Black History Month Tribute 2022 (2024)

Guest column-Windsor Star: Black history month 2022 reflection of how times have changed

Author of the article: Elise Harding-Davis

Publishing date: Feb 12, 2022

Fifty years ago black history was hardly noticed. Only a few forward thinking souls even espoused celebrating such a notion. Fast forward to February 2022. How times have changed! There is an entire month dedicated to Black History! August 1, 2021 saw The National Emancipation Celebrations become a day observing the abolition of slavery.

Through visionary deeds, determined and dedicated Windsor/Essex County African Canadians have showcased Black history. Cultural appreciation, enlightenment and understanding has slowly advanced. Glass ceilings shattered giving way to better jobs and housing opportunities. This progress did not come easily, nor is it as solidified as some would like. However, the landscape has truly been transformed.

Windsor/Essex County boasts municipally and provincially protected Black heritage sites, Museums and historic locations featuring Ontario Heritage Trust Plaques. National Historic figures, churches and buildings exist. Books have been written, movies, documentaries, videos, and webinars have been made. International Black Heritage Tours crisscross the Province. Sacred cemeteries have been rediscovered and preserved.

From Junior Kindergarten through post-secondary Colleges and Universities students are being taught and can source a myriad of substantiated African Canadian information. Currently, there is an initiative underway seeking World Heritage Status for the Detroit River acknowledging the fluid human migratory freedom movement via the Underground Railroad. Additionally, a cross-border Black Studies Curriculum has been created for 7thgrade Canadian and 8thgrade American students studying the Underground Railroad era. Youth will benefit, learning the international impact of these courageous Black freedom-seekers and those who assisted them while following the North Star.

The first week of Black History Month alone, yours truly was contacted by a Howard University Grad researching why American educator Mary McLeod Bethune visited Windsor, 1954. A Ottawa journalist/TV host reached out regarding violated Black communities. CBC called, preparing to launch an eight-part series on African Canadian History highlighting our influence on the progress of this nation.

My real goal is to give credence and show pride toward a lamentably incomplete list of local Black heritage trailblazers. Melvin and Betty Johnson Simpson co-founded the North American Black Historical Museum and Cultural Centre; Bryan Walls and uncles Allan and Winston founded The John Freeman Walls Historic Site. Glen Cook started the Lakeshore Black Heritage Committee. Nancy and James Allen began North Star Community Centre. Irene Moore Davis chairs the Essex County Black Historical Research Society succeeding her late mother Andrea Shreve Moore. Elise Harding-Davis and Shelley Harding-Smith founded DOES.-Descendants of Escaped Slaves. Additional, Black history advocates include Alvin McCurdy, Patricia Nelly McCurdy, Beulah Cuzzens, Jim Walls, Shantelle Browning-Morgan, Kaitlyn Ellsworth, Debra Laforet, Milo Johnson, Yvette Blackburn,, Freida Parker Steele, Sherrie Steele Sexton, Daphne Clarke, John and Scholastica Lyanga, Kenny Gbadebo, John Elliott, Philip Alexander Sr. and Jr., David Alexander, Henry White, Monty Logan, Angelique Davis Speros, Sybil Davis, Daphne Davis, Dolores Banks, Jo-Ann Jenkins Shreve, Fred Johnson, Lois Smith Larkin, Lana Talbot, Kim Elliott and J. Lyle Browning. We have all heralded Black History as Griots and fact-tellers in the schools, churches and our communities

Artists of Colour, including Helen Turner Brown, Dennis Smith, Susan C. Johnson, Robert Small, Phyllis Jackson Carter, Connie Lee Turner, Leslie McCurdy, and photographers Nicole Talbot and Brett Turner make graphic and dramatic imagery. Barbara Porter champions Black-Canadian Veterans. Glovanna Johnson chronicled Black United Empire Loyalists. Preston Chase produced an award-winning documentary our Walter Perry “Mr. Emancipation”. Celebration organizers who followed are Ted Powell, Ron Jones and Bradley Jones. Black Churches are History ongoing.

Amazing Black Canadians hold an irreplaceable place in the heritage saga in our region. We constitute “THE BLACK THREAD IN THE CANADIAN TAPESTRY”.

Elise Harding-Davis is a long time local Historian/Author/Educator/Lecturer