Toronto Conference invites you to observe Black History Month throughout 2007 instead of confining it to the month of February this year. The chief impetus for this expanded observance is the fact that 2007 is the 200th anniversary of the ending of trans-Atlantic slave trade in the British Empire. This year has been designated by the United Nations and many national governments, as well as by the Canadian Council of Churches through its CEARN (Canadian Ecumenical Anti-Racism Network) steering committee, as a year to commemorate this abolition. At the same time, many have felt that “Black history should be embraced as a daily celebration, not just every February,” and that Black Canadians should be able throughout the year to “educate others while they continue learning their own history…” (Wanda West, Our Roots, Our Lives: Glimpses of Faith and Life from Black and Asian Canadian Women, 2003, p. 102)

We are therefore launching this page to begin providing you with resources and links to support you in

• Learning about and celebrate Black history in Canada;
• Getting to know some of the Black Canadian leadership in the United Church of Canada, both past and present;
• Commemorating the 200th anniversary of the abolition of trans-Atlantic slave trade by using the CEARN resource packet “From Chains to Freedom” containing materials for worship, biblical reflection, and education for adults and children;
• Accessing lists of print and audio-visual and electronic resources;
• Anything else that is relevant: we welcome your ideas and suggestions.

Come journey with us!

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Some Significant Dates in Black Canadian History
"Our Roots, Our Lives" Edited by G.A. Wenh-In Ng

1628 Canada's first officially recognized black slave, Olivier le Jeune, is sold into salvery in New France.

1783 Over 5000 Black United Empire Loyalists leave the United States for Canada (Nova Scotia), with the promise of freedom and land. When the promise of good land was not honoured, half of them accepted the opportunity to return to Africa to settle in Freetown Sierra Leone.

1800-1860 The Underground Railway to Canada operating as a result of Fugitive Slave Acts (1793 and 1850). After her own excape in 1849, Harriet Tubman, known as the "Moses" of her people, and working from her base in St. Catharines, Ontario, helps 300 others escape.

1833-34 Slavery is abolished in all British territories, including Canada and the Caribbean.

1850 Ontario "Common Schools Act" legalizes segregation in schooling in spite of protest by Black familes.

1853 Mary Ann Shadd becomes the first woman in North America to edit a newspaper.

1880s Black churches are developed because of exclusion from dominant white churches. Union United Church is established in Montreal as a Black congregation in the 1920s.

1946 Carrie Best of New Glasgow, Nova Scotia, begins newspaper The Clarion to raise consciousness about the way Blacks are treated, and is instrumental in ending segregated practices in that province.

1954 Fair Accommodations Act. Up to this date hotels, restaurants, recreational clubs and movie theatres were racially segregated. Two famous victims of such segregation were Martin Luther King Jr. and Mrs. King, and United Church national Youth Ministry staff person Wilbur Howard.

1954-56 Struggle initiated by Daniel Braithwaite to ban the racist children's book, Little Black Sambo, from Toronto Public Schools.

1955 West Indian Domestic Scheme restricts entry of female domestic workers.

1964 Ontario schools desegregated.

1960s Residents of Afriville, Nova Scotia, frustrated at obtaining reparations for the destruction (bulldozed) and loss of their homes and 150 year-old church.

1974 The Rev. Wilbur Howard becomes the first Black moderator of The United Church of Canada.

1990s Refugees from Various African countries (Congo, Ghana, Uganda, etc.) arrive in Canada in increasing numbers and begin forming African Canadian congregations.

Contemporary Black Canadian women writers include: Novelist and essayist Dionne Brand (Bread Out of Stone, 1984; Land to Light On, 1997, At the Full Tide of the Moon, 1999) and

Poet Lillian Allen (The Teeth of the Wirlwind, 1984,; Women Do This Every Day, 1993; Psychic Unrest, 1999).

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Black and Canadian(Wanda West-Our Roots, Our Lives): Canada is a multicultural country where diversity is encouraged and seemingly welcomed.  Bearing this in mind, why is it that the history of my people, Black people, has not be included and, moreover, has been purposely omitted from our history books?  What I learned in school about Canada was a one-sided version, the one giving an account only of the White-European-Caucasian side.  Considering what was, and still is, being taught today, we find that even the history of the Native peoples has been changed or ignored to suite a certain kind of society: the dominant society.

From Chains to Freedon: Journeying towards Reconciliation, Produced by the Canadian Ecumnical Anti-Racism Network click for flyers in English and French.

Our Children: Our children are a reflection of us, Not what we are, but who we are....

Racial Justice Week: This pilot project of the Canadian Ecumenical Anti-Racism Network (CEARN) of the Canadian Council of Churches has been endorsed by the Committee for Racial Justice of Toronto Conference. Congregations and /or groups within congregations, mission units, and other centre and groups within Toronto Conference are urged to plan on participating in any way they can - by designating a racial justice focus on one of the two Sundays, or by using some of the materials provided in the resource packet (see links for downloading, or call Diane Buchanan at 416-241-2677 ext. 223 to obtain copies) during that week, during lent or at another time in the year. We would like to know how useful you find the materials, so please forward you evaluation to this office after you have filled it on the back page of the resource packet. click to download: Racial Justice Week Packet

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Racial Justice Resource Books

The Hanging of Angelique- by Afua Cooper
published by HarperCollins Canada, 2006

The Book of Negroes - by Lawrence Hill
published by HarperCollins Canada, 2007

I've Got A Home In Glory Land:
A lost tale of the Underground railroad - by Karolyn Smardz Frost
Published by Tomas Cellen Publishers, Toronto, 2007

That All May Be One:
A Resource for Educating toward Racial Justice
Edited by: Wenh-In Ng
Publish by: The United Church of Canada - 2004
Copies can be found: The United Church Resource Distribution -
http://www.united-church.ca/ucrd/

Making Waves, An Ecumenical Feminist Journal, Volume 4:2 (Summer 2004)
"Naming Racism:Speaking Truth of Power",
Published by: Women's Inter-Church Council of Canada
Copies can be obtained through:
Women's Inter-Church Council of Canada http://www.wicc.org

Dancing on Live Embers, Challenging Racism in Organizations
Author: Tina Lopes & Barb Thomas
Published by: Between the Lines Press- 2006
Copies can be obtained through:
The United Church Resource Distribution-http://www.united-church.ca/ucrd/
Toronto Women's Book Store - http://www.womensbookstore.com/

Belonging, Constructing A Canadian Theology of Inclusion
Author: Kawuki Muskasa
Publish by: Kamu Kamu Press- 2006
Copies can be obtained through:
The Anglican Book Centre - http://www.anglicanbookcentre.com,
The United Church Resource Distribution- http://www.united-church.ca/ucrd/

The Colour of Democracy: Racism in Canadian Society (Second Edition)
Authors: F.Henry, C. Tator, W. Mattis & T. Rees
Publish by: Nelson, a division of Thomson Canada Limited.
Copies can be found:
Toronto Women's Book Store - http://www.womensbookstore.com/
The United Church Resource Distribution - http://www.united-church.ca/ucrd/

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Links - Racial Justice