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About Black History Month

February is Black History Month, providing an opportunity to acknowledge and celebrate the achievements and contributions of Black Canadians and their communities. You can learn more about Black history in Canada from the Government of Canada.

Canadian Centre for Diversity and Inclusion (CCDI)

The Canadian Centre for Diversity and Inclusion (CCDI) has created a commemoration guide for Black History Month that you can use to celebrate and recognize the diverse experiences of Black Canadians: Commemoration guide: Black History Month.

In addition to this guide, CCDI offers other existing resources about many topics pertaining to Black Canadians. Please see a list of some of these resources below:

Toolkits:

• Navigating race in Canadian workplaces
• Sustaining the Black Lives Matter movement in the workplace

Resources

• Addressing Anti-Black Racism Action Plan: Community Consultation
• Edmonton Anti-Black Racism Action Plan

Webinars

• Celebrating Black History Month through story
• Unlearning Anti-Black Racism

Websites

• The Micropedia of Microaggressions - the first encyclopedia of microaggressions.
• Canada Black-Owned Business & Black Entrepreneurs Directory - Afrobiz

Training

• Call it out: racism, racial discrimination and human rights | Ontario Human Rights Commission (ohrc.on.ca)

Films and Documentaries

• Black Communities in Canada: A Rich History - NFB

Podcasts

• Portraits of Black Canadians
• Secret Life of Canada (check out the episode “The Province of Jamaica”)
• Party Lines - “Who Feels Served and Protected?”
• Colour Code: A Podcast About Race in Canada

Books and Articles

• Benjamin, Ruha. Race after technology: abolitionist tools for the new Jim Code. Massachusetts: Wiley, 2019.
• Coates, TaNehisi. Between the world and me. New York: Spiegel & Grau, 2015.
• Cole, Desmond. The skin we’re in: a year of Black resistance and power. Toronto: Centre for Equitable Library Access (CELA), 2020.
• Collins, Patricia Hill. Black feminist thought: knowledge, consciousness, and the politics of empowerment. New York: Routledge, 2015
• Cooper, Afua. The hanging of Angélique: The Untold Story of Canadian Slavery and the Burning of Old Montréal. Brantford, Ontario: W. Ross MacDonald School Resource Services Library, 2019.
• Diverlus, Rodney; Hudson, Sandy; Ware, Syrus Marcus. Until we are free: reflections on Black Lives Matter in Canada. Toronto: CELA, 2020
• French, Whitney. Black Writers Matter. University of Regina Press, 2019.
• Hasford, Julian. “Dominant cultural narratives, racism, and resistance in the workplace: A Study of the experiences of young Black Canadians." American Journal of Community Psychology 57, no. 12 (2016): 15870. doi:10.1002/ajcp.12024.
• Hooks, Bell. Black Looks Race and Representation. New York: Routledge, 2015.
• Kendi, Ibram X. How to be an antiracist. New York: One World, 2019.
• Martis, Eternity. They Said This Would Be Fun: Race, Campus and Growing Up. McClelland & Stewart. 2020.
• Maynard, Robyn. Policing Black Lives: State Violence in Canada from slavery to the present. Winnipeg: Fernwood Publishing, 2018.
• Mensah, Joseph. Black Canadians: History, experiences, social conditions. Halifax: Fernwood Publ., 2002.
• Oluo, Ijeoma. So you want to talk about race. Basic Books, 2020.
• Razack, Sherene. Race, space, and the law: Unmapping a White settler society. Brantford, Ontario: W. Ross MacDonald School Resource Services Library, 2017.
• Rhoden, William C. Forty million dollar slaves: The rise, fall, and redemption of the Black athlete. New York: Three Rivers Press, 2007. • Roberts, L.M.; Mayo, A.J.; Thomas, D.A. Race, work, & leadership: New perspectives on the Black experience. Harvard Business Review Press. 2019.
• Walker, Barrington. Race on trial: black defendants in Ontario’s criminal courts, 1858-1958. Toronto: Published for the Osgoode Society for Canadian Legal History by University of Toronto Press, 2011.
• Walker, Barrington. The history of immigration and racism in Canada: essential readings. Toronto: Canadian Scholars Press, 2008.