THE ROOTS OF BLACK HISTORY MONTH CELEBRATIONS IN NOVA SCOTIA

Editor’s Note / Historical Context:

The following text is reposted as originally written and shared courtesy of the Black Artists Network of Nova Scotia (BANNS). It documents the early, community-driven origins of Black History Month celebrations in Nova Scotia—before they became institutionalized or standardized—and highlights the grassroots leadership, youth organizing, and public library programming that helped shape how Black history came to be publicly marked across the province. The text appears below without edits, preserved for historical record and community memory.

THE ROOTS OF BLACK HISTORY MONTH CELEBRATIONS IN NOVA SCOTIA

In 1983, the staff leaders at the Halifax North Branch Library (Branch head Adelia Amyoony and Youth Worker Terry Symonds) invited David Woods, a young Halifax artist, writer and youth activist, to present a program of activities at the library under the banner of Black History Week (the celebration had not yet expanded to a full month).

Woods had been the founder of several Africentric youth groups in Halifax High Schools between 1978 and 1982 and in 1983 he organized the groups into an independent society called the Cultural Awareness Youth Group of Nova Scotia (CAYG).

One of CAYG activities had been the presentation of a Black History Week program at their respective high schools which was first initiated by the Dartmouth High School Black Youth Organization in 1978. The week included a Black History display, group cultural magazines, drama performance, guest speakers and Quest for Identity: A Black History quiz tournament among school groups.

Woods used many of the activities created for CAYG in his first public Black History Week presentation held at the Halifax North Branch Library in March 1984 including a pictorial display of Halifax history, a Black Histry quiz tournament, and drama performance.

Woods would serve as Black History Week and later Black History Month coordinator at the Halifax Public Library till 1993. In 1990 he oversaw the expansion of the month to a province wide celebration through the creation of a Black History Month Provincial Association.