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Black Excellence

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Learn what our students and staff are doing to promote anti-Black racism in our Durham Catholic schools.

  • Black History Month at St. Mary Catholic Secondary School
  • News Release - DCDSB Introduces New Grade 12 Course: Deconstructing Anti-Black Racism in the Canadian and North American Context

 

Discover Black Canadian Excellence

Below is a list of Canadians who contributed to the greatest of our country.

  • Five Black Canadian Artists whose names should be known alongside of the Group of Seven
  • Africville - was an African-Canadian village located just north of Halifax
  • Brotherhood of Sleeping Car Porters - railway employees, union was formed in 1939
  • Chatham Coloured All Stars - first all-Black baseball team in Ontario
  • The No. 2 Construction Battalion – the first and only all black battalion in Canada
  • York Tavern – refused to serve Fred Christie and his friends because they were Black; Christie sued and the case went to the Supreme Court, acknowledging an era of legalized racism
  • Queenston Heights – battle place in the War of 1812 when the Canadian militia and British army assisted First Nations allies to defeat the Americans Uncle
  • Uncle Tom's Cabin – a historic site in Dresdon, ON to represent the anti-slavery novel by Harriet Beecher Stowe, that educated many and may have helped lay the groundwork for the American Civil War
  • Victoria Pioneer Rifles - a Black militia group that was formed when Blacks were not allowed to join an all-white firefighting group in BC, they contributed greatly to the safety and social order on Vancouver Island
  • IMO and Mont-Blanc - two ships that collided in the Halifax harbour, creating a massive explosion that killed many Blacks as the north end of Halifax was wiped out
  • Elgin Settlement – one of four organized black settlements in Canada for slaves who escaped to Canada to gain freedom
  • Little Burgundy – historical home of Montreal’s Black English-speaking, working class community

 

 Black Canadians
Surnames A to D
  • Anderson Abbott - the first Black person born in Canada to receive their diploma in medicine.
  • Wilson Ruffin Abbott – father of Anderson Abbott, successful businessman in Toronto and elected to Toronto city council
  • Zanana Akande – first black woman to be appointed to Ontario’s Cabinet
  • Lincoln Alexander - the first Black Canadian member of Parliament, Cabinet minister and lieutenant-governor; Lincoln Alexander Day – January 21st
  • Bromley Armstrong – activist and Canada’s first anti-discrimination laws
  • Jean Augustine – educator and first black woman to be elected to the Canadian House of Commons
  • Donovan Bailey – two-time Olympic champion and founder of Bailey Foundation
  • Carrie Best – civil rights activist and co-founder of The Clarion
  • Elladj Blade - Black figure skater
  • Bonga Family - best-known Black fur-trading family due to the number of surviving documents about them
  • Leonard Braithwaite – lawyer and politician, the first Black Canadian elected to a provincial legislature
  • Hugh Burnett – civil rights activist and creator of the National Unity Association
  • Ethelbert (Curley) Christian - First World War veteran, quadruple amputee, helped create the Canadian Forces assistance program for disabled veterans
  • Devon Clunis – Inspector General of Police for Ontario, Canada’s first Black police chief
  • Anne Cools – advocate against domestic violence, first Black member and longest serving member of the Senate of Canada
  • Vanessa Craft – award winning journalist & novelist; first Black Editor-in-Chief of ELLE magazine
  • Andre De Grasse – Olympic medalist, sprinter
  • Ernest Melville Duporte – Canadian entomologist and professor at McGill University Eldridge Eatman - one of the greatest sprinters (raced against a horse and a train) in New Brunswick’s history
Surnames E to J
  • Eldridge Eatman - one of the greatest sprinters (raced against a horse and a train) in New Brunswick’s history
  • Rose Fortune – successful businesswoman (luggage carrier and ‘wake-up calls’) and considered Canada’s first policewoman
  • Mayann Francis – first woman to hold the provincial ombudsman position in Nova Scotia and fought to advance diversity and equality in Canada
  • Mifflin Gibbs - politician (first Black person elected to public office in BC), judge, diplomat, banker, entrepreneur
  • Hartley Gosline - RCMPs first official Black Mountie
  • Aubrey ‘Drake’ Graham - rapper, singer, songwriter, actor
  • Kayla Grey – sports broadcast journalist
  • Stanley Grizzle – railway porter, soldier, civil servant, citizen judge and activist for the rights of Black Canadians
  • William Hall - the first Black, the first Nova Scotian, and the first Canadian naval recipient of the Victoria Cross
  • Josiah Henson - born enslaved, escaped to Dresden, ON and founder of Dawn Settlement

