Black History Month
Join us in February as we celebrate Black History Month in Calgary. This month is dedicated to recognizing the significant contributions and rich cultural heritage of Black Canadians. Through various events, educational programs, and community activities, The City of Calgary aims to honour the past, acknowledge the present, and inspire a future of inclusivity and equality. Participate in city-wide observances, explore the stories of Black pioneers, and engage with the vibrant Black culture that continues to shape our community.
Why Black History Month is Important in Canada
Around 3.5% of Calgarians self-identify as Black. This community is a mosaic of different shades and backgrounds. In fact in the last Census, Canada’s Black population identified with more than 300 ethnic and cultural origins. Despite these differences, many share similar experiences of racial discrimination and a common journey towards belonging in an authentic and dignified way. This quest to belong is not unique to Black people and can be common ground on which all Calgarians can come together to celebrate Black history.
Black History Month is an opportunity to highlight not only the accomplishments and contributions of Black Canadians, but also the lived and living experiences of systemic racism. Studies show Black Canadians do not have access to the same opportunities as other Canadians. This is systemic discrimination, and it impacts the wellbeing and livelihoods of Black Canadians every day and every year. The City of Calgary is committed to actively dismantling systemic racism that affects the lives of Indigenous, Black and diverse Racialized Peoples. Visit Calgary's commitment to anti-racism for more information on The City’s Anti-Racism Program.
"There is no one way to honour Black History Month. To some, BHM is celebrated, for others, BHM is for mourning. Black History Month is a complex commemoration because it brings light to and honours the stories of Black Canadians in a time when history is being re-written by those with such a short memory. Canada, like much of the Western world, was designed on the premise of European superiority and despite the pernicious myth of Canadian exceptionalism, we too built a nation where our culture and laws discriminate against marginalized people. To commit to Black History Month is to commit to never fall victim to the short memories that plague progress. To commit to Black History month is to remember. As marginalized people – Indigenous, Black, and all racialized people – pursue justice and equal opportunity, Black History Month is a dedication for those stories to be told, to be mourned, and to be remembered." Councillor Courtney Walcott
Explore events and resources
Events
Events
CCDI Webinar: Black History Month - Panel
February 4th, 2025
Join our webinar to explore the differences between commemorating and memorializing Black History Month. Engage with leaders to discuss how Black history shapes culture, activism, and legacy, and how we can honor it daily.
Honouring the Past, Inspiring the Future: Celebrating Black Women in Alberta
February 6th, 2025
Join the Women’s Centre of Calgary for an evening with Cheryl Foggo, a renowned playwright, author, and filmmaker. Discover the contributions of Black women in Calgary and Alberta.
Annual Black History Month Dinner
February 7th, 2025
Join us at Heritage Park for the Annual Black History Month Dinner, celebrating Black excellence with music, dance, and art. Enjoy a 3-course meal, live auction, and exciting prizes, while supporting the Calgary Black Chambers Scholarship Fund.
Re-presenting the Lives and Language of Black Cowboys
February 9th, 2025
Discover the rich Black history of the Canadian prairies with Bertrand Bickersteth, who will share his research on Black Cowboys in Alberta and its influence on his poetry. Join us for an insightful talk with the Chinook Country Historical Society.
Black History Month Storytime with Cheryl Foggo and Miranda Martini
February 9th, 2025
Join us for a special Black History Month Storytime for a reading of Howdy, I’m John Ware and other stories, songs, and finger plays the whole family can enjoy. Enjoy a Q and A about John Ware with Cheryl Foggo and a musical performance by Miranda Martini.
Black History Month Documentary Review of Deeply Rooted
February 12th, 2025
Join hosts Hugh Baker and Efua Ukuwelah for a screening of the 23-minute documentary Deeply Rooted, exploring Cazhhmere’s experience as a seventh-generation Black Canadian.
Ethnik Festival of Arts & Culture
February 21 - 22, 2025
Join us for the Annual Ethnik Festival of Arts and Culture, a two-day celebration of Black History and Excellence. Experience the vibrant cultural heritage of Afro-Canadian and Caribbean communities through art, music, and performances by local and international artists.
Black History Month: Celebrating Black Culture at MRU
February 27th, 2025
Join our EDI Conversations that Matter events, part of MRU’s strategy for inclusive community engagement. This series, running throughout the academic year, aims to develop a comprehensive, action-oriented Equity, Diversity, and Inclusion (EDI) framework.
Movies
Movies
Twelve Years a Slave
In the antebellum United States, Solomon Northup, a free black man from upstate New York, is abducted and sold into slavery.
The Six Triple Eight
855 women joined the fight to fix the three-year backlog of undelivered mail during World War II.
Hidden Figures
Three female African American mathematicians deal with racial and gender discrimination at work while playing a pivotal role in astronaut John Glenn's launch into orbit.
