African ancestors ENDURE ALL especially how the CITY say them as a DUMP even as recent as 1950.

Afriville was a dump for CONTAGIOUS DISEASES from a HOSPITAL on the HILL atop it.

A dump for TOWN SEWAGE.

But still,

The OLD TOWN FOLKS still sound HEALTHY.

A dump for the general TOWN of WHITE MINIONS mostly with some CONCERNED WHITE people nevertheless TRASH and DEBRI.

Again I wish to say thanks for this rich piece.

You're welcome.

My point was not to show how they went through exactly what Americans when through. I wanted to highlight them because most people don't know about their importance and existence.They have a great history and culture up there,that is not being expose to the outside world.

quote:

My point was not to show how they went through exactly what Americans when through. I wanted to highlight them because most people don't know about their importance and existence.They have a great history and culture up there,that is not being expose to the outside world.

Hopefully I am UNDERSTANDING your POINT. I think I posted an article about how an African Canadian elder who orchestrated and collected several artifacts of early Canadian living of US and it WENT ALL UP in SMOKE. I believe it WENT UNRESOLVED. I know there is plenty of history in CANADA involving US but I am ONE PERSON and CANNOT COVER ALL of IT. Somebody got to have some INTEREST too.

But I talk to a few black people from Canada of near my much younger generation and they dont seem to want to know about the HISTORY in their own PASTURES. I guess we have DIFFERENT POINTS of LOOKING AT THINGS. Because totally DEPENDING on those WHITE GODS and their MINIONS FOR ALL is a GAMBLE I DO NOT WANT TO TAKE. Without it I would have BEEN FINISHED ALONG TIME AGO and also it has laid the FOUNDATION to PROSPER in a HOSTILE LAND of WHITE GODS and their MINIONS. I guess its like a TOOL and will require a SKILLED HAND to WIELD IT to GET WHAT YOU WANT. Otherwise, it is looked upon as PRIMITIVE and ARCHAIC in the hands of a AMATUER not looking for nothing but to discredit the USER.

Study: Health care poor for rural black women

By MICHAEL LIGHTSTONE Staff Reporter

Black women in rural Nova Scotia seeking health care face barriers related to daily life, such as geography and the colour of their skin, which raise concerns about accessibility, says a Dalhousie University scholar leading a research team examining the situation.

Wanda Thomas Bernard said the research shows such women have more difficulty getting timely medical attention than urban dwellers.

"For these black women, it's not just about geography," she said recently. "Any person living in a rural area is obviously not going to have the same access to health care "” the level of service just isn't available. . . . But in addition to that, these black women have a dual barrier of race and racism. They're experiencing those harsh realities."

Ms. Thomas Bernard, director of Dal's school of social work, said 237 women in southern and western Nova Scotia were interviewed by researchers. She said the project, which began more than three years ago, is to produce a report that will be presented to the provincial government.

The research team hosted a conference in April in Yarmouth that looked at many of the findings of the investigation into the health of Nova Scotia's rural black women. A followup public forum is scheduled for Saturday at Nova Scotia Community College's Akerley campus in Dartmouth.

Ms. Thomas Bernard said another issue affecting the study group is poverty.

"For many of these women they're dealing with . . . unemployment and underemployment," she said in an interview.

The study, which cost about $700,000, has been funded by the three levels of government. Among the communities surveyed were small towns and villages in Yarmouth, Shelburne and Digby counties.

Before the conference this weekend, Ms. Thomas Bernard said a play based on the research findings will be staged in Halifax. The play, by Louise Delisle, is entitled Who Will Care for Aunt Ethel? It is to be performed Friday night in Neptune's du Maurier Theatre.

( mlightstone@herald.ca)


----

It's probably FROSTY CHILL UP in CANADA already. The only thing these women in my OPINION have to keep them WARM is HOPE. And I hope the AUTHORITY of NOVA SCOTIA is making this PRIORITY.

Rt. Hon Lincoln Alexander, first African-Canadian MP in Canada and the first African-Canadian Lt. Governor of Ontario.---via cypress

Thanks for the excellent info.

I have been impressed Canadians of African ancestry, known and unknown since being made aware a year or two ago.

I knew there were such people there, but I did not put them together with the Undreground Railroad, for example.

I know. Canada was the ultimate destination of 'Moses', Harriet Tubman.

Anyway...

I wonder why they call this person African Canadian AFTER identifying her aa being Haitian...curious.

With my mindset, I think she should demand that her ancestral nationality be honored.

But the issue is her's not mine.

She makes me proud.

By the way, when I first saw this post at its begining, I was reminded of the founder of the Province of British Columbia who was an African American-American in Canada by way of the Underground Railroad.

There was a post on the board.

PEACE

Jim Chester

quote:

Originally posted by James Wesley Chester:
Rt. Hon Lincoln Alexander, first African-Canadian MP in Canada and the first African-Canadian Lt. Governor of Ontario.---via cypress

Thanks for the excellent info.

I have been impressed Canadians of African ancestry, known and unknown since being made aware a year or two ago.

I knew there were such people there, but I did not put them together with the Undreground Railroad, for example.

I know. Canada was the ultimate destination of 'Moses', Harriet Tubman.

Anyway...

I wonder why they call this person African Canadian AFTER identifying her aa being Haitian...curious.

With my mindset, I think she should demand that her ancestral nationality be honored.

But the issue is her's not mine.

She makes me proud.

By the way, when I first saw this post at its begining, I was reminded of the founder of the Province of British Columbia who was an African American-American in Canada by way of the Underground Railroad.

There was a post on the board.

PEACE

Jim Chester

Thanks, I guess its because shes of predominantly African descent and Haitian and Canadian by nationality. In Canada if she wanted to go by Haitian Canadian that would be appropriate too.



There were blacks in Canada before the Harriet Tubman era. Black loyalist ect:

http://www.blackloyalist.com/historypage.html

They left a number of blacks behind as they retreated, who were recaptured into slavery. Other Black Loyalists were resettled in Florida, the West Indies, and British North America ( Canada). More than 3,500, the largest group of Black Loyalists, were transported to Nova Scotia and New Brunswick.

The Loyalist colonies were not equipped to maintain the influx of thousands of new citizens. A priority system was established to serve the newest citizens to British North America. White officers and Gentlemen were served first in terms of rations and land grants. Ordinary Privates and Laboring people, among the Whites, had to wait. The Blacks, coming up last, rarely recieved the land or rations promised to them.

With a population of more than 2,500, Birchtown Nova Scotia became the largest settlement of free blacks outside Africa. There were 649 male heads of families in Birchtown during the muster of 1784. Out of bureaucratic incompetence and racial inequality, only 184 heads of families received the promised crown land. Their granted lands measured and average of 34 acres. Other Black Loyalists settled communities at Port Mouton (Later Liverpool); Brindy Town (Near Digby); Tusket & Greenville (Near Yarmouth); Little Tracadie (Guysbourough County); Preston (Halifax County), Annapolis Royal, Halifax and Saint John, New Brunswick.

