Learn About Black Canadian History (Adult)

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The black battalion : 1916-1920 : Canada's best kept military secret

The black battalion : 1916-1920 : Canada's best kept military secret

Ruck, Calvin W. (Calvin Woodrow), 1925-2004, author
2016

Black military heritage in Canada is still generally unknown and unwritten. Most Canadians have no idea that Blacks served, fought, and died on European battlefields, all in the name of freedom. The story of the overt racist treatment of Black volunteers is a shameful chapter in Canadian history. It does, however, represent an important part of the Black legacy and the Black experience. It is a story worth reporting and worth sharing. In this thirtieth-anniversary edition of Ruck's celebrated history of Nova Scotia's No. 2 Construction Battalion, known as the Black Battalion, the original text and over 60 photographs and documents is presented for a whole new generation of readers, along with a new foreword and photographs from journalist Lindsay Ruck, Calvin W. Ruck's proud granddaughter.

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Black matters

Black matters

Cooper, Afua, author
2020

"Halifax's Poet Laureate Afua Cooper and photographer Wilfried Raussert collaborate in this book of poems and photographs focused on everyday Black experiences. The result is a jambalaya ¿́¿ a dialogue between image and text. Cooper translates Raussert's photos into poetry, painting a profound image of what disembodied historical facts might look like when they are embodied in contemporary characters. This visual and textual conversation honours the multiple layers of Blackness in the African diaspora around North America and Europe. The result is a work that amplifies black beauty and offers audible resistance."-- Provided by publisher.

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The book of negroes

The book of negroes

Hill, Lawrence, 1957-, author
2007

A sweeping story that transports the reader from a tribal African village to a plantation in the southern United States, from the teeming Halifax docks to the manor houses of London.

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Pourin' down rain : a Black woman claims her place in the Canadian West

Pourin' down rain : a Black woman claims her place in the Canadian West

Foggo, Cheryl, author
2020

Cheryl Foggo's memoirs about growing up Black on the Canadian Prairies.

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The skin we're in : a year of Black resistance and power

The skin we're in : a year of Black resistance and power

Cole, Desmond, 1982- author
2020

Both Desmond Cole's activism and journalism find vibrant expression in his first book - puncturing once and for all the bubble of Canadian smugness and naïve assumptions of a post-racial nation. Cole chronicles just one year - 2017 - in the struggle against racism in this country. In a month-by-month chronicle, Cole locates the deep cultural, historical, and political roots of each event so that what emerges is a personal, painful, and comprehensive picture of entrenched, systemic inequality.

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The sleeping car porter

The sleeping car porter

Mayr, Suzette, author
2022

It's 1929, and Baxter is lucky enough, as a Black man, to have a job as a sleeping car porter on a train that crisscrosses the country. On this particular trip out west, the passengers are more unruly than usual, especially when the train is stalled for two extra days and their secrets start to leak out. When he finds a naughty postcard of two gay men, Baxter's memories and longings are reawakened; keeping it puts his job in peril, but he can't part with the postcard or his thoughts of his Porter Instructor.

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They call me George : the untold story of black train porters and the birth of modern Canada

They call me George : the untold story of black train porters and the birth of modern Canada

Foster, Cecil, 1954- author
2019

"A historical work that chronicles the little-known stories of black railway porters-the so-called "Pullmen" of the Canadian rail lines. The actions and spirit of these men helped define Canada as a nation in surprising ways, effecting race relations, human rights, North American multiculturalism, community building, the shape and structure of unions, and the nature of travel and business across the US and Canada. Drawing on the stories and legends of several of these influential early black Canadians, this book narrates the history of a very visible, but rarely considered, aspect of black life in railway-age Canada. These porters, who fought against the idea of Canada as White Man's Country, open only to immigrants from Europe, fought for and won a Canada that would provide opportunities for all its citizens."-- Provided by publisher.

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Trailblazers : The Black pioneers who have shaped Canada

Trailblazers : The Black pioneers who have shaped Canada

Ridley-Padmore, Tiyahna.
2020

Introduces readers to Canada's Black history.

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