Black history and human rights
Discover. Learn. Reflect.
Discover Black stories, voices, struggles and triumphs. Learn about personal and collective acts of resistance and the ongoing fight for equality. Reflect on how we can work to end colonial and racist systems of repression.
Photo: Hannibal Free Public Library, Steve Chou Tomlinson
Viola Desmond: One woman’s resistance
Viola Desmond helped inspire Canada’s civil rights movement by refusing to give up her seat in a movie theatre. Now, she is on the $10 bill.
Canadian civil rights trailblazers
By Jason Permanand
For her courage and tenacity, we remember Viola Desmond as a Canadian civil rights pioneer. But did you know she was not the first Black Canadian who fought against segregated theatres?
Black Lives Matter and the struggle for racial justice in Canada
By Debra Thompson
Protest movements reveal and resist the injustice of systemic racism in Canada. Black community activism includes public protest, policy change and collective care.
The story of Africville
By Matthew McRae
If you’ve never heard of Africville, you’re not alone. This small Black community was demolished by the City of Halifax in the 1960s. Its residents have been fighting for justice ever since.
Black sleeping car porters
By Travis Tomchuk
Black men employed as sleeping car porters in Canada from the late nineteenth century until the mid‐1950s experienced racial discrimination and exploitation on the job.
The story of Black slavery in Canadian history
By Steve McCullough and Matthew McRae
Canada celebrates being a destination for Americans who escaped slavery via the Underground Railroad. But slavery was also part of Canada’s history for more than 200 years.
From refugee to firefighter
By Maureen Fitzhenry
In 1991, Ali and his wife fled a brutal civil war in Somalia, ending up in a Kenyan refugee camp with their 3 children. After a long process, they immigrate to Canada.
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The story of Nelson Mandela
By Matthew McRae
Mandela spent 27 years in prison for opposing South Africa’s apartheid system. He refused to give up his efforts to achieve equality for all people.
The Sharpeville Massacre
By Matthew McRae
Discover how the South African government’s murderous response to peaceful protest inspired local and international action against apartheid.
Justice after genocide: Rwandan Canadian community activism
By Jeremy Maron
Explore how members of the Rwandan Canadian community mobilized to pursue justice, within Canada, for the 1994 genocide against the Tutsi in Rwanda.
The Wilcox County integrated prom
By Matthew McRae
In 2013, graduating students at a high school in Georgia, held their school’s first‐ever integrated prom, where Black and white students could attend together.
Voices of women and girls enslaved in war
By Isabelle Masson
Grace and Evelyn were abducted by the Lord’s Resistance Army in Uganda when they were just girls. They managed to find their way back to freedom but have faced many new struggles since they returned home.
Powered by love: Grandmothers fighting HIV/AIDS
By Matthew McRae
It took Gogo Gladys Tyophol many years to come to terms with the death of her only son.
Pass the Mic: Let’s Talk About Racism
By Sarah Adomako-Ansah
When it comes to racism, there is a lot to learn and unlearn. Listening to those with lived experiences is an important first step in taking a stand against discrimination.