 

GIVEN the CONTENT, for a FIRST BLACK GOVERNOR GENERAL, I seek a UNIQUE AGENDA, but it APPEARS to be a CUT and PASTE ESTABLISHMENT AGENDA. I KNOW I KNOW, she is DOING HER JOB. But this MESSAGE isnt the FIRST. It's been AROUND for a LONG TIME.

Cypress:

Do you have any information on the founder of the Province of British Columbia?

PEACE

Jim Chester

HISTORICAL BACKGROUND:
THE ARRIVAL OF BLACKS IN BRITISH COLUMBIA


-------------------------------------------------------

An overlooked but important aspect of British Columbia's history is the part played by Black settlers in establishing this province. A group of free Black people from California was seeking equality under the law. Most of these California expatriates were not fleeing from slavery, but from increasing restrictions being placed on them as Blacks in the "free state" of California.

During the 1850s California brought in oppressive legislation. Blacks were excluded from state schools; and barred from giving evidence against whites in court. Furthermore, attempts were made to require blacks to be registered and to prevent blacks from immigrating to the state. The final dramatic event that convinced some California blacks that they had no future in the state was the case of Archy Lee, a fugitive slave arrested in 1858. Though the courts freed Lee, because his master had brought him knowingly into a free territory, the message received by the Blacks was that they could not live securely in California.

A meeting was held in Zion Methodist Church in San Francisco and it was decided that a delegation would be sent to Victoria to see how they would be received there. Governor James Douglas (needing more settlers to prevent the island from annexing to the United States of America), had invited and had assured them of a favorable reception. Consequently, on April 20, 1858, some 600 - 800 black Californians including Archy Lee boarded the steamship Commodore and set sail for Victoria, British Columbia.

Victoria and the British Columbia mainland were in a phase of rapid expansion sparked in part by the Caribou gold rush, and so there was ready work and easy assimilation for the new settlers and labourers. Many settled on farms, others developed local businesses, while some were "firsts" among their professions such as teachers, lawyers, dentists, etc. Though racism would be expressed later in the 1860s and after, the early years for the black community in the Victoria and on Vancouver Island were peaceful and prosperous.

For more information on the First Black Pioneers, check your public library, local bookstore, BC Public Archives or check out our links.

http://www.islandnet.com/~bcbhas/links.htm
-------------------------------------------------------

In 1792, a group of brave black Loyalists inspired abolitionists everywhere when they left Nova Scotia for an uncertain future in Africa. Their little-known tale deserves to be celebrated today, writes Lawrence Hill

Two hundred years ago, on March 25, 1807, King George III signed a Parliamentary law abolishing the British slave trade. Though slavery itself would not be abolished for another 27 years, it was a key moment in the struggle for freedom, and its anniversary is being loudly celebrated in England and Jamaica this year.

In Canada, however, the reaction so far has been muted. That is a pity, because blacks here played a pivotal role in the move toward abolition when, in 1792, 1,200 of them boarded a ship in Halifax to resettle in Sierra Leone – showing the world what lengths people will go to in order to be free.

After the anti-slave-trade law took effect, the British navy began to patrol African shores to intercept vessels that traded in humans, choking off the supply of men, women and children to Canada, the United States and the Caribbean nations. But in Canada and the rest of the British Empire, slavery itself was not abolished until August 1, 1834. South of our border, slavery officially ended some three decades later, in 1865, with the Thirteenth Amendment of the United States Constitution.

When Canadians think of the abolition of slavery, white heroes are often the first who come to mind.

In Canada, we think of John Graves Simcoe, the first lieutenant-governor of Upper Canada, who attempted in 1793 to introduce a law to end slavery outright. Slave-owning legislators opposed him, however, and Simcoe could obtain no better than compromise legislation that set slaves free at the age of 25 and forbade the further importation of slaves. Quakers too struggled valiantly and peacefully to abolish the slave trade in Britain and slavery in North America. Quakers were among the many who helped black fugitives from the United States flee slavery and come north to what would become Canada. Other whites who fought against slavery included: John Brown, the fiery zealot who rustled up a ragtag group of men to attack a U.S. weapons arsenal in Harpers Ferry, Virginia in 1859, with a view to freeing black men and women and bringing the institution of slavery to its knees; and the British Parliamentarian William Wilberforce, who laboured for decades to persuade his elected peers to oppose the trade in human beings.

But lost in many public discussions of this history are stories of the incredible efforts that blacks played in the push toward abolition.

One of the ways that blacks fought made abolition more palatable was to make slavery more dangerous for the white slave owners. As Toronto writer Afua Cooper has documented thoroughly in her book The Hanging of Angélique, in 1734, a Portuguese-born black slave named Marie Joseph Angélique burned down her owner's home in Montreal, taking out a quarter of the city in the ensuing blaze, only to face barbaric torture and execution. Five years later, 20 black slaves collaborating in the famous Stono Rebellion in South Carolina rose up against their owners, killing some 20 whites before they were finally put down. And in 1791, in the most successful uprising of its kind in the 18th century, the slaves in the French colony of Saint Domingue, now known as Haiti, overthrew their rulers after looting and burning more than a thousand plantations, attacking and murdering whites as they went. Later, these same black rebels resisted military attacks by the British, taking the lives of thousands of British soldiers. But it would be a mistake to think that black resistance to slavery, and black participation in the abolition of the slave trade, was limited to violence.

Like the whites who advanced the cause of abolition in political circles, blacks also used words – and penned their stories – to argue against the sin of slavery. Olaudah Equiano, an African-born man who was enslaved in the Americas for years before obtaining his freedom, became the most famous abolitionist of colour in England when he published his life story, The Interesting Narrative of the Life of Olaudah Equiano, or Gustavus Vassa, the African, in 1789.

One of the most fascinating stories of blacks who resisted slavery and mistreatment involves the black Loyalists of Nova Scotia.

On January 15, 1792, 1,200 Nova Scotian blacks sailed in a flotilla of 15 ships from Halifax to Sierra Leone in West Africa. By moving permanently to the continent from which some of them had been abducted and enslaved decades earlier, these individuals nudged the world one step closer to abolition of the British slave trade in 1807.

The Nova Scotians – described at the time as "adventurers" – sailed in the opposite direction of slaving vessels that were still bringing stolen Africans across the Atlantic Ocean to the Americas.

The Nova Scotians' exodus predated the "back to Africa" preachings of Jamaican Marcus Garvey by more than a century. It took place decades before ex-American slaves founded the west African colony of Liberia. And the Nova Scotians are still remembered in Sierra Leone as being among the modern founders of the country. To this day, there are people in Sierra Leone who trace their lineage to the Nova Scotian settlers.

The blacks had come to Nova Scotia some 10 years earlier as United Empire Loyalists. Many of them had escaped slavery in the Carolinas and Virginia, among other states.

During the American Revolutionary War, the British attempted to swell their ranks against the rebels by encouraging blacks to flee their slave owners and side with the British. If they did, the British promised, they would be protected when the war was over and allowed their freedom.

