Black Albertans with UCalgary colours

Black History Month

Honouring the legacy of Black Canadians and their communities

This design seeks to memorialize prominent Black Canadians and their enduring legacies, which continue to radiate outwards today. Virnetta Anderson, Violet King, John Ware, Viola Desmond, and Donald H. Oliver are featured in the design.

Selected Black History Month Timeline


Black Albertans You Should Know
 

Trailblazing Black Albertans who, too often, are hidden in provincial and Canadian narratives. These stories, as the achievements of these Black Albertans, act as a corrective to misconceptions of Black Albertans as newcomers and the deficit narratives that function to limit Black aspirations and achievements.

Written and curated by Dr. Malinda S. Smith, PhD, Vice-Provost & Associate Vice President Research (Equity, Diversity, Inclusion), UCalgary

King family

Blackness in Alberta, Saskatchewan and Manitoba
 

CBC’s Black on the Prairies places Blackness in Alberta, Saskatchewan and Manitoba at the centre of the country’s story.  Exploring the past, present and future of Black Prairie life through the themes of Migration, Putting in Work, Black and Indigenous Relations, Politics and Resistance, and Black to the Future.

The project’s first iteration, published in April 2021, explored the past, present and future of Black life here, but there is still so much more.

CBC Canada - Black on the Prairies

Scarborough Charter

Scarborough Charter

The Scarborough National Charter on anti-Black racism and Black Inclusion in Higher Education: Principles, Actions, and Accountabilities are committed by institutions across Canada to combat anti-Black racism and foster Black inclusion in higher education.

Sandy Hudson

Black on campus: Students, staff and faculty say universities are failing them

Students, staff and faculty at some of Canada's largest universities say they have experienced anti-Black racism on campus, and that they were targeted if they spoke out about their treatment, an investigation by The Fifth Estate has found.

UCalgary Anti Racism Guide

UCalgary Anti-Black Racism Guide

The local and global mobilization around anti-Black racism following the deaths of George Floyd in Minneapolis and Regis Korchinski-Paquet in Toronto, among other incidences, have highlighted the urgency of addressing systemic racism and racial violence.


Driving Through a Blizzard for a Taste of Home
 

In Edmonton, there aren’t any butchers that sell goat meat with skin - like we had back in Nigeria, by Uchechukwu Peter Umezurike, for CBC First Person

This First Person column is the experience of Uchechukwu Peter Umezurike, who immigrated from Nigeria to Edmonton.

blizzard story

Amber Valley, AB

Several Black pioneer prairie settlements were found, but the most extensive and storied is Alberta's Amber Valley. Little remains of the community, in Athabasca County, north of Edmonton.

The community was one of several in Alberta and Saskatchewan settled by Black people from Oklahoma, Texas and other southern states. In response to the federal government's Dominion Lands Act, they came to Canada, which was passed in 1872 to encourage settlement on the Prairies.

Other communities settled by Black Americans include Wildwood, about 120 km west of Edmonton, Breton, about 110 km southwest of the capital, and Campsie, about 140 km northwest of the city in Alberta and the Maidstone area, about 480 km northwest of Regina, in Saskatchewan.

Amber Valley, AB

Black books

Books by and on Black Canadians

Curated by Dr. Malinda S. Smith, PhD, Vice-Provost & Associate Vice President Research (Equity, Diversity, Inclusion), UCalgary

 

Curated list

Calgary Public Library

Calgary Public Library

The Calgary Public library is holding a variety of virtual events for Black History Month.


Learn more

Black film

Films about the Black Experience in Canada

This section includes a selection of film resources on the historical and contemporary Black experience across Canada. You will find that most of the films are open access. We will update this site as new materials become available.

Curated by Dr. Malinda S. Smith, PhD, Vice-Provost & Associate Vice President Research (Equity, Diversity, Inclusion), UCalgary

Curated list

DARE Project

DARE Project

The project, titled Teaching Against Anti-Black Racism and Toward Black Inclusion was conducted as part of the Dean’s Award for Research Excellence (DARE) program for undergraduate students enrolled in the Faculty of Liberal Arts & Professional Studies (LA&PS). 

Entries in this database have been gathered by Jellisa Ricketts as part of the summer 2021 Dean’s Award for Research Excellence project, supervised by Professor Andrea Davis.

Recommended Readings and Film 

“Canadian Pacific Railway porters in union hall, Calgary, Alberta”, [ca. 1941-1942], [PA-3439-6], Courtesy of Glenbow Archives, Archives and Special Collections, University of Calgary

Index to Interviews for Black Communities in Alberta

The Alberta Labour History Institute (ALHI) was founded in 1999 to give working people a chance to preserve their own stories in their own words.  We are a group of trade unionists, community activists, archivists, and historians dedicated to the collection, preservation, and dissemination of the stories of Alberta’s working people and their organizations.

Read interviews


Media


Black History Month profile - Virnetta Nelson

Calgary Eyeopener with David Gray, Angela Knight

Virnetta Anderson (1920 - 2006) was an American-Canadian community activist and politician, who was elected to Calgary City Council in 1974 as the city's first Black Canadian municipal councillor.

Further reading by Sean Myers, Calgary Herald, February 2009

Dr. Malinda Smith, PhD
Vice Provost (Equity, Diversity, and Inclusion) | Associate Vice-President Research-EDI | Professor, Political Science | Office of Equity, Diversity, and Inclusion | University of Calgary

Listen

Black History Month profile - Violet King

Calgary Eyeopener with David Gray, Angela Knight

Violet Pauline King Henry (1929 -1982) was a lawyer and a descendant of Black settlers from the United States. Her life consisted of several important milestones. She was the 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. 

Dr. Malinda Smith, PhD
Vice Provost (Equity, Diversity, and Inclusion) | Associate Vice-President Research-EDI | Professor, Political Science | Office of Equity, Diversity, and Inclusion | University of Calgary

Listen

Black History Month profile - Annie Saunders

Calgary Eyeopener with David Gray, Angela Knight

Annie Saunder ( 1836 - 1898) was an American, born in the States, and she met Mary Macleod — Colonel Macleod’s wife — on a Missouri riverboat as Mary Macleod was heading west.  In 1877, Saunders decided to join Mary Macleod and arrived in Fort Macleod to begin work as a nanny or nurse to the Macleod children.  This is how she was most often documented, but recent research suggests that Saunders was a pioneer in her own right, running multiple businesses in Fort Macleod and later in Pincher Creek.

Dr. Malinda Smith, PhD
Vice Provost (Equity, Diversity, and Inclusion) | Associate Vice-President Research-EDI | Professor, Political Science | Office of Equity, Diversity, and Inclusion | University of Calgary

Listen

BHM at UCalgary

CBC Calgary News

Dr. Malinda Smith's interview about Black History Month with Rob Brown begins at time 18:50.

Dr. Malinda Smith, PhD
Vice Provost (Equity, Diversity, and Inclusion) | Associate Vice-President Research-EDI | Professor, Political Science | Office of Equity, Diversity, and Inclusion | University of Calgary

Watch/listen

This design uses tropical ferns to recall the ancestral homeland of Black Canadians, their fronds echoing the strength and beauty of an afro. The university's vibrant palette evokes a sense of individuality, each hue a thread woven into the rich tapestry of our collective achievements