Black and African Canadians | The Canadian Encyclopedia

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  • Article

    Black Volunteers in the Canadian Expeditionary Force

    During the First World War, up to 1,300 Black men volunteered for service in the Canadian Expeditionary Force (CEF). While the men of No. 2 Construction Battalion are the best-known example of Black participation in the war, another 300 to 500 enlisted in other units of the CEF. Of these, about 100 served on the front lines. Black soldiers participated in all major battles of the CEF, from its arrival in France until the Armistice. (See also Black Canadians and Conscription in the First World War.)

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    https://d3d0lqu00lnqvz.cloudfront.net/media/media/d2114b98-ef0d-4e98-aa49-892b095d77cc.jpg Black Volunteers in the Canadian Expeditionary Force
  • Article

    George Morton and the Fight to Fight: Black Volunteers in the First World War

    Archivist Barbara M. Wilson explores the significance of a letter sent to Sir Sam Hughes by George Morton, a letter carrier, barber and civil rights advocate from Hamilton, Ontario. In his letter, dated 7 September 1915, Morton asked the minister of militia and defence why members of the Black community were being turned away when trying to enlist for service with the Canadian Expeditionary Force during the First World War. (See also Black Volunteers in the Canadian Expeditionary Force.)

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    https://d3d0lqu00lnqvz.cloudfront.net/media/media/1110b60d-adfe-4989-b17d-45c0d12d2438.jpg George Morton and the Fight to Fight: Black Volunteers in the First World War
  • Article

    Black Voting Rights in Canada

    The history of Black Canadian voting rights is marked by contrasting shifts. Enslaved during the period 1600–1834, Black persons could not vote. Emancipated, they were entitled to the rights, freedoms and privileges enjoyed by British subjects, including the franchise; however, racial discrimination did at times impede Black Canadians’ right to vote. The rights and freedoms of Black women were further restricted by virtue of their sex. Black communities in Canada represent an array of experiences, below are some that relate to the right to vote.

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    https://d3d0lqu00lnqvz.cloudfront.net/media/media/ae60e6b1-2ed8-471b-8da9-2b0d76e9d8fd.jpg Black Voting Rights in Canada
  • Editorial

    Editorial: Black Women in the Arts

    The following article is part of an exhibit. Past exhibits are not updated. Driven to overcome histories of prejudice and marginalization, as women and as people of African descent, Black women are among Canada’s most innovative artists. With their fingers on the pulse of this multi-tasking, multi-disciplinary, 21st-century culture, the 15 dynamic artists featured in this exhibit — a mix of poets, playwrights, filmmakers, musicians and visual artists — refuse to be limited to one medium or style. Award-winning poet Dionne Brand is also a novelist, filmmaker and influential professor, while Lillian Allen thrives as a dub poet, declaiming her verses to reggae accompaniment. trey anthony is a comedian as well as a ground-breaking playwright and screenwriter. All of these women and the many others below are also, in one way or another, passionate activists and committed advocates who are deeply involved in their communities.

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    https://d3d0lqu00lnqvz.cloudfront.net/media/media/ee1f817b-7ddb-4e03-9a02-e51f833c78da.jpg Editorial: Black Women in the Arts
  • Article

    Caribbean Canadians

    People from the Caribbean region began to settle in Canada in the late 18th century (see Jamaican Maroons in Nova Scotia and Black Canadians). In the 2016 census, 749,155 Canadians reported that they originated from the Caribbean, and most have immigrated to Canada since the 1970s.  

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    https://d3d0lqu00lnqvz.cloudfront.net/media/media/75602bde-4a29-4c06-b05c-bda4187ceb0b.jpg Caribbean Canadians
  • Article

    Caribbean Music in Canada

    Caribbean music is an important component of musical life in Canada on two grounds: firstly, significant numbers of Caribbean peoples have immigrated to Canada, particularly beginning in the 1960s, and have continued the musical traditions of their homelands in the new environment; and secondly as early as the 1920s successive styles of Caribbean-derived music began to form part of the fabric of Euro-American pop music and thus part of the musical experience of many Canadians over the years.

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    https://www.thecanadianencyclopedia.ca/images/tce_placeholder.jpg?v=e9dca980c9bdb3aa11e832e7ea94f5d9 Caribbean Music in Canada
  • Article

    Cecelia Jane Reynolds

    Cecelia Jane Reynolds, freedom seeker (born c. May 1831 in Virginia; died 4 June 1909 in Louisville, Kentucky). In May 1846, Cecelia fled her Kentucky enslavers by way of Niagara Falls and the Underground Railroad. Letters between Cecelia and Fanny Thruston, the Louisville belle to whom she had been a personal servant, have become unique primary sources for historians studying enslavement and relations between the formerly enslaved and American slaveholders.

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    https://d3d0lqu00lnqvz.cloudfront.net/TCE_placeholder.png Cecelia Jane Reynolds
  • Editorial

    Celebrating Black History Month in Canada

    The following article is an editorial written by The Canadian Encyclopedia staff. Editorials are not usually updated. As we mark Black History Month in Canada in February, it’s worth reflecting on the legacy of Canada’s Black communities and the prejudice Black people have faced.