Thousands of blacks responded, but that promise would soon be broken. Although they had served England as soldiers, labourers, cooks and in other capacities, when the time came to negotiate peace, the British cast the blacks aside. In the treaty they signed with the Americans, the British promised not to make off with "any Negroes or other Property of the American Inhabitants." In Manhattan, the last British stronghold in the American Revolutionary War, the terms of the peace treaty caused widespread despair among blacks who had faithfully served the Loyalist cause. But finally, and miraculously, the British sided with the blacks, and began to remove them in a steady supply of ships from Manhattan in 1783. Some blacks were sent to England, Germany and Quebec, but most ended up going to Nova Scotia.

It wasn't easy to leave. In theory, any black who wished to leave on a ship for the British colonies had to establish that he or she had served behind British lines for at least one year. Those who did leave had their names registered in The Book of Negroes, a British military ledger that ran to some 150 pages and included the names of 3,000 blacks – some free, some indentured and some enslaved, leaving New York as the property of British officers.

The Book of Negroes is a fascinating document, copies of which can be found in the National Archives of Canada, the Nova Scotia Public Archives and the National Archives in the U.K., among other places. It became the first major record of people of African descent in North America. In listing the name, age, physical description and life circumstances of almost every traveller, the carefully handwritten Book of Negroes stands out as a testament to how blacks – by risking everything to try life in a foreign land – struck another blow at the heart of slavery.Disembarking in Nova Scotian towns such as Halifax, Shelburne and Annapolis Royal, they believed that they had come to a promised land of safety and freedom.

Sadly, for many of the early black Loyalists, Nova Scotia turned out to be just as oppressive as the American colonies. The blacks had been promised land, provisions and tools in exchange for having served the British in the Revolutionary War, but most of them received nothing. They thought they could live in equality and freedom in Nova Scotia, but many blacks remained slaves and others were kept in conditions of such poverty that they indentured themselves – becoming virtual slaves again – to ward off starvation and hypothermia.

In Nova Scotia, they also found a land of bitter justice and overt discrimination. Blacks were hanged for trifling offenses such as stealing potatoes. Others were sentenced to whippings and received their lashes in stages at several consecutive street corners, in order to amplify their public humiliation. Public ordinances banned "Negro frolicks" – basically any party at which blacks danced and drank. Slave catchers prowled Nova Scotia and sometimes succeeded in kidnapping black Loyalists and returning them to slavery in the United States or the Caribbean islands.

In the town of Shelburne, which at the time held the largest black community in Nova Scotia, Canada's first race riot erupted in 1784. Black workers were consistently paid less than whites for the same work, but disbanded white soldiers, who themselves faced economic hardship, argued that the blacks were undercutting their wages and rose up against them. Blacks were beaten and powerless to stop the burning of their homes. The rioting lasted for days.

In the midst of this oppressive social climate, it must have seemed a miracle when, in October 1791, a British naval lieutenant arrived in Halifax and advertised free passage for blacks who wanted to create a new colony in Sierra Leone.

Lieutenant John Clarkson was white, 27 years old, and had come at the behest of entrepreneurs and abolitionists in England who were hoping to create a British colony in Sierra Leone that would profit not from the slave trade but from agriculture and trading natural resources.

The British abolitionists had already sent a much smaller group of blacks from London to Sierra Leone five years earlier, but the colony quickly disintegrated. At the very moment they were looking for others to send to Sierra Leone, Thomas Peters, a black man from Annapolis Royal, showed up in England to publicize the plight of black Loyalists in Nova Scotia. .

Peters' timing could not have been better. Shortly after he returned to Nova Scotia, Clarkson followed with the resettlement scheme and about one-third of the entire black population of the area leapt at the opportunity. Clarkson then began the monumental job of bringing the black Loyalists to Halifax, feeding and sheltering them over the winter, while outfitting 15 ships to take them to Sierra Leone.

The 15 ships left Halifax harbour together on that cold January day, but quickly lost track of each other during the two-month ocean crossing. Fever took the lives of 67 travellers enroute, although the food and the sanitary conditions on board the ships were eminently better than the floating hell of slave vessels. Finally, all the ships arrived safely in St. George's Bay, just off the coast of Freetown. The long, arduous and sometimes fatal task of building a colony began.

Many of the same frustrations that had plagued the Nova Scotians in Canada surfaced again in Africa: they did not get the land they were promised, they bickered with authorities about taxation matters, and they felt dominated by white officials administering the Sierra Leone Company, which ran the new colony in Freetown. Still, they were free, and over the decades they and their descendents acquired more independence and autonomy.

The journey east across the Atlantic Ocean stands out as all the more astonishing when one considers that some of the blacks travelling to Africa had actually been born on that continent – abducted in their own homelands by fellow Africans, sold to British or other European slaving operations established in festering "factories" along the coast of Africa, and then shipped across the ocean only to spill their blood, sweat and tears to develop the lands that are now known as Canada, the United States and the Caribbean nations.

This back-to-Africa migration – the first of its kind in history involving more than a thousand people – was entirely voluntary. Funded by the British government, its price tag exceeded Nova Scotia's annual budget.

The aim of the venture's British supporters was to prove that Africa could serve the British Empire in other ways than as a slave-exporting continent. They wanted to demonstrate that the British could use Africa as a base to export natural resources. In the end, this led to its own forms of exploitation, but in the shorter term, it did help to persuade Britons to think of Africa in new terms.

This little-known migration, launched from Canadian shores, was pivotal to the cause of abolition. And at its heart were 1,200 blacks determined to assert their freedom and to ensure that nobody could threaten to enslave them again. Their devotion to liberty should be recognized and celebrated.

 

---

Lawrence Hill is a writer of fiction and non-fiction. His latest novel, The Book of Negroes (HarperCollins Canada), out this week, was inspired by the 1,200 blacks who migrated from Halifax to Sierra Leone in 1792. He can be reached through www.lawrencehill.com.

 

This is really good information. Thanks.

I wonder if the majority Sierre Leone bounded Londoners and Canada diaspora got tired of Sierre Leone and went to Liberia to join American blacks and Carribean blacks.

American BLACKS got FIRESTONE to BACK them in LIBERIA. I wonder who BACKED Canadians and Londoners.

That is another STORY to be TOLD.

We already know some of the HISTORY.

This is really good stuff.

Thanks for bumping the thread back to the top of discussion.

Otherwise, I might been a long time remembering to check back.

And...thanks Cypress for the British Columbia info.

Your mentioning, or the article's, of Washington residents reminded me of Oregon's typically overlooked role in African American history.

It was the Electoral Vote of the Oregon (1) that broke the tie created by the Electoral Votes of South Carolina, Louisiana, and Florida holding the 'election' of 1876 'up for grabs'.

And ultimately enabled Rutherford B. Hayes and the Republican Party to sacrifice African America to the 'oversight and knowledge' of The South.

The Northwest is indeed an integral part of the history of African America.

PEACE

Jim Chester

You welcome.