Woman King
A historical epic inspired by true events that took place in The Kingdom of Dahomey, one of the most powerful states of Africa in the 18th and 19th centuries.
Selma
The story of Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.'s campaign to secure equal voting rights through the 1965 march from Selma to Montgomery, Alabama.
The Color Purple
A woman faces many hardships in her life, but ultimately finds extraordinary strength and hope in the unbreakable bonds of sisterhood.
TILL
In 1955, after Emmett Till is murdered in a brutal lynching, his mother vows to expose the racism behind the attack while working to have those involved brought to justice.
The Butler
The story of Cecil Gaines, the butler at the White House. Serving eight presidents, his tenure was during the civil rights movement and the Vietnam war.
Black Panther
The heir to the hidden but advanced kingdom of Wakanda steps forward to lead his people into a new future and must confront a challenger from his country's past.
Books
Books
Excerpts on recommendations are included to provide more information.
The Skin We're In: A Year of Black Resistance and Power
Author: Desmond Cole
Chronicling just one year in the struggle against racism in this country, The Skin We're In reveals in stark detail the injustices faced by Black Canadians on a daily basis: the devastating effects of racist policing, the hopelessness produced by an education system that fails Black children, the heartbreak of those separated from their families by discriminatory immigration laws, and more. Cole draws on his own experiences as a Black man in Canada, and locates the deep cultural, historical, and political roots of each event. What emerges is a personal, painful, and comprehensive picture of entrenched, systemic inequality.
Policing Black Lives: State Violence in Canada from Slavery to the Present
Author: Robyn Maynard
Delving behind Canada's veneer of multiculturalism and tolerance, Policing Black Lives traces the violent realities of anti-blackness from the slave ships to prisons, classrooms and beyond. Robyn Maynard provides readers with the first comprehensive account of nearly four hundred years of state-sanctioned surveillance, criminalization and punishment of Black lives in Canada.
Washington Black Paperback
Author: Esi Edugyan
When two English brothers arrive at a Barbados sugar plantation, they bring with them a darkness beyond what the slaves have already known. Washington Black – an eleven-year-old field slave – is horrified to find himself chosen to live in the quarters of one of these men. But the man is not as Washington expects him to be. His new master is the eccentric Christopher Wilde – naturalist, explorer, inventor and abolitionist – whose obsession to perfect a winged flying machine disturbs all who know him. Washington is initiated into a world of wonder: a world where the night sea is set alight with fields of jellyfish, where a simple cloth canopy can propel a man across the sky, where even a boy born in chains may embrace a life of dignity and meaning – and where two people, separated by an impossible divide, can begin to see each other as human.
Videos
Videos
Proud of our History - Black History Month
No. 2 Construction Battalion - Black History Month
Victoria Rifles - Black History Month
William Hall - Black History Month
Wade In The Water - Black History Month
Harriet Tubman - Black History Month
Elijah McCoy - Black History Month
The War of 1812 - Black History Month
History of Black People in Canada
Black people have lived in Canada since the 1600's, and yet very little is known about their lives, challenges, and contributions to Canadian society. The earliest record of a Black person in Canada is that of an enslaved six-year-old boy from Madagascar or Guinea who lived in New France. He was brought there by British traders (Kirk brothers) in 1629 and sold to Olivier le Bailiff who gifted the boy to Guillaume Couillard. The boy was baptized Olivier le Jeune in 1633. We do not know what the boy’s African name was, his real-life experiences, or his contributions to society.
Black history is important because it is interconnected in many ways to the lives and histories of Indigenous Peoples and other Canadians across generations. Despite the 1911 immigration ban on Black people, several early Black settlers in Alberta give testimony of the hospitality and assistance they received from Indigenous Peoples and European settlers.
CBC’s Black on the Prairies and the documentary We Are the Roots: Black Settlers and their Experiences of Discrimination on the Canadian Prairies provide insights on how these Black pioneers grappled with racism and segregation and contributed to the Canadian mosaic of diverse races and cultures. Communities like Campsie, Amber Valley, Junkins (Breton) were largely by Black settlers from the US who were specifically placed in these communities by the municipal urban planning policies of that time.
Some of the notable descendants of these Black settlers include Violet King (the first Black woman to graduate in law in 1954) and her brother Ted King who was a trailblazer for human rights advocacy in Calgary in the 1950’s. Oliver Bowen, born in 1942 in Amber Valley, is known for designing Calgary’s first light rail transit system, but little is known about his life at Amber Valley or how the 1911 immigration ban systemically led to the depopulation of his hometown.
Secret Alberta: The Former Life of Amber Valley
Resources
- Government of Canada: Black History Month
- Government of Alberta: Black History Month
- Black Canadian heroes who have paved the way for future generations
- Three Black Calgarians who changed Calgary's history
- Black Communities in Alberta: Interviews with people from Black Communities in Alberta
- University of Calgary: Taking Action Against Anti-Black Racism