Black History Month (February)

A group of educators edited all the non-black history out of a Canadian history text book, see what was left.

An interview of 5 Black Women in Canada and their experience of everyday racism

Black Canadians were in Canada from the earliest times, initially as free people, then as slaves. Learn more about their experiences in the early years of our nation.

An historical overview video created by Historica Canada for Black History Month.

Every February, Canadians are invited to participate in Black History Month festivities and events that honour the legacy of Black Canadians, past and present. Learn about the experience of Black Canadians and their vital role in the community through biographies, historic events and other resources.

This 2004 article from Canadian Social Trends (a Statistics Canada) contains many interesting statistics about the Black Community over many years.

An excellent and detailed timeline of the Black Canadians who fought for equal treatment under the law starting in 1850.

Learn about the Black men employed as sleeping car porters in Canada from the late nineteenth century until the mid‐1950s experienced racial discrimination and exploitation on the job. Learn how they unionized for better wages and working conditions.

This excellent timeline introduces students to the many Black Canadians who held elected offices in Canada in 1859. It also includes Sir James Douglas who, in 1851, was the first Black person to be appointed governor of a colony in North America.

A report from the Canadian Centre for Policy Alternatives about the experience of Black women living in Canada

This exhibit reveals how a group of about 800 Black immigrants, invited to settle here by Governor James Douglas, helped to stabilize British colonial communities and keep this area of Western Canada from American hands.

Here is an interesting chapter of Canadian railway history. The Brotherhood of Sleeping Car Porters was the first trade union in Canada organized by and for African Canadians.

Learn about Africville, an African-Canadian village located just north of Halifax and founded in the mid-18th century. This article describes the origins and history of the community, as well as its unique culture and eventual destruction.

Learn about the history of Black people working in the Canadian fur trade in this interesting article!

A collection of all the articles in the Canadian Encyclopedia that focus on Black history in different areas of Canada.

This timeline shows key events and contributions for Black Canadians in the history and development of Canada. You can change the time limitations at the front of the timeline.

The 15 dynamic women artists featured in this exhibit are a mix of poets, playwrights, filmmakers, musicians and visual artists. Each has made a significant contribution to the Canadian arts.

A 2019 report about ongoing anti-Black racism in Canada. .

A virtual exhibit by the Buxton Museum that lets people explore the cabin and the barn of Henry Colbert in 1852. This is an example of the homesteads in the Elgin settlement, a settlement of black settlers in Canada.

Filmmaker Cazhhmere is a 7th-generation black Canadian. Despite this deep history, she’s constantly asked to explain where she’s from—even though the answer is always “Canada.”

Thornton and Lucie Blackburn were freedom seekers who fled enslavement in Kentucky and established the first taxi business in Upper Canada.

This great website documents the history of the Black community in the Yukon, starting in 1901 when 99 Black people arrived during the Goldrush.

This podcast has 22 episodes that feature the stories of Black Canadians from across the country.

This documentary pays tribute to a group of Canadians who took racism to court. They are Canada's unsung heroes in the fight for Black civil rights.

This fact sheet from Justice Canada provides a timeline of anti-black racism in Canada.

Mathieu Da Costa was the first Black person known to have visited Canada. While here, he worked as in interpreter for Dutch and French authorities at first and later for Indigenous communities. Learn more about him here!

This video reminds us of the contributions to WWI made by Black soldiers in Canada.

Once Upon A Black Halifax captures the history of the black community in Halifax, Nova Scotia. It talks about what it was like as they struggled to gain acceptance in the society at that time.

The contributions and achievements of Black Canadians are often excluded from textbooks and curriculum. The Periodic Table of Canadian Black History is a tool that educators, students, and families can use to explore and celebrate the stories, voices, and accomplishments of Black Canadians.

This video promotes the significant contributions that Canadians of African descent have made to their communities and to Canada.

Show Girls celebrates Montreal's swinging Black jazz scene from the 1920s to the 1960s, when the city was wide open. It chronicles the lives of Bernice, Tina and Olga who danced in the clubs - mixing their memories with rarely seen footage of the era.

The tragic story of a Black community in Nova Scotia is not as well known as it should be.

This site provides a history of military involvement for Black Canadians, from the War of 1812 through to the modern Canadian Armed Forces.

This excellent history site allows students to comb through the many primary documents that document the murder of William Robinson, a Black settler on Salt Spring Island in 1868. Students are encouraged to draw their own conclusions about the crime and the conviction in the case.