Subject Guides: African/Black Nova Scotian Resources: African/Black Experience in Canada

African Canadian History: An Untold Story

Sylvia Hamilton has dedicated her life to revealing the lives and experiences of people of African descent in Canada, a narrative that has often been absent in the historical record. Sylvia explains how her work demonstrates that African Canadian history is Canadian history and is important for us all to learn.

This presentation was the keynote address at the 12th Canada's History Forum, Small Stories, Big Ideas, held on January 19, 2020.

Suggested Reading

eBook The African Canadian Legal Odyssey by Barrington Walker
The African Canadian Legal Odyssey explores the history of African Canadians and the law from the era of slavery until the early twenty-first century. ;
eBook The Education of African Canadian Children by Awad Ibrahim (Editor); Ali A. Abdi (Editor)
Recognizing that the education African Canadian children receive will shape their lives as citizens, the contributors to this volume provide an important, timely analysis of the educational experiences of African Canadian children and youth.
eBook Blacks in Canada by Robin W. Winks; George Elliott Clarke (Foreword by)
Blacks in Canada journeys from the introduction of slavery in 1628 to the first wave of Caribbean immigration in the 1950s and 1960s. Heralded in the Literary Review of Canada as one of the one hundred most important Canadian books, this enduring work by Yale University's Robin W. Winks offers a wealth of information for fresh interpretation.
eBook Schooling the System by Funké Aladejebi
In post-World War II Canada, black women's positions within the teaching profession served as sites of struggle and conflict as the nation worked to address the needs of its diversifying population. From their entry into teachers' college through their careers in the classroom and administration, black women educators encountered systemic racism and gender barriers at every step. So they worked to change the system.
eBook North of the Color Line by Sarah-Jane Mathieu
North of the Color Line examines life in Canada for the estimated 5,000 blacks, both African Americans and West Indians, who immigrated to Canada after the end of Reconstruction in the United States. Through the experiences of black railway workers and their union, the Order of Sleeping Car Porters, Sarah-Jane Mathieu connects social, political, labor, immigration, and black diaspora history during the Jim Crow era.
eBook They Call me George: The untold story of the Black train porters by Cecil Foster
A historical work that chronicles the little-known true stories of black railway porters - the so-called "Pullmen" of the rail lines.
eBook "You had better be white by six a.m." : the African-Canadian experience in the Royal Canadian Mounted Police by Craig Smith
This book is dedicated to the men and women who wear the red serge. The story of the Black men and women of the Force is just part of the entire RCMP history and without its inclusion and the inclusion of all the members' stories who serve in the Force, we do everyone a disservice.
HerStory : black women making a difference in Canadian law enforcement by Craig Smith
This book is dedicated to the Black women who presently serve and have served in the Royal Canadian Mounted Police (RCMP). THeir story is an important part of the RCMP story and of Canadian history.

Articles

Dominant Cultural Narratives, Racism, and Resistance in the Workplace: A Study of the Experiences of Young Black Canadians
In this study [Hasford] uses qualitative analyses of narrative interviews with 24 Black Canadian youth and young adults (aged 16–35) to examine the impact of dominant cultural narratives on lived experiences of workplace racism and resistance.
Untangling racism: Stress reactions in response to variations of racism against Black Canadians
A national policy of multiculturalism exists in Canada, which is intended to encourage cultural diversity, but can also serve to mask systemic racism. This may contribute to uncertainty when racism is encountered, with implications for the appraisals, coping, and stress-related outcomes of ethnoracial minorities.
Rocky and Joan: A history of sacrifice
Burnley “Rocky” Jones and Joan Jones fought for civil rights in Nova Scotia and were targeted because of it. Their sacrifices built a community that continues to fight against the oppressive racism in this province. From The Coast. By Wendie L. Poitras. July 05, 2018
MULTICULTURALISM @ 50: THE EXPERIENCE OF BLACK CANADIANS
Together, anti-racism and anti-oppression involve examining and challenging societal structures and individual biases/ beliefs, as well as power imbalances that uphold racism, misogyny, ableism, homophobia and transphobia, and other oppressive systems. If power imbalances and historical legacies are not questioned, we arrive at a multiculturalism policy that boldly and loudly proclaims that you are welcome to participate and bring your cultural diversity to Canadian society, while in a more subtle and hushed tone also says this welcome is conditional.

Videos

Black Mother Black Daughter. NFB (NSCC W# and password required).

Black Mother Black Daughter explores the lives and experiences of black women in Nova Scotia, their contributions to the home, the church and the community and the strengths they pass on to their daughters.

Speakers for the Dead. NFB. 2000. (NSCC W# and password required)

Speakers for the Dead reveals some of the hidden history of Blacks in Canada. In the 1930s in rural Ontario, a farmer buried the tombstones of a Black cemetery to make way for a potato patch. In the 1980s, descendants of the original settlers, Black and White, came together to restore the cemetery, but there were hidden truths no one wanted to discuss. Deep racial wounds were opened.

The Skin We're In: Pulling back the curtain on racism in Canada. CBC Docs POV. Desmond Cole. 2017.

African/Black Nova Scotian Resources: African/Black Experience in Canada

Being Black in Canada

Blackness in Canada Project

UN Report on People of African Descent in Canada

African Canadian History: An Untold Story

Suggested Reading

Articles

Videos