Black Canadian
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia.
The term Black Canadian refers to Canadian citizens who are of African descent. Black Canadians for the most part have recent origins in the Caribbean region, and to a lesser extent Africa and even Latin America. Some Black Canadians, like those in Nova Scotia, trace their ancestry to freed black American slaves who fled to Canada seeking refuge from American slavery and institutional racism.
Some people may also refer to black Canadians as Afro-Canadian or African-Canadian, although this term is not as prevalent as African-American in the United States. Caribbean-Canadian may also be used to refer to black Canadians of Caribbean birth or heritage, who form a much larger proportion of the black population in Canada than in the United States — in fact, over a third of Canada's black population is of Jamaican origin alone. Many Caribbean-Canadians strongly object to "African-Canadian" as obscuring their own culture and history, which partially accounts for the term's less prevalent use in Canada. More specific national terms such as Jamaican-Canadian, Haitian-Canadian or Nigerian-Canadian may also be used.
To date, however, there is no widely-used alternative to "black Canadian" which is accepted by both the African-Canadian and Caribbean-Canadian communities as an umbrella term for the group as a whole. A black Canadian, however, should never be referred to as "African-American".
According to the 2001 census, 662,215 Canadians identified themselves as black (of which 70 000 are mixed with other races), approximately two per cent of the entire Canadian population (Statistics Canada). The majority of black Canadians live in five major Canadian cities. As of 2001, Toronto, Montreal, Ottawa, Vancouver and Halifax were home to approximately 78.4 percent of all black Canadians.
Many black Canadians still face challenges. According to the Ethnic Diversity Survey that was released in September 2003, nearly one-third (32%) of blacks said that they had experienced some form of racial discrimination or unfair treatment sometimes or often in the five years prior to 2003.
On September 27, 2005, former broadcaster Michaëlle Jean was installed as Canada's newest Governor General. Jean, a Canadian citizen of Haitian origin and birth, is the first black person in Canadian history appointed to the position.
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Black immigration
Black people arrived in Canada in several waves of immigration. The first of these was a large group who came to Nova Scotia after the American War of Independence. About 2000 of these were the slaves of white United Empire Loyalists. A larger group, about 3500, were freemen, many just recently freed by British authorities.
Canada was not suited to the large-scale agricultural slavery practiced in the United States and slavery became increasingly uncommon. In 1793, in one of the first acts of the new Upper Canada colonial parliament, slavery was abolished. It was all but abolished throughout the other British North American colonies by 1800, and was completely illegal throughout the British Empire after 1834. This made Canada an attractive destination for those fleeing slavery in the United States. From the 1830s until the American Civil War began in 1861 the Underground Railroad brought tens of thousands of fleeing slaves to Canada, while many of these returned to the United States after emancipation a significant population remained, largely in Southern Ontario. A wave of black immigration to British Columbia coincided with that colony's gold rush of 1858, when half of the black population of San Francisco migrated to and settled in Victoria.
The next important period of migration was part of a general movement of Americans into the Canadian west in the early twentieth century. This included a significant number of blacks known as the Exodusters. At this point in Canada there were strong concerns about non-white immigration and the government attempted to limit black migration.
Restrictions on immigration remained until 1962 when racial rules were eliminated from the immigration laws. This coincided with the dissolution of the British Empire in the Caribbean, and over the next decades several hundred thousand blacks came from that region to Canada.
In the last couple of decades an increasing number of immigrants from Africa have been coming to Canada, as is the case with the U.S and Europe. This includes large numbers of refugees, but also many skilled workers pursuing better economic conditions. Today's black Canadians are largely of Caribbean origin, some of African origin (especially, but not exclusively, from Somalia) and smaller numbers from Latin American countries, but a sizable number of black Canadians descended from freed American slaves can still be found in the province of Nova Scotia and parts of Southwestern Ontario. However some descendants from the freed American black slaves, have mixed into the white Canadian community and have mostly lost their identity.
Where Canadian blacks come from:
- Jamaica: 250,000 or 37.7%
- Haiti: 154,000 or 22.9%
- other Caribbean: 150,000 or 22.6%
- African: 108,000 or 16.8%
Canada's blacks are diverse in religious belief. The vast majority of them are Christian, mostly African United Baptist, African Methodist Episcopal, and Roman Catholic.
