In 2022, a series of resources were shared for teaching and learning activities for Black History Month. This post builds on the initial post. These resources specifically speak to primary source collections that could be used for instruction with primary sources, in student research assignments, and more! We encourage you to take a look at these resources and join the conversation by suggesting additions!
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 History Month Honours Chloe Cooley – Canada Post
Black History Month Stamp honours Chloe Cooley
1619 Project
//Slanderous & nasty-minded mulattress//Co-founder http://idabwellssociety.org //smart&thuggish//Knight Chair //Creator #1619Project//
The mini-series, based on the book published in 2021, is available to watch in Canada in February:
https://www.howtowatch.ca/vod/watch-the-1619-project-in-canada/
Hannah-Jones, Nikole, and New York Times Company, eds. The 1619 Project: A New Origin Story. First edition. New York: One World, 2021.
Bradley, Mark Philip. “Inside the History Lab.” The American Historical Review 127, no. 4 (December 1, 2022): 1789–91. https://doi.org/10.1093/ahr/rhac460.
Gordon-Reed, Annette, Rose Stremlau, Malinda Lowery, Julie L. Reed, Joanne Barker, Daniel Sharfstein, Daryl Michael Scott, et al. “The 1619 Project Forum.” The American Historical Review 127, no. 4 (December 1, 2022): 1792–1873. https://doi.org/10.1093/ahr/rhac462.
Film Resources
David, Hubert. Black Ice, USA: September 10, 2022 running time: 1h 37m
Trailer: Black Ice Official Trailer (2019)
Canadian premiere, February 2023: https://www.bellmedia.ca/the-lede/press/tsn-and-crave-original-documentary-black-ice-from-uninterrupted-canada-premieres-february-2/
We are the Roots: Black Settlers and their Experiences of Discrimination on the Canadian Prairies tells the story of a wave of African American immigrants who moved to Alberta and Saskatchewan between 1905-1912 to escape racism and persecution in the United States. https://player.vimeo.com/video/257364347?title=0&portrait=0&badge=0
Historica Canada
Heritage Minute: Chloe Cooley. Historica Canada, 2022. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cLPMlNSQjOg.
Heritage Minute: Jackie Shane. Historica Canada, 2022. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NRUjX3_f22k.
Heritage Minute: Oscar Peterson, 2021. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7cdXEhR9dd4.
Heritage Minutes: Viola Desmond, 2016. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ie0xWYRSX7Y.
National Film Board of Canada: https://www.nfb.ca/channels/black-communities-canada-education/
Professional Development
“The PD sessions are a learning opportunity open to all Canadian teachers. They will be presented as a YouTube webinar with a live Q&A discussion in the chat. Come prepared to ask questions and share your comments. Each session will highlight an educational theme alongside NFB film(s) and resource(s).
In February, mark Black History month with these esteemed teacher presenters who will share their experiences using the study guide ‘Exploring Black Communities in Canada Through Film’:
Marie-Therese Awitor, in French on February 8 at 6pm EST
Natasha Henry-Dixon in English, on February 9, 12 noon EST.”
Assih, Gentille M. Into the Light. National Film Board of Canada, 2020. https://www.nfb.ca/film/into-the-light/.
Chartrand, Martine. Black Soul. National Film Board of Canada, 2000. https://www.nfb.ca/film/black_soul/.
Foggo, Cheryl. John Ware Reclaimed. National Film Board of Canada, 2020. https://www.nfb.ca/film/john-ware-reclaimed/.
Hamilton, Sylvia. Speak It! From the Heart of Black Nova Scotia. National Film Board of Canada, 1992. https://www.nfb.ca/film/speak_it_from_heart_of_black_nova_scotia/.
Hamilton, Sylvia, and Claire Prieto. Black Mother Black Daughter. Streaming. National Film Board of Canada, 1989. https://www.nfb.ca/film/black_mother_black_daughter/.
Mackenzie, Shelagh. Remember Africville. National Film Board of Canada, 1991. https://www.nfb.ca/film/remember-africville/.
Rankaduwa, Sandamini. Ice Breakers. National Film Board of Canada, 2019. https://www.nfb.ca/film/ice-breakers/.
Sobaz, Benjamin. Race Is a Four-Letter Word. National Film Board of Canada, 2006. https://www.nfb.ca/film/race_is_a_four-letter_word/.
