Black Canadian
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Black Canadian is a term used to identify a Canadian of African descent. It is also becoming increasingly common to refer to a black Canadian as an African Canadian or Afro-Canadian. 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.
According to the 2001 Census, 662,215 Canadians identified themselves as black, approximately 2% of the entire Canadian population (Statistics Canada). The majority of black Canadians live in five 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 discrimination or unfair treatment sometimes or often in the five years prior to 2003.
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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. It was all but abolished 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 recent years an increasing number of immigrants from Africa have been coming to Canada. This includes large numbers of refugees, especially from Somalia, but also many skilled workers pursuing better economic conditions.
Notable Black Canadians, past and present
Actors and directors
- 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)
- 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)
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
- Jully Black, R&B/pop singer
- Kheaven Brereton, known professionally as k-os, hip-hop musician
- 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")
- Dream Warriors, rap duo
- Jacksoul, singer
- Molly Johnson, rock and jazz vocalist
- Danko Jones, rock singer and guitarist
- Ghetto Concept, group from Rexdale, Ontario
- Orin Isaacs, bandleader (Open Mike with Mike Bullard, The Mike Bullard Show), musician and music producer
- Kardinal Offishall, rapper
- Moka Only, rapper of the Swollen Members
- Murray Lightburn, rock singer/songwriter (The Dears)
- 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
- 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, singer
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
- 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, amassed the highest-ever vote total in a Canadian election
- 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
- Carol Wall, social activist and labour leader
- Juanita Westmoreland-Traoré, first appointed black judge in the history of Quebec
- William A. White, only black officer of the No. 2 Construction Battalion
Writers and journalists
- Trey Anthony, playwright (Da Kink in my Hair)
- Arnold Auguste, Share newspaper publisher
- 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)
- Rita Deverell, broadcaster and journalist, founder of Vision TV
- Cecil Foster, novelist and academic
- Hamlin Grange, newspaper editor (Contrast), television reporter and news anchor and consultant
- Nalo Hopkinson, science fiction author
- Royson James, Toronto Star columnist
- Michaelle Jean, broadcaster
- 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
- 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
- Dan Hill, pop singer/songwriter
- Lawrence Hill, novelist and memoirist
- Jarome Iginla, NHL hockey star
- Amanda Marshall, pop singer/songwriter
- Juliette Powell, television host and the first black Miss Canada (1989)
- Tamia Washington, R&B singer and wife of NBA player Grant Hill
Related topics
- African American
- List of Canadians
- Slavery in Canada
- Underground Railroad
- African diaspora
- Africville
References
- Ethnic Diversity Survey (http://www.statcan.ca/english/sdds/4508.htm)de:Afrokanadier