Black History Month 2021: Black Canadian Counternarratives

​Celebrating Black History Month is a tradition. Black History Month grew out of Negro History Week. It was founded in 1926 by African American historian Dr. Carter G. Woodson, who dedicated his career to the study and documentation of Black life. It was a scholarly and educational intervention to counter the racist representation and erasure of African Americans in American history that contributed to their disenfranchisement and the miseducation of Black people about their past through the white gaze.

In the 1950s, after commencing community observances, the Canadian Negro Women’s Association introduced the celebration of Black History Month to Toronto. The Ontario Black History Society petitioned the City of Toronto to officially recognize Black History Month in 1979 and in 1993 successfully pushed for the Ontario government to adopt it. In 1995, the House of Commons officially recognized February as Black History Month, following a motion introduced by the first Black Canadian woman elected to Parliament, the Honourable Jean Augustine. Black History Month was officially observed across Canada for the first time in February 1996. 2021 marks the 25th anniversary of the official national observation of Black History month in Canada.​

Canadian Schools have increasingly organized and participated in BHM activities. It is important to take the time to recognize the contributions and achievements of Black Canadians in all facets of Canadian society, both in the past and in the present. It is equally important to present a balanced view of Black Canadian experiences in acknowledging the struggles that Black people in Canada have faced and continue to face and to highlight the longstanding history of Black activism that has contributed to addressing systemic discrimination in Canada. Educators have an obligation to provide meaningful learning opportunities relating to Black Canadian experiences that fosters the development of the critical socio-political consciousness in students in ways that make connections between the past and today.

In 2020 Black peoples participated in and witnessed global social uprisings against widespread anti-Black racism that too often leads to the violent end of Black life and has created conditions that have negatively impacted Black life writ large. Experiencing this widespread protest in the midst of the COVID-19 pandemic that has disproportionately affected Black Canadians in the GTA and North America, underscores the urgency of marking BHM this year. It provides a learning space to discuss current realities, honour Black and African histories, heritages, and cultures, celebrate Black joy, and envision transformative Black futures. Acknowledging Black History Month in the way it was intended is antiracist pedagogy.

The intentional use of stories and images of Black life to challenge dominant Euro-Canadian historical national narratives, normalized white identities, white supremacist power structures, and anti-Black sentiments can positively affirm the identities of Black students. These stories and images, called counternarratives and counterimages, are core principles of critical race theory and antiracist pedagogy. Rosalind Hampton notes that “Black counter-storytelling has been an astute political project grounded in a demand for self- representation and the assertion of counter- discourses, challenging not only racist representations of Black people but the very “rationality of Rational man.”1​ Effectively integrated Black counternarratives represent Black people as historical actors with agency and provide perspectives on how Black people have and continue to live, survive, and resist. They give attention to stories of Black achievement and Black excellence and uplift narratives of Black people as innovators, scientists, thinkers, creatives, mathematicians, doctors, and survivors.

Here in Ontario and in most provinces in Canada, BHM also serves as a curriculum intervention to help address the fact that there are no mandated learning expectations on the 400-year Black presence in Canada that students have to learn. This systemic negation of Black history by the state is a clear instance of anti-Black racism. How are school boards who made statements last spring in support of BLM taking up BHM and more specifically the teaching of Black experiences throughout the year in all subject areas? How are they resourcing and supporting this work?

The power of Black stories benefits all students and can be integrated and shared in all grades. Dr. Woodson intended that BHM would be a time when people would share what they learned throughout the other eleven months, not cram Black history into the month of February. BHM remains a necessary educational space that should be drawn upon in tandem with instituting permanent, sustainable curriculum change that brings Black history into classrooms year-round. In the spirit of Sankofa, it provides an opportunity to look back at our rich past, to use our history to guide our present and to shape Black futures. Ancestor Dr. John Henrik Clarke reminds us, “History is not everything, but it is a starting point. History is a clock that people use to tell their political and cultural time of day. It is a compass they use to find themselves on the map of human geography. It tells them where they are, but more importantly, what they must be.”

