This book list highlights powerful stories that explore the richness and diversity of the Black experience in Canada.
They passed this way : a personal acknowledgment of the early Black settlers of Simcoe and Grey counties by Howard Sheffield.
Assembled from Howard Sheffield's hand-written notes, stories and memories, this book spans almost 200 years of Black history from Africa to Simcoe and Grey counties. Published by Sheffield Park Black History and Cultural Museum.
The Black battalion : 1916-1920 : Canada's best kept military secret by Calvin W. Ruck. Black military heritage in Canada is still generally unknown and unwritten. Most Canadians have no idea that Black people served, fought, and died on European battlefields, all in the name of freedom.
Broken shackles: Old Man Henson, from slavery to freedom edited by Peter Meyler. Originally published in 1889, these are the recollections of an ex-slave, born in Maryland as Charley Chance, who escaped, took the name Jim Henson, and eventually settled in Owen Sound, Ontario.
The girl in the middle: growing up between Black and White, rich and poor by Anais Granofsky. Degrassi Junior High actress Anais Granofsky writes of her tumultuous childhood in Toronto caught between two warring worlds.
The long road home : on blackness and belonging by Debra Thompson. From her time living in the United States to her return to Canada, the author provides her personal story as well as an examination of what it is to be Black in North America and the nuances of racism in both countries.
Policing Black lives : state violence in Canada from slavery to present by Robyn Maynard. Delving behind Canada's veneer of multiculturalism and tolerance, scholar and activist Robyn Maynard traces the afterlives of slavery across multiple institutions.
A stolen life: searching for Richard Pierpoint by Peter Meyler. An African warrior who was captured at about age 16, Pierpoint lived his remaining years in exile. From his birth in Bundu around 1744 until his death in rural Ontario in 1837, Pierpoint's life allows us to glimpse the activity of an African involved in some of the world's great events.
They call me George : the untold story of Black train porters and the birth of modern Canada by Cecil Foster. At the beginning of the 20th century, being a train porter in Canada was the exclusive domain of Black men who laboured long hours for miserable pay.
The Underground Railroad: next stop, Toronto! by Adrienne Shad, Afua Cooper, Karolyn Smardz Frost. A highly engaging account of the Underground Railroad and the lives of Black people once they arrived.
For Children
Africville by Shauntay Grant. When a young girl visits the site of Africville, in Halifax, Nova Scotia, the stories she's heard from her family come to mind. She imagines what the community was once like--the brightly painted houses nestled into the hillside, the field where boys played football, the pond where all the kids went rafting, the bountiful fishing, the huge bonfires.
If you traveled on the Underground Railroad by Ebony Joy Wilkins. What do you know about the Underground Railroad? What if you lived in a different time and place? What would you wear? What would you eat? How would your daily life be different? How did the Underground Railroad get its name? Why is it called a railroad? How did people find it? Who operated it? Ebony Joy Wilkins answers all these questions and more in this book for kids.
The Kids Book of Black Canadian History by Rosemary Sadler. From the first Black person who came to Canada about 400 years ago, Black Canadians have played an important role in the country's history. Featuring fact boxes, mini-profiles, a timeline and more, this book offers a glimpse into an often-overlooked part of Canadian history.
Meet Viola Desmond by Elizabeth MacLeod. On the night of November 8th 1946, Nova Scotia businesswoman Viola Desmond stood up for her right to be in the "unofficial" whites-only section of a New Glasgow movie theatre, and was arrested for it. Viola took her quest for the right to freedom from discrimination to the courts. While she ultimately did not succeed, she was a beacon to other early civil-rights activists.
The Trailblazing Life of Viola Desmond by Rachel Kehoe with Wanda Robson. This story of Viola's life is based on rare interviews with her sister Wanda Robson, who spent her life championing her sister's story and was successful in getting Viola a posthumous pardon that recognized she was innocent of any crime.