Tag Archives: Canada

A Miscellany of Black History in Canada

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Cover-image-for-Children's-book-Amazing-Women-in-Canada-Jean-Augustine

Black History Month is upon us once more. I thought it would be fitting to explore the origins of the annual celebration of Black achievement, as well as the original reason for its creation. It started as Negro History Week in 1926 with Carter G. Woodson — an American historian and creator of the Association for the Study of African American Life and History — at the helm. Woodson saw how important it was to promote all the amazing things Black folks have accomplished throughout history, becoming an early leader for the celebratory cause. What started as a week grew into a month, but of course a month isn’t really enough time to devote to the topic. Woodson’s decision to choose February for the original week-long affair is an interesting one. There are two monumental birthdays he wanted to encompass with the choice — Frederick Douglass and Abraham Lincoln. While the latter is a name most people recognize instantly, the former’s contribution to the abolishment of slavery was significant. These birthdays (although Douglass was born into slavery so the day of his birth isn’t certain) were already occasions for many communities of Black people in the US, which increased the odds that his idea would catch on. Once it did, he imagined that the festivities devoted to these two men could be extended to the race as a whole, and thus, the concept of Black History Month (BHM) was born. Of course, the fight for equality and equity was the context for Woodson’s endeavour. Myself, I certainly appreciate the opportunity to create reader’s advisory content for BHM. Discovering figures and historical snippets from Canada’s past is incredibly valuable. I think it’s important to spread awareness of Canada’s dark past, including slavery and other civil rights violations that have been obscured by its associations with ‘The Promised Land’ and freedom. However, it’s also important to celebrate the contributions and successes Black people have had throughout our history. What follows is a hodgepodge of writings on various figures who have had a real impact on our world, from the days of the Underground Railroad up to contemporary times.

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The Sleeping Car Porter: Canada’s Hidden Black History

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February is Black History Month! To celebrate, VPL has put together programming for all ages, including Black History: The Music and the Message for kids, and an adult book club where we’ll discuss The Skin We’re In by Desmond Cole. For more programming options, check out our What’s On Magazine.

Suzette Mayr’s The Sleeping Car Porter uncovers a portion of Canadian history lost to time—more specifically, Black Canadian history, lost to time due to institutional neglect. The 2022 Giller Prize winning novel follows a young Black man in the 1920s named Baxter, who has come over from the Caribbean for a job as a train porter in order to save up money for dental school. The novel’s timeline is a single cross-country train journey, from Montreal all the way to Banff, during which Baxter’s lack of sleep results in a blurry delirium made worse by the constant demands of his customers.  

I’ll admit I knew nothing about sleeping car porter history prior to reading this novel, but there were enough intentionally placed, specific references to suspect that there was likely a well of history behind Baxter’s story. Why, for example, did (white) customers keep calling him George? What was this Brotherhood they keep mentioning? Turning the last page over to Mayr’s extensive bibliography was the final clue that this novel is very, very heavily based on real Canadian history. So like any good nerd, I went on a bit of a deep dive and checked out They Call Me George: The Untold Story of Black Train Porters and the Birth of Modern Canada by Cecil Foster and My Name’s Not George: The Story of the Brotherhood of Sleeping Car Porters in Canada by Stanley G. Grizzle, two titles from Mayr’s research that are available at VPL. They Call Me George is a particularly useful companion read to The Sleeping Car Porter, as it often answers the questions brought up in the novel. What I learned took me by surprise: Black porters were not only part of the Canadian cultural consciousness of the early to mid-20th century, they were also instrumental in instigating a Black middle class, and even helped cement—not by accident, but by will—our identity as a multicultural nation, on which we now pride ourselves.  

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National Indigenous History Month

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national indigenous history monthJune is National Indigenous History Month, a celebration of the diverse histories, heritages, and present lives of Canada’s First Nations, Inuit, and Métis communities. “The Government of Canada recognizes the importance and sacred nature of cultural ceremonies and celebrations that usually occur during this time”, as per the official government website. But just as we at the library were preparing resources to celebrate this month, our country was rocked with a gruesome discovery: the bones of 215 children buried beneath the Kamloops Indian Residential School. A horrifically apt reminder from the universe of our dark history, lest it be forgotten amidst the celebrations.  

I just finished reading Days Without End by Irish writer Sebastian Barry, a Civil War-era novel that is not shy of relating the atrocities committed by colonists in pursuit of an expanding frontier. The 1860s seem a different world but, in the grand scheme of human civilization, it was basically yesterday. We might like to think we’ve progressed beyond the horrors of the past, but the damage done to Indigenous communities lingers today. The last residential school was closed in 1996, to put that into context. And though we’ve finally scrapped the schools, Indigenous children make up 30% of the population of children in foster care. Our country has an actual human rights crisis on its hands regarding Missing and Murdered Indigenous Women (MMIW). The road to reconciliation is long, and we’re not even close to the end (as of writing this, neither the British Crown nor the Catholic Church has officially recognized their devastating roles in the residential school system).  

As part of National Indigenous History Month, the Canadian government is promoting #IndigenousReads, in hopes “to encourage reconciliation by increasing Canadians’ understanding of Indigenous issues, cultures, and history”. Publishers Weekly recently put out an interview with a handful of Canadian and American booksellers and publishers regarding Indigenous literature, highlighting the particular benefit of storytelling in “the reimagining of [Indigenous] lives through the storytelling of contemporary Indigenous authors.” The interview is a hopeful one; with the public interest in social issues growing, publishers are more likely than ever to promote (and seek out) Indigenous voices. And even better news: these titles sell well, proving public interest in the subject and thus encouraging even more Indigenous publications.  

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