This week, Black History Month will be celebrated and commemorated with in-person and online events. This is part 1 of a 2-part blog on learning and teaching resources.
Do you have other suggestions for works that could be included on this list? We’d love to hear them! Let us know by tagging @CndHistAssoc on Twitter and using the hashtag #CHATeachingResourcesChat
Black Canadian history and Black studies symposium: Unsettling the Great White North
This two-day symposium, organized by Funké Aladejebi and Michele Johnson will provide opportunities to build on the work published in the collection, “Unsettling the Great White North.”[i]
On Feb. 2-3, the University of Toronto and York University will host a collaborative two-day symposium entitled “Unsettling the Great White North: Re/Viewing, Re/Visioning, and Re/Imagining Black Canada.” Scholars from across Canada and the United States will present on themes designed to engage both participants and audiences in the latest debates, research and theories informing Black Canadian history and Black studies.
Photo credit: Chantal Gibson, Redacted Text 2019.
Image: Unsettling the Great White North: Re/Viewing, Re/Visioning, and Reimagining Black Canada. Four red books stacked with black graduation cap inserted in the top book.
Schalk, Sami. Black Disability Politics. Durham, NC: Duke University Press, 2022.
Disability History Podcast: Episode 39 (January 2023): Black Disability Politics
Guest host Emma Wathen interviews Sami Schalk about her new book, Black Disability Politics.
Episode Image: Cover of Black Disability Politics by Sami Schalk. The words are a faint yellow color set against a black background, with red horizontal bars above and below the title “Black Disability Politics.”
Schalk, Sami. “Critical Disability Studies as Methodology.” Lateral 6, no. 1 (2017). https://doi.org/10.25158/L6.1.13. https://csalateral.org/issue/6-1/forum-alt-humanities-critical-disability-studies-methodology-schalk/
Archival Resources
Background Document Provided by the Archives of Ontario
After American abolitionist, writer and statesman Frederick Douglass passed away in 1895, African American communities gathered to celebrate his birthday every year on February 14. These memorials offered a space for reflection on the past and the questions of today. Douglass Day was one of the origins of Black History Month. In 2017, Douglass Day was revived as an annual day for preserving Black history.
Douglass Day is an annual event curated by the Centre for Black Digital Research at Penn State University. It is principally a transcribe-a-thon aimed at creating new digital resources for African American history each year. All materials created are made free and open to all. Douglass Day 2023 will be a first-time collaboration with institutions in Canada. The Archives of Ontario (AO) and Library and Archives Canada (LAC) are primary partners.
The focus of Douglass Day 2023 will be the records of Mary Ann Shadd Cary, including those recently donated to and digitized by the AO and records recently digitized by LAC. Participants will be invited to transcribe these records to make them more widely accessible.
The Mary Ann Shadd Cary fonds is an internationally significant collection that documents key moments in the life of Mary Ann Shadd Cary — an educator, feminist, abolitionist, author, suffragette, journalist and lawyer. In particular, the material offers insights into the years that she lived in Canada West (1851-1863).
Shadd Cary was born free on October 9, 1823 in Wilmington, Delaware to Abraham Doras Shadd and Harriet Parnell. 2023 will mark the 200th anniversary of her birth.
The AO has been a satellite partner of the Centre for Black Digital Research on a 2-year project entitled “Mary Ann Shadd Cary in the Here and Now,” of which Douglass Day is the capstone event. In addition, the AO is working with scholars and historians in both the United States and Canada on several events to commemorate the anniversary later in 2023.
Douglass Day will be held on February 14, from 12-3 pm. The AO will host students and other interested individuals in our classroom and will display original Mary Ann Shadd Cary records as part of our onsite programming. We will share social media posts and disseminate articles on a number of internal and external platforms. We are also communicating directly with stakeholders to build support for the event.
In 2022, Douglass Day was attended by 4,400 people in 85 locations. To date, over 5,100 people have registered to attend the 2023 event internationally.
Anyone interested in attending Douglass Day at AO should register here. You can also attend online from anywhere by registering on the Douglass Day website . The event will be streamed via YouTube. All transcription will be completed using Zooniverse.org.
For additional information on the Mary Ann Shadd Cary fonds, please see:
- Description of the Mary Ann Shadd Cary fonds (F 1409) at the Archives of Ontario
- Description of the Mary Ann Shadd Cary collection (MG24-K22) at Library and Archives Canada
You can learn more about Douglass Day on the Douglass Day website.
Government of Nova Scotia, African Heritage Month 2023
“Sea of Struggle: African Peoples from Shore to Shore”
https://www.ahm.bccnsweb.com/wp/home/
This website provides access to resources for supporting activities that align with the United Nations’ International Decade for People of African Descent (DPAD) 2015-2024. Resources recognize 52 historic African Nova Scotian communities that date back 200 years.
For further information, see the Government of Nova Scotia News release.
Freedman Bureau Search Portal
https://nmaahc.si.edu/explore/freedmens-bureau
@TranscribeSI – Smithsonian Transcription Centre
In the #FreedmensBureau Search Portal @NMAAHC
All 1.5+ million records have been digitized, thousands of names of freedmen and women have been indexed, and 418K pages (and counting) have been transcribed.
And, finally …
Teaching Resource – Sample Announcements for Black History Month in Canada
This resource consists of a series of information items that were designed to serve as in-class “announcements” over the course of Black History Month.
https://docs.google.com/document/d/15-D9G36nkp2rrxYMoMX8cCymtxXV-EtzwZoqSboBOxU/edit
[i] Michel A. Johnson and Funké Aladejebi, eds. Unsettling the Great White North: Black Canadian History. (Toronto Buffalo London: University of Toronto Press, 2021.)