🏳️🌈 Bri 🌞🚴🌱✨I found #BlackHistoryCanada empty in my corner of fedi, so let's address that! I'm going to share something from this 2020 playlist on black history in Canada.
https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLT9MbfNkf-UjoR-4wYeVWxiyxoIxQPlXF
YouTube
In 2018, Viola Desmond was chosen for display on Canada's $10 bill to honour her legacy, particularly her refusal to participate in racial segregation (https://www.thecanadianencyclopedia.ca/en/article/viola-desmond).
Less well known is Carrie Best who, 5 years ahead of Viola, began a legal challenge of racial segregation in Canada by sitting with her son in the Whites-only section of the same theatre (https://www.thecanadianencyclopedia.ca/en/article/carrie-best).
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xgXhO5P6qpI&list=PLT9MbfNkf-UjoR-4wYeVWxiyxoIxQPlXF&index=3
#BlackHistory #BlackHistoryCanada
Carrie Best's pursuit was set back when Canadian courts upheld the Roseland Theatre Co.' s right to exclude anyone, and required Best to pay the co.'s legal costs.
Best went on to found a newspaper in 1946, The Clarion, with her son Calbert. Its first issue covered Viola Desmond's arrest at Roseland Theatre. In 1949 it was renamed The Negro Citizen and circulated nationally.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Clarion_(Canadian_newspaper)
Thank you to Leila Moumouni-Tchouassi, who shared this story. She also spoke of her own experience as a Black woman in Canada, an experience of erasure.
Leila is making her own place in Canadian history. That history unfortunately includes Leila being fired after sharing her coworker's social media post on Instagram.
That history also includes her ongoing activism for Black and queer Canadians. Thank you, Leila.
These three racialized women explain how they got fired by Equal Voice
To some onlookers, the sudden termination of these three women of colour is a manifestation of long-time problems with the women's advocacy organization: discrimination, racism and a general lack of inclusivity.
Buried in the alt-text for the premier issue of The Clarion is the story of Viola Desmond's arrest.
Mrs. Desmond asked for a floor seat and was charged for a balcony seat, due to the theatre's policy of racial segregation. For sitting in and refusing to leave the Whites-only floor seats of the Roseland Theatre in Nova Scotia, Mrs. Desmond was forcibly removed, arrested, jailed overnight, and convicted without legal representation.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OnZdE0goUSg&list=PLT9MbfNkf-UjoR-4wYeVWxiyxoIxQPlXF&index=4
David | 28 Moments of Black Canadian History | Viola Desmond
Viola Desmond was convicted on a charge of tax avoidance by defrauding the federal government of Canada, for the difference of one cent in Amusement tax between a balcony seat and a floor seat.
Leila M.-T. spoke of erasure as a Black woman in Canada. That erasure serves to hide Racism in Canada. Our court rulings allowed businesses to exclude "anyone". We convict for "tax evasion". Yet our history includes slavery and racial segregation nonetheless.
In 2010 on the advice of NS's Premier, NS Lieutenant Governer Mayann Francis granted Viola Desmond a posthumous free pardon, recognizing innocence and the error of the conviction. "Here I am, 64 years later―a Black woman giving freedom to another Black woman".
In 2018 became the only woman in Canada to appear alone on our currency, monarchs aside.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Viola_Desmond
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mayann_Francis
Thank you David Gakwerere who shared Viola Desmond's story.
David shares his own experience in spaces where he has had to fight for access, and encountered feeling unwelcome in those spaces. He works on improving access and inclusion in Canada. Thank you, David, for working to make Canada better for all Canadians.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OnZdE0goUSg&list=PLT9MbfNkf-UjoR-4wYeVWxiyxoIxQPlXF&index=4
David | 28 Moments of Black Canadian History | Viola Desmond
Jan 21 is Lincoln M. Alexander Day in Ontario. In recognition of a Black Canadian man who served our country in WW2, who served for our workers, and whose legacy is one full of firsts for Black Canadians (https://www.thecanadianencyclopedia.ca/en/article/lincoln-maccauley-alexander).
The first Black Canadian MP (1968), Cabinet minister (1979) and lieutenant-governor (1985).
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_Jl1DWsX9dI&list=PLT9MbfNkf-UjoR-4wYeVWxiyxoIxQPlXF&index=5
His father was from St. Vincent and the Grenadines, and Alexander was raised by his Jamaican mother in Harlem. There he saw prominent Black role models that inspired him to rise.
Alexander lived long enough to see the end of his time as the only Black Canadian in political spaces, with the election of MP Howard McCurdy (1984), the appointment of Hedy Fry to Cabinet (1996), and the appointment of Lieutenant-Governor Mayann Francis (2006).