Here are some topic examples:
​
BLACK HISTORY SOCIAL STUDIES TOPICS FOR GRADES 1-6

Grade Level	Social Studies Curriculum Strand	Possible Topic Ideas ​
​1     1	​Heritage and Identity: Our Changing Roles and Responsibilities   People and Environments: The Local Community	Highlight African Canadians working in various roles in your local community, create profiles for students (African Canadian community helpers past and present) -          Albert Jackson, 1st Black postal carrier in Toronto -          Seraphim Joe Fortes, lifeguard in Victoria, BC -          Kareema Beckles and Bashir Munye, Chefs in Toronto
2	​Heritage and Identity: Changing Family and Community Traditions	West African naming ceremonies; Kwanzaa; Emancipation Day; Juneteenth; Enkutatash (New Year’s Day in Ethiopia);
3	Heritage and Identity: Communities in Canada, 1780–1850	​Black Loyalists; Blacks in the War of 1812; People profiles (Harriet Tubman, Mary Ann Shadd, Josiah Henson, Thornton and Lucy Blackburn, Pierpoint, Enerals Griffin, Emeline Shadd); Black settlements
3	​People and Environments: Living and Working in Ontario	Highlight modern-day African Canadians in various roles in different communities -          Anan Lololi, Buchi Onakufe, farmers -          Chris Campbell, construction
4	Heritage and Identity: Early Societies, 3000 BCE–1500 CE	Mali; Songhay; Egypt; Nubia; Ghana; Great Zimbabwe; Aksum; Benin
​4	People and Environments: Political and Physical Regions of Canada	​Ontario and Canada’s trade and cultural relationships with Caribbean and African countries
5	Heritage and Identity: First Nations and Europeans in New France and Early Canada	​The Interactions between Black and Indigenous (Mattieu Da Costa, Matthew Henson, enslavement, families); Compare European/ Indigenous and Black/ Indigenous relationships; Olivier LeJeune
5	People and Environments: The Role of Government and Responsible Citizenship	​Laws that affected African Canadians (1793 Act to Limit Slavery, 1833 Slavery Abolition Act); Canadian Government Officials of African Descent (William Peyton Hubbard, Rosemary Brown, Jean Augustine, Anne Cools, Michaelle Jean, Daurene Lewis, Senators Donald Oliver and Wanda Thomas Bernard)
6	​Heritage and Identity: Communities in Canada, Past and Present	African Canadian communities and their features (families, homes, businesses, churches, schools, cultural practices): NS - Africville, Dartmouth, Preston; ON - Buxton, Dawn/ Dresden, Chatham, Hamilton, Toronto, Queen’s Bush, Oro-Medonte; Oakville; Peel Region; BC - Victoria; NB - Saint John, Willow Grove and Elm Hill; AB - Amber Valley; QC – Montreal     The Underground Railroad
6	​People and Environments: Canada’s Interactions with the Global Community	​Ontario and Canada’s trade and cultural relationships with Caribbean and African countries; environmental racism

