Africville

Africville
Author: Shauntay Grant
Publisher: Groundwood Books Ltd
Total Pages: 19
Release: 2018-09-01
Genre: Juvenile Fiction
ISBN: 1773060449

Finalist for the Governor General’s Literary Award, Young People’s Literature – Illustrated Books When a young girl visits the site of Africville, in Halifax, Nova Scotia, the stories she’s heard from her family come to mind. She imagines what the community was once like — the brightly painted houses nestled into the hillside, the field where boys played football, the pond where all the kids went rafting, the bountiful fishing, the huge bonfires. Coming out of her reverie, she visits the present-day park and the sundial where her great- grandmother’s name is carved in stone, and celebrates a summer day at the annual Africville Reunion/Festival. Africville was a vibrant Black community for more than 150 years. But even though its residents paid municipal taxes, they lived without running water, sewers, paved roads and police, fire-truck and ambulance services. Over time, the city located a slaughterhouse, a hospital for infectious disease, and even the city garbage dump nearby. In the 1960s, city officials decided to demolish the community, moving people out in city dump trucks and relocating them in public housing. Today, Africville has been replaced by a park, where former residents and their families gather each summer to remember their community.

Africville

Africville
Author: Donald H. J. Clairmont
Publisher: Canadian Scholars’ Press
Total Pages: 340
Release: 1999
Genre: History
ISBN: 1551300931

In the mid 1960s the city of Halifax decided to relocate the inhabitants of Africville--a black community that had been transformed by civil neglect, mismanagement, and poor planning into one of the worst city slums in Canadian history. Africville is a sociological account of the relocation that reveals how lack of resources and inadequate planning led to devastating consequences for Africville relocatees. Africville is a work of painstaking scholarship that reveals in detail the social injustice that marked both the life and the death of the community. It became a classic work in Canadian sociology after its original publication in 1974. The third edition contains new material that enriches the original analysis, updates the account, and highlights the continuing importance of Africville to black consciousness in Nova Scotia.

Africville's Daughters: I Saw What You Have Done

Africville's Daughters: I Saw What You Have Done
Author: Sheila Flint
Publisher: Africville's Daughters
Total Pages: 98
Release: 2019-09-12
Genre: Biography & Autobiography
ISBN: 9781775090601

Sheila Flint was born in Halifax, Nova Scotia on the evening of October 29th, 1951. She was raised not far away in a part of Africville called Bigtown. She and her family enjoyed their life along the shores of Bedford Basin as anyone would - swimming, fishing, and building bonfires for cookouts. She enjoyed lobsters, crabs, mussels, and penny-winkles. This was the life she knew until 1966 when the city of Halifax rushed in with their long-standing plan for 'urban renewal' that would remove their families from their homes. Those affected suffered in numerous ways, including trauma, deaths, and separations of families - including Sheila's immediate family. Sheila and other children were bullied and treated unfairly by the school board because they were black. She endured pains that no girl should have to endure - but she has chosen to forgive and live a life of gratitude. After feeling lost in other people's thoughts and wants for her life, she has learned to choose her own destiny, not leaving it up to others to determine. She now lives in Montreal and has chosen to master whatever comes her way and feel inspired by those who truly care about her. In seeking out new challenges and enjoying her life, she's decided to write Africville's Daughters as her first project. This is an avenue by which she is freeing herself of all burdens and committing to achieving her goals. Sheila is moving past the bad memories to be able to live life and enjoy making new memories with her children and family that she has left.

Last Days in Africville

Last Days in Africville
Author: Dorothy Perkyns
Publisher: Dundurn
Total Pages: 120
Release: 2006-02-01
Genre: Juvenile Fiction
ISBN: 145971590X

In mid-1960s Halifax, 12-year-old Selina is growing up in a tightly knit community of African-Canadians whose days are numbered when ugly rumours surface about the fate of Africville.

