Skip to Main Content

African/Black Nova Scotian Resources

These are resources on African/Black Canadian & Nova Scotian history, communities, & culture, as well as important resources on people of African descent. It was developed in consultation with members of the African/Black Nova Scotian community at NSCC.

Notable Nova Scotians

photograph of Sylvia Hamilton

Sylvia D. Hamilton Award-winning filmmaker, writer, journalist, public speaker, poet, and activist

photograph of Viola Desmond

Viola Desmond, African-Canadian business woman, Civil Rights activist

photograph of Senator Wanda Bernard

 Senator Wanda Thomas Bernard Nova Scotia Human Rights Award (2004),Order of Canada (2005),
Order of Nova Scotia (2014) 

black and white photograph of Portia White

Portia White, World Renown Opera Singer

photograph of Mayann Francis

Mayann Francis  Nova Scotia's Lieutenant Governor, 2006-2012

photograph of George Elliott Clarke

George Elliott Clarke,  Canada’s Parliamentary Poet Laureate (2016-17)
Order of Canada, Order of Nova Scotia 

photograph of George Dixon

George Dixon, World Champion Boxer

photograph of El Jones

El Jones, Poet and Spoken Word Activist

photograph of Carrie est Canada Post Corporation, 2011

Carrie Best, OC, ONS, LLD, Human Rights activist, author, journalist, publisher, and broadcaster

Shauntay Grant, Poet, playwright, children’s author, and multimedia artist

Rocky & Joan Jones  Civil rights and human rights activists 
Photograph from the private collection of Augy Jones

Listen

Living in Hope: Viola Desmond's Story. Podcast. CBC Curio.  2007.  (NSCC W# and password required)

This special presentation from CBC Radio's Sunday Edition is a dramatized account of a pivotal moment in Canadian race relations. On November 8, 1946 Viola Desmond refuses to move to the upstairs balcony in the Roseland Theatre, and is forcibly removed from the theatre and thrown in jail. The resulting legal battle was taken all the way to the Nova Scotia Supreme Court.