Black history Canada:
http://www.edselect.com/black_history_month.htm

February is Black History Month. Since 1993, the City of Toronto has celebrated the achievements of Canadians of African descent with a poster series entitled Contributions of African Canadians. Each poster profiles the contributions of African Canadians, past and present, who have distinguished themselves in diverse endeavours.

Each poster is available for $7 (posters 1 through 5) or $10 (posters 6 through 8). Prices are in Canadian dollars and include taxes. Each poster is approximately 20" x 30". Poster designs are developed by a staff committee within Toronto Parks, Forestry and Recreation in consultation with the community.


http://www.toronto.ca/parks/african_history.htm
The presence of people of African descent in a French-speaking Canadian environment dates back to the early 1600s, when Mathieu Da Costa, the first known person of African descent in Canada was the French language interpreter between Champlain and the Mi'Kmaq, one of Canada's indigenous peoples.

Since then, French-speaking African Canadians have continued to make significant contributions to the building and development of Canada. These contributions have been made under extremely difficult circumstances; however, French-speaking African Canadians were able to excel in the areas of academia, government, law, community development, business and the arts.

The persons reflected in the poster are indeed an inspiration for all Canadians. The poster features the following French-speaking African Canadians:

Marie-Josèph Angélique, born in Portugal in 1705, was the property of a wealthy Montreal merchant around 1734. Hearing that she was to be sold and separated from her loved ones, she set fire to her master's house to cover her escape. The fire destroyed 46 buildings, including the Hôtel Dieu. Angélique was captured, convicted, tortured and hanged. Through her act of defiance, she became the symbol of the first rebellion against the oppressive institution of slavery.

Melchior Mbonimpa, born in Burundi, Africa, he is a professor in religious sciences at the University of Sudbury, whose novels focus on the theme of acculturation of the African identity in a Canadian context. Mbonimpa has written several books, including "Les morts ne sont pas morts," which was awarded the Prix du Salon du livre de Toronto in October 2006. As a specialist on democracy and development issues in Africa, Mbonimpa is well recognized in the international community.

Michaëlle Jean, originally from Haïti, she is the current Governor General of Canada. The Right Honourable Michaëlle Jean came to Quebec at the age of 11 with her family. Her formal education in foreign languages and literature allowed her to distinguish her self as a renowned journalist and documentary film maker, whose work helped to promote the francophone culture. Her appointment as Governor General is a testament to young African Canadians about the importance of education, hard work and passion.

Maxim Jean-Louis, entrepreneur, currently living in Sudbury, Ontario, is the President and Chief Executive Officer of Contact North, a distance education and training business that was created in 1986. Jean-Louis is a pioneer in using Information Technology to improve education access for francophone individuals living in small, remote and rural communities in Northern Ontario.

Yvonne Kabeya, originally from the Democratic Republic of Congo, she is the founder of Le Regroupement des Femmes Immigrantes Francophones, a community organization in Toronto. Kabeya, a community worker, was amongst the first to develop a Christmas gift distribution program for francophone families in need. She created the publication "Magazine L'Evidence des Femmes", which profiled accomplishments of francophone immigrant women.





Jazz Lives! features African Canadians who have made significant contributions to the performance and development of jazz. The history of jazz in Canada is full of determined individuals whose love of music helped them to rise above social and racial barriers as their creativity received wide recognition and acceptance.

http://www.canadianheritage.gc.ca/progs/multi/black-noir/liens-links_e.cfm

http://www.toronto.ca/blackhistory/

Found here: http://www.eye.net/eye/issue/issue_02.01.07/city/news_2.php

Beyond the Underground Railroad

HISTORY 101 local moments of black pride

1793: Upper Canada bans the slave trade and decrees that any child born into slavery will be free at the age of 25 – this is considered the first anti-slavery law in the British Empire.

1833: Thornton Blackburn, a Kentucky slave, escapes to Toronto and settles in Corktown. He will found Toronto's first taxicab company in 1837.

1834: Slavery is abolished across the British Empire.

1837: Anderson Ruffin Abbott is born in Toronto. He will become Canada's first native-born black doctor.

1850: Charles Peyton Lucas, an escaped slave from the US, settles in Toronto. He will run a prominent blacksmith's shop.

1851: The Convention of Coloured People at the St. Lawrence Hall in Toronto – organized by Henry Bibb, founder of the first black newspaper in Canada – calls for the abolition of slavery in the United States and urges black Americans to come to Canada.

1853: Mary Ann Shadd begins publishing the Provincial Freeman in Windsor, Ontario, making her Canada's first female newspaper publisher.

1894: William Peyton Hubbard is elected to city council. After serving 13 successive terms (and acting as mayor), he remains the longest-serving councillor in Toronto history. 1963: Leonard Braithwaite of Toronto becomes the first black member of the Ontario legislature.

1964: Ontario schools are desegregated. 1967: The Caribana Festival is founded in Toronto. 1969: Black History Week is founded in Toronto. Sources: www.toronto.ca, Toronto Star archives.

Found here: http://www.eye.net/eye/issue/issue_02.01.07/city/news.php

Beyond the Underground Railroad

The long, proud, ongoing history of black Toronto

By Kristine Maitland
Photography By Jeremy R. Jansen

I used to dread Black History Month.

When I was a teenager in the '80s, I used to regard it as a period when schoolteachers and librarians would scramble to their closets and dust off their Black History posters. It would not matter if the day's history unit was about World War II: I could count on the film projector being pulled out, with a film reel to be popped in. The subject was always the same: Harriet Tubman.

Tubman, also referred to as "Moses" or "General," was born into slavery in 1820 in the US state of Maryland. At the age of 29, she escaped to Canada and went on to act as a "conductor" for the Underground Railroad, leading over 300 blacks to freedom in Canada. She was a great woman.

The problem was, to hear my teachers talk (if they did not duck out of the room while the film was playing), you would think that Harriet Tubman was the beginning and the end of black history in Canada.

Black History Month was introduced to Toronto in the 1950s by the Canadian Negro Women's Association. It would be another 29 years before this celebration would be formally recognized by the City of Toronto, thanks to pressure and petitioning by the Ontario Black History Society.

But with the celebration of Black History Month comes an issue: which history are we talking about?

In an ethnically diverse city such as Toronto, this is a particularly difficult problem. Given that the very concept of Black History Month was an American invention, it should be of no surprise that black American history tends to play a huge part in this month's celebrations.

Martin Luther King Jr., leader of the civil rights movement, often stands in the forefront. Even our beloved Harriet Tubman – who led all those black slaves to Canada and lived in Chatham, Ontario for many years – was born an American and died an American.

We can look to black Canadians. Therein lies another problem: which ones? Shall we look to those blacks who have lived in Canada for several generations? What about the black West Indian population who live in Toronto, or those who are both racially and ethnically African?

The very question, "Where are you from?" is one that makes many blacks here bristle. This issue of what makes one Canadian is, of course, not merely the purview of the black communities. But the average white person is not going to be asked, "Where are you from?" – not unless they possess a thick pronounce-the-second-"t"-in-Toronto accent. The non-white person is inevitably presumed to be from elsewhere and, hence, not Canadian.