Notable Black Canadians, past and present
Actors and directors
- Clark Johnson, actor (Homicide: Life on the Street)
- Kandyse McClure, actress (Battlestar Galactica)
- Tyrone Parsons, actor (Trailer Park Boys)
- Gloria Reuben, actress (ER)
- Alison Sealy-Smith, actress (This is Wonderland)
- Clement Virgo, director
- Stephen Williams, director
- Tonya Lee Williams, longtime actress on The Young and the Restless
- Maurice Dean Wint, actor
Athletes
- Donovan Bailey, first Canadian to win an Olympic gold medal in the 100m sprint (1996 Atlanta)
- Emery Barnes (see under Politicians)
- Herb Carnegie star of Quebec professional hockey league
- Anson Carter, NHL star
- Michael "Pinball" Clemons, Toronto Argonauts head coach, former star player and former president
- George Dixon, first black world boxing champion in any weight class
- Robert Esmie, Olympic gold medalist 4x100 relay (Atlanta 1996)
- Perdita Felicien, Olympic athlete
- Rick Fox, NBA player
- Glenroy Gilbert, Olympic gold medalist 4x100 relay (Atlanta 1996)
- Daniel Igali, Olympic gold medalist in wrestling (Sydney, 2000)
- Jarome Iginla, National Hockey League All-Star and Olympic Gold Medalist (Salt Lake, 2002)
- Harry Jerome, runner and first Canadian to hold an official world track and field record
- Ferguson Jenkins, Major League Baseball star and first Canadian elected to the Baseball Hall of Fame
- Ben Johnson, Olympic sprinter disqualified in 1988 drug scandal
- Kirk Johnson, boxer
- Rocky Johnson, professional wrestler (also father of actor/wrestler The Rock)
- Jamaal Magloire, NBA player
- Willie O'Ree, first black hockey player in the National Hockey League
- Bruny Surin, Olympic gold medalist 4x100 relay (1996 Atlanta)
- Kevin Weekes, NHL goalie
Musicians
- Toya Alexis, R&B/pop singer and Canadian Idol season 1 finalist
- Lillian Allen, dub poet
- Gary Beals, pop singer and Canadian Idol season 1 first runner-up
- Salome Bey, jazz, blues and gospel singer
- Jully Black, R&B/pop singer
- Kheaven Brereton, known professionally as k-os, hip-hop musician
- Divine Brown, R&B/soul singer and musical theatre performer
- Bruce B rapper, founder of RAW Records
- Choclair, rapper
- Jarvis Church, singer (The Philosopher Kings and solo) and music producer (Nelly Furtado)
- Deborah Cox, pop/R&B singer, holds the record for the longest-running #1 single ("Nobody's Supposed to be Here") in the history of Billboard magazine's R&B charts
- Robert Nathaniel Dett, composer
- Devon, hip-hop musician ("Mr. Metro")
- Alpha Yaya Diallo, musician
- Dream Warriors, rap duo
- Ghetto Concept, group from Rexdale, Ontario
- Orin Isaacs, bandleader (Open Mike with Mike Bullard, The Mike Bullard Show), musician and music producer
- Jacksoul, singer
- Molly Johnson, rock and jazz vocalist
- Danko Jones, rock singer and guitarist
- Kardinal Offishall, rapper
- Murray Lightburn, rock singer/songwriter (The Dears)
- Moka Only, rapper of the Swollen Members
- Maestro, hip-hop musician, first Canadian rapper to have a Top 40 hit
- Oscar Peterson, jazz pianist
- Prevail, rapper of the Swollen Members
- Rascalz, rap group
- Jackie Richardson, jazz, blues and gospel singer
- Shakura S'Aida, jazz and blues singer
- Liberty Silver, R&B and jazz singer
- Bobby Taylor and his band, The Vancouvers, a popular Motown act who were instrumental in getting The Jackson 5 signed to the label and produced the earliest Jackson 5 records.