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    https://d3d0lqu00lnqvz.cloudfront.net/media/media/dd01025c-fc65-449e-9f14-b7ad5a585d3b.jpg Celebrating Black History Month in Canada
  • Article

    Charlie Culver

    Charlie Culver, baseball player, coach, factory foreman (born 17 November 1892 in Buffalo, New York; died 4 January 1970 in Montreal, QC). Almost 24 years before Jackie Robinson played with the Montreal Royals in 1946, Charlie Culver, an African American who was misidentified as Cuban, started a Class-B Eastern Canada League game for the Royals. His stint with the team lasted just six games, but Culver remained in Quebec and became one of the best baseball players in the province’s history. He later became a respected manager and a successful junior coach. He was inducted into the Canadian Baseball Hall of Fame in 2021.

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    https://d3d0lqu00lnqvz.cloudfront.net/Charlie-Culver-Black-Panthers-Team.jpg Charlie Culver
  • Article

    Chloe Cooley

    Chloe Cooley was one of hundreds of Black women enslaved in the French and British colonies that became Canada. Although little is known about Chloe Cooley, who was enslaved in Upper Canada, her struggles against her enslaver, Sergeant Adam Vrooman, precipitated the Act to Limit Slavery in Upper Canada of 1793. The Act was the first legislation in the British colonies to restrict the slave trade. (See also Black Enslavement in Canada.) Click here for definitions of key terms used in this article.

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    https://d3d0lqu00lnqvz.cloudfront.net/media/media/22ace4cd-cd9c-4de9-b8dd-db1ad6c4a64b.jpg Chloe Cooley
  • Article

    Clement Ligoure

    Clement Courtenay Ligoure, physician (born 13 October 1887 in Trinidad; died 23 May 1922 Port of Spain, Trinidad). Dr. Ligoure was Halifax’s first Black doctor and an unsung hero of the Halifax Explosion, as he treated hundreds of patients free of charge in his home medical office. Dr. Ligoure was also instrumental in the formation of the No. 2 Construction Battalion, Canada’s first and only all-Black battalion (see Black Canadians; Caribbean Canadians).

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    https://d3d0lqu00lnqvz.cloudfront.net/clementligoure/clementcourtenayligoure.jpg Clement Ligoure
  • Article

    Cyle Larin

    Cyle Christopher Larin, soccer player (born 17 April 1995 in Brampton, ON). Cyle Larin is the all-time leading goal scorer for the Canadian men’s soccer team. He was the first Canadian player to be selected first overall in the MLS SuperDraft. In 2016, he was named MLS Rookie of the Year after breaking the record for most goals scored by a rookie. After scoring 43 goals in 87 games in three seasons with Orlando City SC, he was transferred to Beşiktaş JK of the Süper Lig in 2018. Larin helped Beşiktaş JK win the Süper Lig, Turkish Cup and the Turkish Super Cup in 2020–21. He also played for Canada at the 2022 FIFA World Cup.

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    https://d3d0lqu00lnqvz.cloudfront.net/Kyle_Larin_17.jpg Cyle Larin
  • Article

    Director X

    Julien Christian Lutz (a.k.a. Director X, Little X), director, filmmaker, mental health advocate (born 31 October 1975 in Toronto, ON). After starting out as the protégé of music video maven Hype Williams, Director X directed the music video for “Northern Touch,” a landmark in Canadian hip hop. He has since directed more than 100 music videos for some of the biggest names in hip hop and popular music, including such iconic videos as Destiny’s Child’s “Bootylicious,” Justin Bieber’s “Boyfriend,” and Drake’s “Started from the Bottom” and “Hotline Bling.” Director X has also made feature films and art installations. He was inducted into Canada’s Walk of Fame in 2022.

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    https://d3d0lqu00lnqvz.cloudfront.net/LittleXFeb07.jpg Director X
  • Article

    Dominique Gaspard

    Dominique François Gaspard, physician and community builder (born 22 December 1884 in New Orleans, Louisiana; died 6 February 1938 in Montreal, QC). Gaspard was a respected doctor and a trailblazer in Montreal’s Black district. After serving with distinction at a field hospital during the First World War, he devoted himself to medical practice in Montreal. He also worked to create social and intellectual outlets for Black men in the city. A bilingual Catholic, he was unique in the city’s early-20th-century anglophone Protestant Black community. His story speaks of a complexity of language, ethnicity and migration not often explored in narratives of Quebec’s English-speaking and Black communities.

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    https://d3d0lqu00lnqvz.cloudfront.net/media/new_article_images/DominiqueGaspard/M_Dominique_Gaspard.jpeg Dominique Gaspard
  • Article

    Edward Mitchell Bannister

    Edward Mitchell Bannister, artist and abolitionist (born November 1828 in St. Andrews, NB; died 9 January 1901 in Providence, Rhode Island). Bannister was the first Black painter to win a major art prize and receive widespread recognition in the United States.

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    https://d3d0lqu00lnqvz.cloudfront.net/Edward-Mitchell-Bannister/Approaching-Storm.jpg Edward Mitchell Bannister