But from my experience, within the black communities, one's Canadian status can be measured by generation: I am more Canadian than you are because my grandfather was born here. What is first-generation Canadian: the first person to have citizenship or the first person to be born here?

That being said, we cannot overlook the fact that black people have lived in this city for a long time, indeed from the time of settlement. In 2002, Dr. Afua Cooper curated an excellent exhibit "A Glimpse of Black Life in Victorian Toronto: 1850 to 1860"; some of that exhibit is available online at www.toronto.ca/blackhistory/victorian_exhibit.htm.

Through that exhibit, a number of notable black Toronto citizens were introduced. There was William Peyton Hubbard, Toronto's first black politician, elected as an alderman for the area now encompassing Ward 20 (Trinity-Spadina) in 1894. He was active in politics for many years – he remains Toronto's longest serving city councillor, holding the position of acting mayor in 1904.

There is also Thornton Blackburn who, along with his wife Lucy, came to Canada in 1833 as an escaped slave. Settling in Toronto, Blackburn would later prove to be quite innovative, creating in 1837 what became the first taxi service in Toronto, a successful business that would run for some 30 years.

Alfred Lafferty was the son of a black businessman of note, William Lafferty. Alfred gained a scholarship to go to Upper Canada College and received two of UCC's top prizes. He went on to attend University College, now part of the University of Toronto – my alma mater, as it happens – receiving his bachelor of arts in 1863 and his master of arts in 1867. He would later teach and be called to the Bar.

But while it is good to speak of past triumphs, when you hold it up to what is happening today, one gets the sense that Toronto still has a long way to go.

In the 19th century, Toronto had a black businessman make a success of himself by owning the first taxi cab company. Today, we find educated visible minorities, qualified professionals from Africa and elsewhere, driving our cabs.

In the beginning of the 20th century, Hubbard was a leader of note on Toronto's city council. Fast forward to today and we have visible minorities making up only 15 per cent of the total council. As City Idol organizer Dave Meslin has pointed out, Toronto city council "looks a lot like the Toronto Maple Leafs."

I'm not giving up just yet: City Idol winner and council candidate Desmond Cole ran against eventual winner Adam Vaughan in Ward 20. Cole did not win, but he is young yet, and I expect that we will see more of him in the political arena. I wonder if Cole knows of Hubbard, or that Hubbard had once held a council seat that represented the area that is now Ward 20.

And many black Torontonians have followed Blackburn in their innovative drive. One such innovator was Beverly Mascoll. In 1970, she started up a successful business selling black hair-care products. When I was a child, visiting Mascoll's was very much a ritual – she was always ahead of the game, handing her customers free samples in order to entice future purchases. A leader in both business and philanthropy, Mascoll was appointed a Member of the Order of Canada in 1998. She died in 2001.

Black Torontonians are quick to take the stage. Born in England, queer actor/playwright Trey Anthony did something no one would have thought possible: she created a show dealing with the struggles of black women and saw it become a sell-out hit for all audiences. Anthony's play, Da Kink in My Hair, went from being a small Toronto Fringe Festival production to being a Dora Award nominee in 2005, when it was the first Canadian play staged at the Princess of Wales Theatre. Anthony currently has a deal in the works with VisionTV and CBC. I never did hear word of what Oprah thought of the show.

Ultimately, we must recognize that the black community is one with a huge extended family from the United States, from the West Indies, from Africa. It is one made up of the "Canada-born" as well as well as the "Canada-made." Black History Month in Toronto is thus forced to cover a lot of ground. And as much as I dreaded Black History Month in my youth, I have come to accept it as an important facet of black cultural growth.

With luck, we will have many Hubbards and Mascolls and Anthonys to follow in the footsteps of our noteworthy ancestors and contemporaries.

KRISTINE MAITLAND IS THE EDITOR OF THE GREEN PEAR REVIEW AND DOES RESEARCH IN BLACK HISTORY IN THE ARTS WITH A FOCUS ON BURLESQUE AND BALLET. EMAIL LETTERS@EYEWEEKLY.COM.

Click here for local moments of black pride

Great link from stories above on history of some notable black people and history in Toronto Canada

http://www.toronto.ca/blackhistory/victorian_exhibit.htm

This is good information from the link you gave above:


The Cary Brothers
George, Isaac, John and Thomas were free-born Blacks from Virginia who came to Toronto in the 1840s. They opened several popular barber shops, including one at 68 King Street West. By 1854, Thomas expanded his business ventures to include four ice houses which he operated with Richard B. Richards. The Cary brothers were committed abolitionists who campaigned against racial prejudice and urged the Black community to support George Brown's reform party because of its support for Black rights. George Cary toured the province giving lectures. He was President of the Coloured People's Moral and Mental Improvement Society and also served as Secretary of the Moral and Mental Improvement Society (African). John Cary participated as a delegate at the Convention of Coloured People. Thomas Cary was an early investor and supporter of the Provincial Freeman and in 1856 he married Mary Ann Shadd, the noted publisher of the Provincial Freeman. Isaac Cary married Mary Bibb, widow of Henry Bibb.

Charles Peyton Lucas
Charles Lucas was an escaped American slave who settled with his family in Toronto in 1850. Trained as a blacksmith in his youth, Lucas soon established a respected and successful blacksmith business that led one observer to describe him as "at the head of his trade". Lucas' business on Centre Street prospered well into the 1860s.

James Mink
Canadian-born James Mink was one of Toronto's wealthiest Black citizens in the 1840s. He owned the Mansion Inn and Livery on Adelaide Street as well as stables on Terauley and Queen Streets. City Council used Mink's livery stables for its horses, while his stagecoach service carried passengers as well as mail between Toronto and Kingston until the 1860s.

William Lafferty
Like many American Black immigrants, William Lafferty started his life in York as an illiterate labourer. Within a few years he had achieved literacy and had developed a cartage business on Stewart's Lane, near King and Jarvis Streets. By the 1840s he operated a grocery business and owned a number of valuable properties. When William died in 1858, his Yonge Street store, near King Street, was valued at $2000. William and his wife Sarah ensured that their four children received a good education. One of their children, Alfred, had notable success. He attended the prestigious Upper Canada College, earning a scholarship in 1856. He was the recipient of two of the College's four major awards: His Excellency the Governor General's Prize and The Mathematical Prize. In 1860, Alfred attended University College. He continued his outstanding academic achievements, being awarded cash prizes for first-class standings. Alfred received his Bachelor of Arts degree in 1863 and earned his Master of Arts degree in 1867. He pursued a successful teaching career, and studied Law. In 1886 he was called to the Bar.

Thornton Blackburn
Thornton Blackburn and his wife Lucy fled from Kentucky to Canada as escaped slaves in 1833. While working as a waiter at Osgoode Hall, Blackburn noted that Toronto lacked public transportation. He ordered the construction of a horse-drawn cab, based upon vehicles in use in Montreal, which could carry four passengers. The red and yellow taxi, The City, the first of its kind in Toronto, arrived in 1837, heralding the start of a successful business venture that lasted into the 1860s.