- Thrust, rapper
- Jackie Washington, blues musician
- Portia White, gospel singer
- d'bi young, dub poet
Politicians, public servants and soldiers
- Wayne Adams, Nova Scotia's first black MLA, Liberal
- Yvonne Atwell, Nova Scotia's first black woman MLA, NDP
- Jean Augustine, Member of Parliament and former cabinet minister
- Zanana Akande, former Ontario Member of Provincial Parliament and cabinet minister
- Lincoln Alexander, first black Member of Parliament in Canada and former Lieutenant Governor of Ontario
- George Bancroft, educator, civil servant and Ontario Human Rights Commissioner
- Emery Barnes, first black Speaker of the British Columbia Legislative Assembly and CFL defensive end
- Rosemary Brown, British Columbia legislator, and the first black woman to run for the leadership of a political party in Canada (the federal New Democratic Party)
- Mary Anne Chambers, Ontario Member of Provincial Parliament and cabinet minister
- Anne Cools, Canada's first black senator
- Alvin Curling, Ontario Member of Provincial Parliament and Speaker of the Legislature of Ontario
- Rob Davis, former York and Toronto city councillor
- Gordon Earle, former NDP Member of Parliament for Halifax West
- Jay Hope, senior officer in the Ontario Provincial Police
- William P. Hubbard, former Toronto alderman, controller and acting mayor
- Ovid Jackson, former Member of Parliament and former mayor of Owen Sound
- Marlene Jennings, first black woman from Quebec to be elected to Parliament
- Maka Kotto, black author and actor from Quebec elected to Canadian Parliament in 2004 (Bloc Quebecois, independentist party)
- Daurene Lewis, first black woman mayor in North America
- Howard McCurdy, Member of Parliament and the first black male to run for the leadership of a political party (the federal New Democratic Party)
- Burr Plato, town councillor for Niagara Falls (1886-1901)
- Calvin Ruck, senator
- Bev Salmon, former North York city councillor
- Michael Thompson, current Toronto city councillor
- Carol Wall, social activist and labour leader
- Juanita Westmoreland-Traoré, first appointed black judge in the history of Quebec
- Bill White, musician and the first black person to run as a candidate for political office in Canada
- William A. White, only black officer of the No. 2 Construction Battalion
Writers, journalists and broadcasters
- Trey Anthony, playwright (Da Kink in my Hair)
- Arnold Auguste, Share newspaper publisher
- George Boyd, playwright
- Dionne Brand, author
- Austin Clarke, novelist (The Polished Hoe, Growing Up Stupid Under the Union Jack)
- George Elliott Clarke, poet and playwright (Whylah Falls, George and Rue)
- Afua Cooper, poet and historian
- Rita Deverell, broadcaster and journalist, founder of Vision TV
- Rosey Edeh, ET Canada reporter and former MSNBC meteorologist
- Natasha Eloi, Space: The Imagination Station science reporter
- Cecil Foster, novelist and academic
- Hamlin Grange, newspaper editor (Contrast), television reporter and news anchor and consultant
- Nalo Hopkinson, science fiction author
- Marci Ien, Canada AM and CTV Newsnet anchor
- Royson James, Toronto Star columnist
- Namugenyi Kiwanuka, Rogers Sportsnet basketball commentator and former MuchMusic VJ
- Darren Osborne, radio personality
- Mairuth Sarsfield, novelist (No Crystal Stair)
- Djanet Sears, playwright (Adventures of a Black Girl in Search of God)
- Mary Ann Shadd, first female newspaper publisher
- Sylvia Sweeney, television broadcaster (W5)
- Ken Wiwa, journalist and author, and son of executed Nigerian political prisoner Ken Saro-Wiwa
Other historical figures
- Anderson Ruffin Abbott, became, in 1861, the first Black Canadian physician.
- Marie-Joseph Angélique, executed for setting fire to Montreal
- Rubin "Hurricane" Carter, African-American boxer controversially convicted of murder, now a Canadian activist and speaker
- William Hall, first Canadian and first black person to be awarded the Victoria Cross
- Josiah Henson, former slave, believed to be the inspiration for the novel Uncle Tom's Cabin.
- Denham Jolly, entrepreneur and founder of Milestone Radio and Flow 93.5 Toronto
- Olivier Le Jeune, believed to have been the first slave purchased in what later became Quebec
- Lesra Martin, crown attorney and speaker, involved in his youth in freeing Rubin Carter
- Elijah McCoy, origin of "the real McCoy", inventor
- John Ware, former slave, Alberta cowboy
Multiracial Canadians
Multiracial refers to people who are of mixed racial heritage.
There are a number of famous Canadians who are of mixed African/Caucasian or African/Asian descent.
Author Lawrence Hill published a bestselling memoir of his experiences as a multiracial Canadian, Black Berry, Sweet Juice: On Being Black and White in Canada, in 2001.
- Malcolm Azania, writer and activist
- Keshia Chante, singer
- Rae Dawn Chong, actor
- Fefe Dobson, rock singer
- James Douglas, early governor of Vancouver Island
- Grant Fuhr, former NHL hockey star and member of the Hockey Hall of Fame
- Anais Granofsky, actor (Degrassi)
- Dan Hill, pop singer/songwriter
- Lawrence Hill, novelist and memoirist
- Jarome Iginla, NHL hockey star
- Michael Lee-Chin, business leader
- Amanda Marshall, pop singer/songwriter
- Tessa McWatt, novelist
- Juliette Powell, television host and the first black Miss Canada (1989)
- Makyla Smith, actress (Queer as Folk)
- Tamia Washington, R&B singer and wife of NBA player Grant Hill
See also
References
- Ethnic Diversity Survey
- Memoirs of the Life of Boston King, A Black Preacher, eighteenth-century autobiography of Black Loyalist and Nova Scotia minister Boston King