“I am not the spokesman for the Negro; that honour has not been given to me. Do not let me ever give anyone that impression. However, I want the record to show that I accept the responsibility of speaking for him and all others in this great nation who feel that they are the subjects of discrimination because of race, creed or colour.” ― Lincoln M. Alexander, 20 September 1968
"Fuck off" ― Pierre E. Trudeau, February 1971, allegedly
CBC Archives: Fuddle Duddle 1971 | CBC
Ottawa, 1971 - In this CBC-TV clip, Prime Minister Pierre Trudeau comes under fire for allegedly mouthing a two-word obscenity, which he asserts is nothing m...
Thank you Akehill Johnson, for sharing with us the life of Lincoln M. Alexander.
Akehill shares experience with Lincoln, as a Black Canadian with parents from the Caribbean islands, his mother from Trinidad and Tobago and his father from Barbados. He was also raised by his single mother.
Akehill describes himself as out of pocket, existing beyond the expectations placed on him.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_Jl1DWsX9dI&list=PLT9MbfNkf-UjoR-4wYeVWxiyxoIxQPlXF&index=5
Akehil | 28 Moments of Black Canadian History | Lincoln Alexander
Mifflin Wistar Gibbs was a abolitionist, a contemporary of Frederick Douglass, and a figure in the Underground Railroad. Well educated outside the classroom, he worked in many fields.
A successful businessman in California, he then moved to colonial British Columbia. He became the first Black person elected to public office in BC, in 1866 to Victoria city council. Gibbs was an advocate for BC to join the Dominion of Canada in 1868.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=71GFkqeJs7k&list=PLT9MbfNkf-UjoR-4wYeVWxiyxoIxQPlXF&index=6
Fokhus | 28 Moments of Black Canadian History | Mifflin Wistar Gibbs
Gibbs' was courted to settle in colonial BC specifically because the 1857 Dredd Scott decision from the US Supreme Court meant that Black people in the US were not considered citizens. BC was looking to bring in non-American settlers to balance the influx of American settlers drawn by the Fraser River gold rush.
His personal history can also teach us some of the history of Canadian colonialism.
https://thecanadianencyclopedia.ca/en/article/mifflin-gibbs
Gibbs' is credited with building the first tramway, for coal transport for his coal mine in Haida Gwaii (then known to settlers as Queen Charlotte Islands).
He returned to the USA in 1870 where he continued to be a prominent figure, including, in 1903 in his 80s, founding a bank to serve the Black community. The Bank was short-lived, but Gibbs remained a wealthy man to his death at 92.
Since 2016 BC recognizes November 19th as Mifflin Wistar Gibbs Day.
Thank you to Fokhus, AKA Emmanuel Mensah, who shared the story of Mifflin Wistar Gibbs.
Fokhus is a multi-faceted man who cannot be accurately conveyed in the limited space available here. He is a man of faith, an entrepreneur, and CEO of Prophetic Cutz in Ottawa. He's also a Mario Kart legend.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=71GFkqeJs7k&list=PLT9MbfNkf-UjoR-4wYeVWxiyxoIxQPlXF&index=6
Fokhus | 28 Moments of Black Canadian History | Mifflin Wistar Gibbs
The Underground Railroad was a network of routes and safe houses that helped enslaved people escape slavery in the USA and find safety from slave-catchers. For many, Canada was the destination.
The Anti-Slavery Act (1793) of Upper Canada abolished the enslavement of people and meant that Americans settling in the colony could not be enslaved. The British Empire abolished slavery in 1833, and freed the remaining enslaved Canadians.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=avz-tWHMeD4&list=PLT9MbfNkf-UjoR-4wYeVWxiyxoIxQPlXF&index=7
Maritza | 28 Moments of Black Canadian History | Undergroud Railroad & Oakville
The USA Fugitive Slave Act (1850) incited a wave of Black people migrating to Canada from Northern states, unwilling to risk capture.
Beyond abolitionist sentiment, some like Governor of Lower Canada (now Quebec) James Douglas were supportive of Black Americans settling for reasons of sovereignty. Douglas believed that a large Black population would counter Canadians that wanted unity with the USA.
While Black settlers in Canada found safety from enslavement, they also found the same racial prejudice that they endured in the USA. They competed with waves of European settlers for opportunities, and often faced overt racism. For example, Saint John's charter in New Brunswick restricted Black Canadians from many types of employment and was in effect from 1785 through 1870.
I'm pleased to learn of "Song of the Free" (1860), a song about a man from Tennessee escaping to Canada, composed to the tune of "Oh! Susanna" which has 8 verses which each end with the line, "Canada, where colored men are free."
Thank you, Maritza Woël, for sharing the story of the Underground Railroad, and how many Canadians first arrived in Oakville (less than a half hour drive from where I grew up, who knew?). Maritza was born in Haiti and she and her family moved to Canada when she was 9. At the time of this video she was a law student, but a quick search suggests that she deserves congratulations for graduating and now practicing law.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=avz-tWHMeD4&list=PLT9MbfNkf-UjoR-4wYeVWxiyxoIxQPlXF&index=8