Ann Maria Jackson
Ann Maria Jackson, a fugitive slave, fled from Maryland with seven of her children via the Underground Railroad. Successful family flights such as Jackson's were rare and dangerous. Upon arrival in Toronto in 1857, Jackson was helped by the Anti-Slavery Society and established herself in business as a washerwoman in St. John's Ward.

Dr. Alexander Augusta
Alexander Augusta, born in Virginia in 1825, received his medical training in the United States. In his late twenties, Augusta moved to Canada. During the 1850s Dr. Augusta operated a successful Druggist and Chemist business on Yonge Street. In 1860, he received his medical degree from Trinity College. He quickly became a well-established physician working in the Toronto General Hospital on Gerrard Street. Dr. Augusta was the mentor of Black Canadian physician Anderson Ruffin Abbott. His wife, Mrs. O. Augusta, owned a dress shop that featured the "latest fashions from London and Paris".

Dr. Anderson Ruffin Abbott
Born in Toronto in 1837, Anderson Ruffin Abbott studied at the University of Toronto and graduated in 1857. He received his license to practice medicine in 1861, becoming the first Canada Dr. Anderson Ruffin Abbottian-born Black doctor. During the American Civil War, Dr. Abbott served in the Union Army as one of eight Black surgeons.

Churches and Benevolent Societies

Black churches catered to the religious and cultural needs of the city's Black population. Elder Washington Christian, an African American Baptist minister, established the first Black church in Toronto in 1826. This was the first Black institution in the city and was a part of the activities of the Underground Railway. Being the first and only Baptist church, its congregation was made up of both Black and white members. Other Black churches followed and by 1860 several existed in the city. They were the Coloured Regular Baptist Church at the corner of Terauly (Bay) and Edward Streets, the Coloured British Wesleyan Church on Richmond Street, the Baptist Church at Queen and Victoria Streets, as well as the British Methodist Episcopalian Church on Sayer (Chestnut) Street. Black churches tended to support anti-slavery activities and often held anti-slavery bazaars as well as lectures.

A number of Black and white organizations were also established to assist recently arrived fugitive slaves. Among these were The Anti-Slavery Society of Canada; The Ladies Coloured Fugitive Association; The Ladies Association for the Relief of Destitute Coloured Fugitives; and the Queen Victoria Benevolent Society, which was led by Mrs. Ellen Abbott, mother of Dr. Anderson Ruffin Abbott.

Emancipation Day

Black Torontonians participated in the cultural life of the city in a variety of ways. One of the most significant events was the annual Emancipation Day celebration. This was held on August 1 to commemorate the abolition of slavery by Britain throughout its Empire in 1833. In the same year, Upper Canada passed complementary legislation, preventing the automatic extradition of fugitive Blacks back to the United States. Emancipation Day celebrations often began with church services, followed by a parade through the city's streets, and then by a picnic in the park. Black and white supporters delivered speeches throughout the day.

Power of the Press

The blessing of heaven can scarcely be expected upon America while the disgraceful practice of enslaving the bodies and minds of the coloured population is allowed to exist. It must and will be abolished . . . by giving them equal rights with ourselves . . .
–William Lyon Mackenzie, The Constitution, November 8, 1837
Several Toronto newspapers advocated the abolition of slavery and promoted equality of the races in the 19th century. The first Black newspaper published in North America was Freedom's Journal in 1827 in New York City. This newspaper was available in Upper Canada and was distributed by Reverend Samuel George Waterloo. One of its editors, John B. Russwurm, was educated in Lower Canada (Quebec). By 1850, the American Black press was well established, and in 1851, Ontario's first Black newspaper was published.

From Ontario Canada

History month for blacks may have lost impact

THANA DHARMARAJAH

GUELPH (Feb 5, 2007)

It's a cold, chilly month where forgotten stories and heroes are talked about within the black community that aren't discussed in today's Canadian classrooms.

Parents still remember stories passed onto them about the Underground Railroad, a network of people who helped slaves escape from the United States to Canada during the 19th century.

But will future generations remember these stories as Black History Month is under threat of fading away?

"It's shuffled and it's getting lost," said 57-year-old Wallace Alfred. "I would like to see it celebrated in a more vibrant way."

The Guelph man said the contributions of their ancestors are fast receding in the minds of young people because it isn't taught in schools.

Michael Harris, 31, agrees, adding that when he was younger, there seemed to be more of an awareness of the month within the community in Guelph. However, when he returned from college a few years ago, interest in celebrating Black History Month had waned.

"On one hand you don't want to take one month and focus on the contributions of black people," he said. "You want it to be balanced with everything in the curriculum but I see the need for focusing in . . . I see that a story needs to be told."

The month was created in 1926 by an American, Dr. Carter Woodson, as a way to bring national attention to the contributions of black people throughout U.S. history.

In 1995, Parliament officially declared February as Black History Month in Canada, after three decades of unofficial recognition of black history in the country.

Alfred speculated stories of his ancestors are likely getting lost as more and more blacks are tracing their roots from different parts of the globe.

"We tend to isolate ourselves by saying we're of Guyanese heritage, West Indian or Barbadian," he said.

"Generally speaking, we're all black . . . it's watering down our true identity."

Roston Wilson, 80, believes that in about 30 years, there may not be a need for Black History Month.

"The contributions will be such that people will not ask, 'Is he black or white?' "

Until that time, today's youth still need to be reminded of the struggles and the achievements of blacks, he said.

He said many young people aren't made aware of these contributions until they're invited to Black History Month events.

"They're given a wider vision of what their forebears went through and what they as young students can accomplish," Wilson said.

Such a month reminds people that blacks were once treated as second-class citizens and grew to become strong contributors to the nation, he said.

"What's past is past, but recognition should be given that these people were contributors," Wilson said. "Some were slaves and some were princes of Africa."

tdharmarajah@guelphmercury.com

Caribana returns to roots Organizers doing their best to make sure this year's celebration has something for everyone

By TOM GODFREY

A dream of Caribana founders four decades ago to raise funds to build a community centre for blacks while staging a family-style "jump up" is back in a big way, organizers say.

And with Black History Month in mind, organizers said they're returning to the roots of Caribana, while at the same time aggressively seeking out corporate involvement.

"This is a Caribana of old and new," festival chairman Joe Halstead said this week. "Some of the festival is modern and some goes back to the roots."

Halstead said the July 8-Aug. 12 fete will be more family-oriented and accessible. Sunday afternoon concerts featuring top hip-hop, soca and reggae stars are being staged in Scarborough, Brampton and Mississauga to attract young people. There will also be a return of the glitz and glamour of a black-tie Caribana Ball at the Westin Harbour Castle Toronto.

'TRADITION'

"We have a tradition that will continue," Halstead said. "We want to keep the old and attract new people with other events."