St. Philip, Elizabeth. The Colour of Beauty. National Film Board of Canada, 2010. https://www.nfb.ca/film/colour_of_beauty/.
Sutherland, David, and Jennifer Holness. Speakers for the Dead. National Film Board of Canada, 2000. https://www.nfb.ca/film/speakers-for-the-dead/.
Thornhill, Dan. Black History Month 2015 Virtual Classroom: The Power of Mentoring, Diversity and Dreaming Big. National Film Board of Canada, 2015. https://www.nfb.ca/film/black_history_month_2015_virtual_classroom/.
Archival Resources
Beineck Library, Yale University
American Heartbreak: 1619 from Langston Hughes Papers (@BeineckeLibrary)
https://beinecke.library.yale.edu/collections/highlights/langston-hughes-papers
Concordia University – Black History Archives
Mills, Alexandra, Désirée Rochat, and Steven High. “Telling Stories from Montreal’s Negro Community Centre Fonds: The Archives as Community-Engaged Classroom.” Archivaria, May 10, 2020, 34–69.
Dr. Mark Campbell, Director (https://www.utsc.utoronto.ca/acm/mark-campbell)
NSHHA: Northside Hip Hop Archive is a digital collection of Canadian hip-hop history and Culture. https://www.nshharchive.ca/
Gilder Lehrman Institute: Resources for Black History Month
The resources that have been curated and made available for American history and include sources that focus on Frederick Douglass, specific resources from the Gilder Lehrman Collection that are online (Inside the Vault), Black Live in the Founding Era, and History U courses that are self-paced courses in American history and African American history to high school students taught by top scholars. Book Breaks are another Institute program that are webinars with authors and free to anyone with a subscription and free to Affiliate Schools. The conversations are recorded. There are Hamilton Cast Read Alongs and resources and lesson plans for teachers.
Halifax Municipal Archives. Remembering Africville, Source Guide.
Images for Black History Month, Exploring the Alvin McCurdy Collection at the Archives of Ontario, http://www.archives.gov.on.ca/en/explore/online/alvin_mccurdy/index.aspx
Slavery, Abolition, Emancipation and Freedom Primary Sources from Houghton Library, Harvard University. This digital collection includes documentation on teaching this material.
https://curiosity.lib.harvard.edu/slavery-abolition-emancipation-and-freedom
Western University Archives: Black History related materials from Archives and Special Collections
Resources on the Web
CBC: Being Black in Canada – resources
https://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/beingblackincanada
Citing the Slavery Project, Black History Month, 2023
@CitingSlavery http://www.citingslavery.org/
The official twitter of the Citing Slavery Project. The Project provides a database of slave cases and the modern cases that continue to cite them as precedent.
British Columbia Black History Awareness Society
New Brunswick Black History Society
The Saskatchewan African Canadian Heritage Museum Inc.
Remembering Black Loyalists, Black Communities in Nova Scotia
Canadian Encyclopedia: Black History in Canada[i]
http://education.historicacanada.ca/en/tools/40
Researched and developed by Dr. Jennifer Kelly
Kelly, Jennifer. “And Still We Rise: A Black Presence in Alberta, late 1800s – 1970s.”
Library of Congress – Black History Month Resources
New Web Archive Collection Documents Protests Against Racism
National Museum of Arican American History and Culture – “Celebrate Black History Month, 2023 Black Resistance: A Journey to Equality.”
Washington Post Database of Congressional Slave Owners
Collected by: Schomburg Center for Research in Black Culture
Archived since: Oct, 2017
Inspired by the #Syllabi have been developed by educators, activists, organizations, and community members since 2014, the #Syllabus web archive collection aims to web archive Black-authored and Black-related educational resources to document Black studies, movements, and experiences in the twenty-first century.
Preferred Citation: [Item], Schomburg Center for Research in Black Culture, #Syllabus Web Archive Collection – Archive-It, The New York Public Library
Related Resource: https://www.nypl.org/spotlight/schomburg-syllabus
https://archive-it.org/collections/9674
Recent Publications
Black Women’s History Series, University of North Carolina Press
https://uncpress.org/black-womens-history/
Historians in focus, Podcast of the American Historical Association
https://www.historians.org/black-reconstruction
“Historian Elizabeth Hinton explores W.E.B. Du Bois’s 1935 magnum opus Black Reconstruction. We also hear from Eric Foner, Chad Williams, Sue Mobley, and Kendra Field. The AHR chose not to review Black Reconstruction when it was first published. A review by Hinton appears in the December 2022 issue.”