BLACK HISTORY TOPICS FOR GRADES 7 and 8

Grade	History Strand	Possible Topic Idea
7	New France and British North America, 1713–1800	​Slavery and Slave Resistance in New France and Acadia; People (Matthieu Da Costa, Olivier LeJeune, Marie Joseph Angelique (QC), Sam Martin (PEI), Nancy (NB), Chloe Cooley (ON), Peter Martin (ON ; Black communities – Digby, Preston, Birchtown (NS) Black fur traders   1784 Shelburne Racial Attacks   The Haitian Revolution
7	​Canada, 1800–1850: Conflict and Challenges	Enslavement  and slave resistance (Peggy Pompadour, Dorinda Baker, Henry Lewis in ON); Black Loyalists; People (Harriet Tubman, Mary Ann Shadd, Josiah Henson, Thornton and Lucy Blackburn, Henry and Mary Bibb, Boston King, Richard Preston, Shadrach Minkins, John Hall, Peter Butler, Richard Pierpoint, Wilson and Anderson Abbott, Burr Plato, Albert Jackson); Places (Buxton, Amherstburg, Priceville, Queen’s Bush, Niagara Township); Events (Emancipation Day, 1833 Slavery Abolition Act); Black participation in the War of 1812; Arrival of HMS Regulus, May 1815; Black Participation in the 1837 Rebellion;   African Canadian communities – NS – Africville; NB - Elm Hill, Willow Grove; ON – Wilberforce Settlement
8	Creating Canada, 1850–1890	​Individuals: Jesse Happy, Francis Griffin Simpson, Joshua Glover, Solomon Moseby, Ann Maria Weems, Ann Maria Jackson, Deborah Brown, Mrs. Pipkin, Mary (or Louisa) Pipkin, Albert Jackson, Josiah Henson, Enerals and Priscilla Griffin, Shadrach Minkins, Cornelius Sparrow, Robert Patterson, Charles and Nancy Alexander, William Robinson, Mifflin Gibbs, the Victoria Pioneer Rifle Company, Louis and Sylvia Stark, Salt Springs Island, gold prospectors John Robert Giscome and Henry McDame); John Ware, Alfred Shadd   Groups: The Canadian Jubilee Singers   Places: ON - Little Africa” in Hamilton, Banwell Rd., Puce River Settlement, Refugee Home Society Settlement, Shrewsbury, Elgin Settlement Buxton Mission, Chatham, Dawn Settlement, Oakville, Oro Settlement, Queen’s Bush Settlement, Otterville, Brantford, London, Oil Springs, Owen Sound, Oakville, Windsor; BC – Victoria;   Mifflin Gibbs and the Black Support of Confederation to prevent American annexation
8	​Canada, 1890–1914: A Changing Society	Black migration from Oklahoma – Amber Valley (AB), Maidstone (SK); The Ku Klux Klan; racial segregation (schools, service, Viola Desmond); closed immigration to Blacks (Mackenzie King’s Order in Council Aug.12 1911); Black sleeping car porters (Stanley Grizzle); Blacks in the labour movement; Billy Beal (MN); Delos Davis (ON), Georgina Whetsel (NB); The Universal Negro Improvement Association;
Grade	Geography Strand	Possible Topic Ideas
7	Physical Patterns in a Changing World	​Map locations of Black Communities in Canada (Buxton, Elgin, Dawn, Niagara, Oro, Africville, The Bog, Salt Springs Island); routes of Black migration (Transatlantic Slave Trade, Underground Railroad); The physical geography of African and Caribbean countries; race and space (e.g. land grants to Black settlers, African Canadians in urban centres and rural areas);
7	Natural Resources around the World: Use and Sustainability	​The natural resources of African and Caribbean countries
8	​Global Settlement: Patterns and Sustainability	The African diaspora; The human geography of African and Caribbean countries; early Black settlement patterns in Ontario & Canada; The Transatlantic Slave Trade; Forced Migration; The Underground Railroad; the Back to Africa Movement; environmental racism; food security/insecurity and race; food geographies and race; environmental racism
8	Global Inequalities: Economic Development and Quality of Life	environmental racism; food security and race; food geographies and race