The festival, which began as a tribute from the city's West Indian community to Canada's Centennial in 1967, has had a roller-coaster ride of money problems and internal bickering since formed by a group of 10 men, including lawyer Charles Roach. At the time they'd hoped an annual Trinidad-style Carnival would help bond the budding Caribbean community and raise bucks for a centre where new immigrants can congregate.

Cash problems saw plans for the centre fall to the wayside, as the event only turned a profit for the first time last year with a surplus of $9,150.

Festival business agent Courtney Betty said a new team of professionals are running the festival and they're targeting some of the top businesses in Canada as sponsors.

"This festival is an icon attraction for the city," Betty said. "This year Caribana will be bigger and better than ever."

INCREASED SECURITY

He said organizers have no qualms about security cameras being installed by police along the parade route if they can help ensure public safety. Police said they'll work closely with the organizers.

"We want to accommodate those people with families," Betty said. "We are more family and corporate friendly."

Councillor Joe Mihevic, who's been a friend of Caribana through thick and thin for more than 10 years, said the festival attracted more than 1.2 million visitors last year, filling hotel rooms and pumping about $350 million into the economy.

"Caribana is a cornerstone festival," Mihevic said. "It is hard to imagine a summer in Toronto without Caribana."

Incidentally, Mihevic and Halstead are being presented with Bob Marley Day awards today at the Trane Studio Restaurant, on Bathurst St., for outstanding community work. Former lieutenant-governor Lincoln Alexander and late Jamaican poet and storyteller Louise Cloverley-Bennett will receive lifetime achievement awards.

Caribana organizers said the massive street parade is set for Aug. 4. The parade will start inside Ontario Place, and wind through stands of paying crowds before taking to Lake Shore Blvd. W., where it will wind up west of Sunnyside Pool.

The next day will be one of music and entertainment at Ontario Place. The Distillery District will host a Caribbean art show featuring paintings and sculptures.

This year again thousands of volunteers will flock to mas camps to build costumes as they vie for titles of best costume, king and queens of bands and the prestigious best band, held for 15 years by Louis Saldenah.

SIMCOE DAY

And for the first time, there will be no Caribana events on Centre Island or on Monday, a holiday due to Simcoe Day. It is also another first for the Toronto Sun, the official Caribana print media sponsor, and one of the many companies to sign on as major sponsors. CTV was named the event's official TV station.

"This is a perfect fit for us since we have the right marketing to the community," said Toronto Sun publisher Kin-Man Lee. "We are truly delighted to be working with the community and to be one of the sponsors."

Lee said the city's demographics has changed and it wasn't a tough decision to become part of the event.

Mike Colle, Ontario's citizenship and immigration minister, said the festival attracts revellers from around the world.

"Caribana goes beyond borders," Colle said. "It is a signature event for Toronto, Ontaro and Canada."

Toronto Tourism president Bill Allen said the festival is one of the leading attractions to the city.

'PRESTIGE EVENTS'

"Caribana is one of the city's prestige events," Allen said. "It is one of the key events in Toronto in the summer."

He said marketing campaigns have been launched to attract people to the festival from the border states. About 30% of Caribana visitors are from the U.S. and won't require a passport if they drive across the border. They'll require one if they fly to Toronto.

Festival packages are being planned to lure big-name celebrities and sports stars to the festival, workers said.

First-time sponsor CPI Canada has launched a "Big Up Promotion" campaign to highlight Caribana and the city. The firm will be launching a 40th anniversary gift card offering deals for the event.

"Big Up is a real win-win-win for the city, its businesses and the community," said CPI president Lindsay Mason.

Other sponsors include: Molson Canadian, Roots Canada, The Westin Harbour Castle Hotel, Breyers, Grace Kennedy, Yorkgate Mall, Via Rail Canada, City of Toronto and the province of Ontario.

40 years of history making but the ORIGINS or FOUNDATIONS still need ADDRESSING. A proper LESSON for YOUNG and OLD PEOPLE to understand STARTING OVER is becoming TOO LATE. Sooner or later you will GRADUATE. Playing around with WHITE CANADIANS must be a WASTE of TIME for the FOUNDERS. How we should of HEED their MESSAGE. Oh well.

Black history should be more than a month long
 Maria Tzavaras

 

Dr. Rosemary Sadlier's most recent book is The Kids Book of Black Canadian History.

 

01/30/07 12:32:00
Each February, Torontonians celebrate Black History Month to remember, honour and preserve a rich part of the city's history. However, there was a time when black history wasn't officially celebrated or even recognized in Toronto.

It wasn't until February 1996 when Ontario, and all of Canada, first officially recognized February as Black History Month. This happened through the efforts of many people, including Rosemary Sadlier from Bloor West Village and MP Jean Augustine (Etobicoke-Lakeshore).

Sadlier was successful in initiating a provincial proclamation for February as Black History Month that officially passed in December 1995. Then she approached the federal government to pursue having it nationally recognized.

"The first time Black History Month was officially declared and celebrated in this country was Feb. 19, 1996 through the efforts of the Ontario Black History Society," she said.

Sadlier, president of the Ontario Black History Society (OBHS), said it was long overdue. Americans have recognized black history since 1926, first as Negro History Week and later as Black History Month.

Sadlier said although it was celebrated within the black community in Toronto for 30 years before 1996, having it officially declared was a milestone.

There are many reasons to celebrate black history, she said, beyond building pride and identity.

"It's also for the wider community, she said. "How do you understand who your neighbours are, your colleagues or maybe family members might be if you don't have some sense of what it is that they've done and contributed to the development of this country?"

The society is a registered Canadian charity dedicated to the study, preservation and promotion of black history in Ontario. Since 1978, the group has been instrumental in helping to promote black history, which spans beyond Toronto and Ontario.

"We also have people in Toronto who have connections to the Maritimes and the Caribbean ... Europe and South America, so when you tell the story of the people who are here, you are telling the story of people who reflect the whole world," Sadlier said.

As with all history, it's important to keep educating people, especially youth, Sadlier said. By looking back at their history and its key players, it's not just purposeful reflection but also a way to prepare for the future.

"You look at what worked, what was positive, what was useful and helpful and what are the deficits so then we can make some determinations going forward and what we can improve," she said.

Blacks, past and present, also serve as role models to youth. Learning about the contributions and achievements of black people gives youth a sense of community, pride and equity, she said.

Sadlier said there were many significant contributions made by early black Torontonians that youth can look up to. People like Mary Ann Shad Cary, Canada's first female newspaper editor and publisher of her own anti-slavery newspaper, The Provincial Freeman, and William Peyton Hubbard, Toronto's first and only black mayor.

But Black History Month is also about celebrating living heroes such as Stanley G. Grizzle, a retired citizenship court judge and a labour union activist who helped to advocate important changes to Canada's immigration laws

"In many ways he still guides the process today and he still lives in downtown Toronto," she said.

Sadlier said she feels there's not enough black history education in our schools and said she would like it to be part of the regular school curriculum.

"We tend not to have black history courses because of funding cuts, and if they were never really made a part of the history curriculum's required courses, they are easily trimmed when there are issues with budget."

