That Hockey Photo Keeps Circulating. Let’s Get the History Right.
A photo from the Colored Hockey League of the Maritimes often circulates online with the claim that runaway slaves invented ice hockey in Canada. The image is real, the caption is not. Here’s why the timeline, geography, and documented history tell a more accurate and more powerful story about Black hockey in Nova Scotia.
African Nova Scotian community, church leaders mourn Rev. Jesse Jackson
African Nova Scotian journalists, clergy, and community leaders reflect on Rev. Jesse Jackson’s 2009 visit to Nova Scotia in this Yahoo News–published Canadian Press article by Lyndsay Armstrong, revisiting his time at the Black Cultural Centre for Nova Scotia and its lasting local significance. Jackson died Tuesday in Chicago at age 84.
THE ROOTS OF BLACK HISTORY MONTH CELEBRATIONS IN NOVA SCOTIA
Before Black History Month became a province-wide fixture in Nova Scotia, it was built through grassroots organizing, youth leadership, and public library programming. This historical account—originally shared by the Black Artists Network of Nova Scotia (BANNS / BANS)—documents the early origins of Black History Week and the community-driven efforts that helped expand it into what it is today. Preserved here as originally written, the text offers a reminder that Black History Month in Nova Scotia was shaped from the ground up, long before it was institutionalized.
The origin of Truro’s Black community
First published in 2000, this article by Donna Byard Sealey traces the origins of Truro’s Black community from the arrival of Black Loyalists in Nova Scotia through the growth of families, institutions, and traditions that sustained the community over generations.
Mapping Black Canada: Donna Paris on Migration, Memory, and Erased Communities [VIDEO]
From Africville to the Prairies, Donna Paris traces the Black communities Canada encouraged, exploited, and then erased. In this interview, she explains why recovering these stories isn’t about nostalgia — it’s about correcting the record.
The Unsung Hero of the Halifax Explosion: Dr. Clement Courtenay Ligoure (1887-1922)
Long before Halifax rebuilt itself after the Explosion, Dr. Clement Ligoure was already doing the work—treating the injured by lamplight from a small private hospital on North Street. He never turned anyone away. He never closed his doors. And yet, for decades, his name was missing from the city’s official memory of that day.
1st Miss Black Canada crowned 25 years ago this week
25 years ago on this date in Toronto I became the 1st Miss Black Canada. At age 18 no one expected this Scotian girl would take home the crown but I got the judges with my public speaking. Contestants would ask me where I was from as they were from the islands or African countries. Had to give them a history lesson about African Nova Scotians (We Been Here 400 +). Scotian for the win! ?✊?
iZrEAL performs ‘Black Scotians’ in Brixton, London, Aug 18. [VIDEO]
Black Scotians by iZrEAL Jones, performed at Posh Tatoes open mic in Brixton, London, England on Aug. 18, 2013.
Event hosted by Adelaide Mackenzie. Filmed by Aqa Asusa Maak Ra.
www.Blessedsouluk.co.uk
Weymouth Falls receives community spirit award alongside reunion celebration [VIDEO]
On Aug. 5, 2023, the historic African Nova Scotian community of Weymouth Falls is receiving the Lieutenant Governor’s Community Spirit Award.
Weymouth Falls was selected for the award in 2022, but the ceremony was delayed so it could happen alongside the community’s biennial reunion celebrations — the first since the COVID-19 pandemic began.
Nova Scotia Black artist, historian hopes Secret Codes quilt exhibit inspires younger generations
An artist and Black historian says he hopes an exhibit of African Nova Scotian quilts inspires a new generation to take up “a dying craft in the Black community.”
David Woods is the curator of the exhibit titled The Secret Codes, which is currently on display at the Dalhousie Art Gallery in Halifax. The exhibit features works from over two dozen predominately African Nova Scotian painters and quilters.
While the exhibit runs until Aug. 6, the gallery will host other events for Emancipation Day on Aug. 1 and Aug. 2. Those events will include a curator’s talk, a guided tour with Heather Cromwell of the Vale Quilters Association whose work is featured in the exhibit, and a “family quilts gathering” where people are invited to bring in their quilts to share stories about them.