Hinton, Elizabeth. “‘The Last Great Battle of the West.’” The American Historical Review 127, no. 4 (December 1, 2022): 1909–15. https://doi.org/10.1093/ahr/rhac454.
Non-Fiction
Davis, Andrea. Horizon, Sea, Sound: Caribbean and African Women’s Cultural Critiques of Nation. Critical Insurgencies. Evanston, Illinois: Northwestern University Press, 2022.
Fischer, David Hackett. African Founders: How Enslaved People Expanded American Ideals. Simon & Schuster, 2022.
Johnson, Michele A., and Funké Aladejebi, eds. Unsettling the Great White North: Black Canadian History. Toronto Buffalo London: University of Toronto Press, 2021.
Jones, Martha S. Vanguard: How Black Women Broke Barriers, Won the Vote, and Insisted on Equality for All. First edition. New York: Basic Books, 2020.
Judd, Bettina. Feelin: Creative Practice, Pleasure, and Black Feminist Thought, 2022. https://bookshop.org/p/books/feelin-creative-practice-pleasure-and-black-feminist-thought-bettina-judd/18481467.
Kendi, Ibram X., and Keisha N. Blain, eds. Four Hundred Souls: A Community History of African America, 1619-2019. New York: One World, 2021.
Laely, Thomas, Marc Meyer, Raphael Schwere, Universität Zürich, and Schweizerische Gesellschaft für Afrikastudien, eds. Museum Cooperation between Africa and Europe: A New Field for Museum Studies. Museum, volume 33. Bielefeld : Kampala: Transcript ; Fountain Publishers, 2018.
Schalk, Sami. Black Disability Politics. Durham, NC: Duke University Press, 2022.
Thompson, Cheryl. Uncle. Coach House Books, 2021. https://chbooks.com/Books/U/Uncle.
Vernon, Karina, ed. The Black Prairie Archives: An Anthology. Waterloo, Ontario, Canada: Wilfrid Laurier University Press, 2020.
Williams, Kidada E. I Saw Death Coming: A History of Terror and Survival in the War Against Reconstruction, 2023. https://bookshop.org/p/books/i-saw-death-coming-a-history-of-terror-and-survival-in-the-war-against-reconstruction-kidada-e-williams/17306273.
Works of Fiction
Edugyan, Washington. Washington Black: A Novel. Toronto: HarperCollins Publishers, 2018.
Ekwuyasi, Francesca. Butter Honey Pig Bread. Vancouver, BC, Canada: Arsenal Pulp Press, 2021.
Mayr, Suzette. The Sleeping Car Porter. Coach House Books, 2022. https://chbooks.com/Books/T/The-Sleeping-Car-Porter.
Murray, Sheila. Finding Edward. Ferndale: Cormorant Books Inc, 2022.
Thomas, Kai. In the Upper Country: A Novel. Penguin Canada, 2023.
Twitter | Social Media
Black Studies at Queen’s University
Black Women’s Studies Association
“Every day during February, we’re going to feature a different book in the field of Black Women’s Studies. Follow along in this thread to find classic and new reads!”
Cheryl Thompson @DrCherylT drcherylthompson.com
Black Perspectives @BlkPerspectives #BlackPerspectives is the award-winning blog of the African American Intellectual #History Society (@AAIHS). Subscribe today:
blackgirlarchivist @blkgrlarchivist
Archivist. Activist. Storyteller. Founder, Project STAND http://standarchives.com Only My Thoughts. Creator of reparative archive framework. Protected by my ancestors!
tonia sutherland @toniasutherland
thinker. writer. lover. scholar of archives, digital cultures. island girl. she/her. @centerforcrds
Bergis Jules @BergisJules
Work with @shift_collectivand @documentnow| Archivist | Immigrant | Still trying to get a PhD at @ucriverside shiftcollective.us
Foundation For Black Communities @FdnBlkComm forblackcommunities.org
[i] These links are from Erica Hernandez-Read, “President’s Message” Scope and Content, 4,2 February 2023.