BLACK HISTORY TOPICS FOR GRADES 10-12

Course	Strand	Possible Topic Ideas
CHC 2D/P Canadian History Since WWI	Communities: Local, National, & Global	Brotherhood of Sleeping Car Porters (Stanley Grizzle); Black Canadians in the labour Movement (Bromley Armstrong); Lulu Anderson (AB), James F. Jenkins [publisher of the Dawn of Tomorrow newspaper] (ON), Calvin Ruck (NS), Ted King (AB), Fred Christie (QC), Hugh Burnett (ON), Donald Moore (ON), Carrie Best [published The Clarion newspaper] (NS), Burnley Allan “Rocky” Jones (NS), Joanne Bonner Jones (NS), Al Hamilton [published Contrast newspaper[ (ON), Marlene Green (ON), Charles Roach (ON), Dudley Laws (ON), Leonard and Gwendolyn Johnston (ON), Denham Jolly (ON)   The Colored Women’s Club, The Hour-A-Day Study Club, The Negro Citizenship Association, The Black United Front (BUF), Alberta Association for the Advancement of Colored People, British Columbia Association for the Advancement of Colored People, New Brunswick Association for the Advancement of Colored People, The Canadian League for the Advancement of Colored People (CLACP), The Black Education Project   Black sports teams - Coloured Hockey League, The Coloured Club of Fredericton, Chatham Coloured All-Stars, London Colored Stars, St. Catharines Bulldozers   The Conference of Caribbean and other Black Organizations, 1968; The Black Writers' Congress, 1968; Sir George Williams Affair
.	​Change and Continuity	Anti-Black racism and stereotypes; Closed immigration to Blacks (Mackenzie King’s Order in Council Aug. 12 1911); Black migration from Oklahoma, the West Indies in the early 1900’s (20th Century); Policies and attitudes that affected African Canadians
.	Citizenship and Heritage	Jean Augustine; Donald Oliver; Wanda Thomas Bernard, Anne Cools; Alvin Curling; Rosemary Brown; Oscar Peterson; Lincoln Alexander;
.	Social, Economic, and Political Structures	Anti-Black racism and stereotypes; The KKK in Canada; Racism in the workplace
CHH 3C CHH 3E	​Communities: Local, National, & Global	Segregated schools; Charter of Rights and Freedom; Anti-Black racism;
Canadian History & Politics Since 1945	​Change and Continuity	Brotherhood of Sleeping Car Porters (Stanley Grizzle); No. 2 Construction Battalion; 106th C.E.F.; Africville;
.	​Citizenship and Heritage	Jean Augustine; Donald Oliver; Anne Cools; Alvin Curling; Rosemary Brown; Oscar Peterson; Lincoln Alexander;
.	​Social, Economic, and Political Structures	​Anti-Black racism; The West Indian Domestic Scheme; Changing immigration policies;
CHI 4U Canada: History, Identity, and Culture	Communities: Local, National, & Global	​Enslavement in Canada (New France, Acadia, British North America); enslavement and slave Resistance (Peggy Pompadour, Dorinda Baker); People (Matthieu Da Costa, Olivier LeJeune, Marie Joseph Angelique, ); Black Loyalists; Black immigration waves; Closed immigration to Blacks (Mackenzie King’s Order in Council Aug. 12 1911); People (Harriet Tubman, Mary Ann Shadd, Josiah Henson, Richard Pierpoint, Thornton and Lucy Blackburn, Henry Bibb, John Graves Simcoe, Robert Sutherland, Shadrach Minkins, John Hall); Emancipation Day; Black migration from Oklahoma, Black migration from the West Indies in the early 1900`s (20th Century); British Colombia (Charles and Nancy Alexander, William Robinson, Mifflin Gibbs, Victoria Pioneer Rifle Company, Louis and Silvia Stark, Salt Springs Island, gold prospectors John Robert Giscome and Henry McDame); Alberta (John Ware, Amber Valley); Saskatchewan (Alfred Shadd);
.	Change and Continuity	​1784 Shelburne Racial Attack; Black Participation in the War of 1812; Black Participation in the 1837 Rebellion; Black Loyalists; Blacks in War of 1812; Delos Davis; Policies and attitudes that affected African Canadians (The Ku Klux Klan, anti-slavery societies and efforts, ); segregation (schools, Viola Desmond); closed immigration to Blacks (Mackenzie King’s Order in Council Aug. 12 1911); Black sleeping car porters (Stanley Grizzle); Blacks in the labour Movement; Elijah McCoy; Austin Clarke; George Elliot Clarke; African Canadian music;
.	Citizenship and Heritage	Citizenship denied and 2nd-class citizenship; Viola Desmond; Cause and effects of Anti-Black prejudice (Africville, separate schools); Jean Augustine; Donald Oliver; Anne Cools; Alvin Curling; Rosemary Brown; Oscar Peterson; Lincoln Alexander;
.	Social, Economic, and Political Structures	Mary Ann Shadd; The Black Support of Confederation to prevent American annexation; Reparations; Rosemary Brown; Anne Cools; Brotherhood of Sleeping Car Porters (Stanley Grizzle); Roots of Youth Violence Report 2008; Black organizations (African Food Basket, Food Share, The Ontario Black History Society, Women’s Health in Women’s Hands Centre, Black Lives Matter Canada, A Different Booklist Bookstore & Cultural Centre, BC Community Alliance)
​ Geography Courses	.	​Black Canadian urban planners - Jay Pitter, Shannon Holness, Orlando Bailey, Tamika Butler, Anthonia Ogundele, Will Prosper  Examining race and space, race and place making

References:
1. hampton, rosalind. Black Racialization and Resistance at an Elite University, University of Toronto Press, 2020: 29.