And what is taught or celebrated, Sadlier said, is often concentrated on a few 'larger-than-life' figures when the scope of the history is so much bigger.

"The reality is there are and have been many people in many locations over many years who have done things that have contributed as well," she said.

While she said she is happy there are so many black history events happening in Toronto, Sadlier said the scope of history is far too great to cram it into one month of celebration.

What's truly needed is ongoing education, she said. Ideally, Sadlier would like to have something more permanent in Toronto, like a cultural centre for black studies, history and culture.

 

Visit http://www.blackhistorysociety.ca for information on the society and Black History Month events.

Click HERE for other Black History Month events.

Click HERE for a Black History Month contest.

What Canadians have some THINKERS like this AMONGST them. Great. Let me REPHRASE THAT. BLACK PEOPLE are still RISING in CANADA and its GOOD to see our STRUGGLE RECOGNIZED AMONGST OURSELVES

The Catholic Register: As 200th of slave trade's abolition nears, Catholics focus on racism

The Catholic Register

TORONTO, Canada (The Catholic Register) – The past matters to Ursuline Sister Hazel Sister Campayne. It matters for all the ways it has shaped our world and our church – for what it reveals about who we are now.

Sister Campayne is working on a year-long commemoration of the 200th anniversary of the abolition of the slave trade in the British Empire. At Black History Month events throughout February, the law against buying, selling and transporting human cargo in 1807 will be a consistent theme.

"You've got to see the relationship of what is happening today in terms of the past," Sister Campayne said. "What is happening today is you have an eruption of the wounds of the past, an eruption of history."

Sister Campayne frankly states things that raise the hackles of many Catholics – our church is not immune to racism, there is institutional racism in the church and Catholics need to face their history of complicity in the slave trade.

"Church people cannot escape this, because they were very much a part of the problem," she said.

But she's just as anxious to let people know that the teaching authority of the church decried slavery and slave trading from 1404 on:

- In 1462 Pope Pius II declared slavery an "enormous crime" (magnum scelus).

- In 1537 Pope Paul III forbade the enslavement of native people in the New World.

- Pope Urban VIII forbade slavery again in 1639.

- Pope Benedict XIV condemned slavery in 1741.

- Pope Pius VII demanded the Congress of Vienna suppress the slave trade in 1815.

- Pope Gregory XVI condemned the slave trade in 1839.

- In the bull canonizing Jesuit St. Peter Claver in 1888, Pope Pius IX branded the slave trade summum nefas or "supreme villainy."

- Pope Leo XIII sent out the encyclical In Plurimism on the abolition of slavery in 1888 ordering Brazilian bishops to abolish slavery.

Most of these condemnations, some even threatening excommunication, were ignored. Slaves have been found in Brazil in living memory. Well into the 20th century, blacks were not permitted to sit in the front pews in Cuba's Catholic churches. Throughout the centuries of slave trading priests traveled on slave ships and sprinkled the cargo with water to baptize them.

"Africans were coming from heathenism, and enslavement would introduce them to Christianity and prepare their souls for Christianity," explained historian and author Afua Cooper. "That was a benefit of being enslaved. You would become a Christian and be assured of a place in heaven."

Though the Portuguese legal code charged slave owners with baptizing their slaves, it was a sham and often ignored.

"In reality the whole enterprise was not about saving souls," said Cooper.

Sir John Graves Simcoe formally abolished slavery in Canada in 1793 but didn't free existing slaves until 1810. Simcoe was ahead of his colonial masters. The 1807 Slave Trade Act imposed a fine of 100 pounds for every slave found aboard a British ship, but slavers found ways around the regulation. The British Empire finally abolished slavery itself in 1833, though it tried to replace it with an apprenticeship system which was finally abandoned in 1838.

It was the American battle – religious, cultural, political and, finally, military – over slavery that involved Canada in the most strikingly Christian resistance to slavery. Before U.S. President Abraham Lincoln's 1863 Declaration of Emancipation, Canada became "Canaan" or "the Promised Land" in the coded language of the underground railway. Slaves were led to Nova Scotia and Ontario by "Moses" – Harriet Tubman.

"It was by faith that people came (to Canada), and it was by faith that people remained, making the church the first structure outside of their own shelters that they constructed," said Rosemary Sadlier, president of the Ontario Black History Society.

One reason for Canadians to sit up and pay attention to the history lessons of Black History Month is that they will learn how their world was shaped, said Sadlier. She points out how the great fortunes which built Britain's 19th-century dominance in industry and trade were founded in the slave-powered plantations of the West Indies. The stock exchanges, Lloyd's of London, the first international banks are all fruit of the slave trade.

The fight against the slave trade also shaped our world. The British Imperial Act of July 1833, put into effect in August of 1834, set slaves free around the globe.

"It also was the first such human rights legislation, and we are all the beneficiaries of human rights," said Sadlier

The idea human rights are central to civilization is certainly behind the Canadian Conference of Catholic Bishops 2004 statement on racism, "Eliminate Racial and Religious Discrimination: See Every Person as My Sister or Brother."

"Efforts to end racial prejudice and religious discrimination are urgently required for peace to grow in our hearts, in our church, in our communities and in our world," the bishops said.

Sister Campayne worked with the bishops on the three-year-old statement, and calls it a good first step. She's still waiting for a second step. She's hoping an educational kit the Canadian Council of Churches will launch March 25 will kick start a more serious look at institutional racism.

"It is a crucial moment. It's a wonderful opportunity for us to really begin facing up to our whole relationship, and also our relationship in the church," Sister Campayne said.

There may be nothing revolutionary about Canada's Catholic bishops saying racism is wrong, but Cooper finds value in the fact bishops are moved to address the topic.

"You know why it matters?" she asks. "It matters because it's good for it to be said. It matters because people will listen more to a bunch of old white men than to me – the people who have power especially."

Ultimately, Black History Month and the year-long commemoration of the slave trade addresses the fundamentals of Christian faith, said Cooper.

"The central message for me of Christianity is the gospel of Jesus, and he exhorted us to love our neighbors as we love ourselves," she said. "If we internalize that message, then really we couldn't practice racism."

For Sister Campayne Black History Month is another opportunity for people to connect with the heart of their religion.

"We've got to examine our Christian principles going right back," she said. "We've got to live our Christian principles."

At Our Lady of Lourdes Church in downtown Toronto, the parish will celebrate Black History Month and remember the 200th anniversary of the 1807 Slave Trade Act with a Mass celebrated by the first African-Canadian-born priest, Jesuit Father Bill Clarke, who was ordained in June 1966.

The Canadian Council of Churches will launch "From Chains to Freedom: Journeying Towards Reconciliation" on March 25 in commemoration of the Slave Trade Act.

Yes, the CHURCH has just ADMITTED that THEY JUST SAT AROUND doing NOTHING except CONDEMN ENSLAVED AFRICANS and BLACK PEOPLE in a CRITICAL POINT of HISTORY. Looks like them WHITE GODS had the CHURCH and their FALSE MESSAGE of LIBERATION to AFRICAN HEATHENS in their POCKET like they do the REST of US.