  • Barbara Howard - athlete, first Black female athlete to represent Canada in international competition, and educator, first Black person hired by the Vancouver School Board

  • Jarome Iginla – NHL player, first Black male athlete to win a gold medal at the Winter Olympic games and first Black to win the Art Ross trophy, Maurice Richard trophy and Ted Lindsay award

  • Albert Jackson - born enslaved, escaped and was the first Black mail carrier in Toronto

  • Angela James – led the Canadian women’s hockey team to four world championships in the 90s, second Black athlete to be inducted into the Hockey Hall of Fame

  • Feguson Arthur Jenkins - arguably the best Canadian-born baseball player and the first Canadian elected to the Baseball Hall of Harry Jerome Jr.

  • James Robinson Johnston – Nova Scotia’s first black lawyer

  • Lenny & Gwen Johnston - co-owners of a bookstore (1968 - 2000) with books by Black people about Black people

Surnames K to P 

 

  • Boston King - former slave who settled in Nova Scotia and then later helped to bring Black Loyalists to Freetown in Sierra Leone
  • Violet King - first Black Canadian to obtain a law degree in Alberta, the first Black person admitted to the Alberta Bar and the first Black woman to become a lawyer in Canada
  • Andrea Elaine Lawrence (halfway through article) - first Black female to enlist in RCMP
  • Michael Lee-Chin - billionaire business and philanthropist
  • Olivier Le Jeune - first recorded slave to be born in New France
  • Ray Lewis - sprinter, first Canadian-born Black athlete to earn an Olympic medal
  • Kay Livingstone - founded the Canadian Negro Women’s Association in 1951 and organized the first National Congress of Black Women in 1973
  • Elijah McCoy - engineer and inventor, with over 50 registered patents,
  • James Mink – started first public transit system (coach service) in Toronto and Kingston with his brother, George becoming the wealthiest Black people in Canada in 1850s
  • Dwayne Morgan - Spoken word, poet and author
  • Donald Willard Moore - community leader and civil rights activist, worked with immigration laws
  • Kardinal Offishall - Canadian rapper, singer and song writer
  • Sarah Onyango – translator and community radio (CBC and CTV) personality
  • Willie O’Ree - first black hockey player to play in the NHL, inducted into the Hockey Hall of Fame, his number has been retired by the Boston Bruins (second video)
  • Oscar Peterson – pianist, composer and educator
  • Richard Pierpoint - former slave, petitioned for an all-black unit and fought with the Coloured Corp in the Battle of Queenston
Surnames Q to T 
  • Jackie Robinson – first black to play in the MLB, played for the Montreal Royals prior to the MLB being desegregated
  • John Arthur Robinson – sleeping car porter and started the union called the Order of Sleeping Car Porters (OSCP)
  • Dr. Antonia Sappong - doctor
  • Marisse Scott - educational reform activist 
  • Mary Ann Shadd – first Black female newspaper publisher in Canada
  • Lori Seale-Irving - first Black female commissioned officer in the RCMP
  • P.K. Subban - NHL defenseman, founder of P.K. Subban Foundation
  • Abel Tesfaye (The Weeknd) – singer-songwriter
  • Seymour Tyler – First and Second World War veteran, awarded the British War Medal and the Victory Medal in World War I, as well as the Canadian Volunteer Service Medal and the Defence Medal in World War Two
  • Harriet Tubman - led numerous enslaved people to freedom in Canada through the Underground Railway 
Surnames U to Z 
  • John Ware - is a legend in Alberta, known as one of the best cowboys in the West
  • Portia White - first Black Canadian concert singer to win international acclaim
  • Andrew Wiggins – NBA player, second Canadian to be taken number one overall in draft

 

 

 

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