Throughout the month of February, the staff and students at Bond Academy will be celebrating Black History Month, by exploring, learning, recognizing and appreciating the contributions of our African and Caribbean Canadians in Canadian history, society and culture, in the past and the present. Black History Month should be cited in our classrooms. We will also be referencing and acknowledging the contributions of Black leaders in the United States.

Resources for Teaching and Learning

1. The story of the community of Amber Valley

Learn the story of the community of Amber Valley, commemorated in this year’s Canada Post Black History Month stamps. It was one of several Alberta communities settled by Black people in the early 20th century, and the furthest north.

2. Discover how Sylvia Starklearned to Read In Secret 

Discover how Sylvia Starklearned to read in secret during a time that Black children were forbidden to read or write in the state of Missouri. Born into enslavement, Stark emigrated to British Columbiawith more than 600 Black Americans in 1858.

3. Listen to Lester Brown’s Testimony 

Lester Brown was a rifleman for the Queen’s Own Rifles during the Second World War. Listen to his testimony as he describes being injured days after landing in

Normandy , and discover more in The Memory Project’s Black Canadian Veterans gallery.

4. Africville 

Africville was founded in the mid-18th century but was demolished by the City of Halifax in the 1960s in what many said was an act of racism. For many people, Africville represents the oppression faced by Black Canadians, and the efforts to right historic wrongs.

5. First Black woman in Canada to be interventional cardiologist on being a 'double minority' 

6. Slide of Willie O'Ree