Africville

Africville
Author: Shauntay Grant
Publisher: Groundwood Books Ltd
Total Pages: 33
Release: 2018-09-01
Genre: Juvenile Fiction
ISBN: 1773062840

Winner of the Marilyn Baillie Picture Book Award Winner of the Lillian Shepherd Memorial Award for Excellence in Illustration Finalist for a Governor General’s Literary Award, Young People’s Literature – Illustrated Books Finalist for a Ruth and Sylvia Schwartz Children’s Books Award When a young girl visits the site of Africville, in Halifax, Nova Scotia, the stories she’s heard from her family come to mind. She imagines what the community was once like —the brightly painted houses nestled into the hillside, the field where boys played football, the pond where all the kids went rafting, the bountiful fishing, the huge bonfires. Coming out of her reverie, she visits the present-day park and the sundial where her great- grandmother’s name is carved in stone, and celebrates a summer day at the annual Africville Reunion/Festival. Africville was a vibrant Black community for more than 150 years. But even though its residents paid municipal taxes, they lived without running water, sewers, paved roads and police, fire-truck and ambulance services. Over time, the city located a slaughterhouse, a hospital for infectious disease, and even the city garbage dump nearby. In the 1960s, city officials decided to demolish the community, moving people out in city dump trucks and relocating them in public housing. Today, Africville has been replaced by a park, where former residents and their families gather each summer to remember their community. Key Text Features historical context references Correlates to the Common Core State Standards in English Language Arts: CCSS.ELA-LITERACY.RL.K.6 With prompting and support, name the author and illustrator of a story and define the role of each in telling the story. CCSS.ELA-LITERACY.RL.1.3 Describe characters, settings, and major events in a story, using key details. CCSS.ELA-LITERACY.RL.1.4 Identify words and phrases in stories or poems that suggest feelings or appeal to the senses. CCSS.ELA-LITERACY.RL.1.7 Use illustrations and details in a story to describe its characters, setting, or events.

The Children of Africville

The Children of Africville
Author: Christine Welldon
Publisher:
Total Pages: 81
Release: 2009-10-19
Genre: Africville (Halifax, N.S.)
ISBN: 9781551097237

The children of Africville, Nova Scotia, lived in a special community where everyone knew their neighbours, and all helped and cared for each other. It was the perfect place for children to play and grow up. The Children of Africville is the remarkable story of these children during the community's final years, before it was torn down and its families were relocated. Full of photographs and stories from Africville people, this book is an important celebration of Nova Scotia black history, its vibrant community, and the children who lived there.

Black Ice

Black Ice
Author: George Robert Fosty
Publisher: Stryker-Indigo Publishing Company, Inc. New York
Total Pages: 263
Release: 2007
Genre: Sports & Recreation
ISBN: 0965116875

The Colored Hockey League of the Maritimes was formed in 1895 in Halifax, Nova Scotia, Canada. Comprised of the sons and the grandsons of runaway American slaves, the league helped pioneer the sport of ice hockey, changing this winter game from the primitive "gentleman's past-time" of the Nineteenth Century to the to the modern fast moving game of today. In an era when many believed Blacks could not endure cold, possessed ankles too weak to effectively skate, and lacked the intelligence for organized sport, these men defied the established myths. The Colored League was one of the most complex sports organizations ever created and was lead by Baptist ministers and church laymen. Natural leaders and proponents of Black Pride, these men represented a concept in spots never before seen. Their rule book was The Bible. Their game book, the coded words and oral history derived from the experiences of American slavery and the Underground Railroad. Their strategy, the principles and teachings of American Black leader Booker T. Washington (the founder of the Tuskegee Institute) and a believer in the concept of racial equality through racial separation. Twenty-five years before the Negro Baseball Leagues in the United States, and twenty-two years before the birth of the National Hockey League, the Colored League would emerge as a premier force in Canadian hockey and supply the resilience necessary to preserve a unique culture which exists to this day. Unfortunately their contributions were conveniently ignored, or simply stolen, as White teams and hockey officials, influenced by the Black league, copied elements of the Black style or sought to take self-credit for Black hockey innovations. Seven years of research has gone into this book. This is the first book ever written on the Colored Hockey League of the Maritimes.

Razing Africville

Razing Africville
Author: Jennifer Nelson
Publisher: University of Toronto Press
Total Pages: 201
Release: 2009-05-16
Genre: Social Science
ISBN: 1442691581

In the 1960s, the city of Halifax razed the black community of Africville under a program of urban renewal and 'slum clearance.' The city defended its actions by citing the deplorable living conditions in Africville, ignoring its own role in the creation of these conditions through years of neglect and the refusal of essential services. In the 1980s, the city created a park on Africville's former site, which has been a place of protest and commemoration for black citizens since its opening. As yet, however, the city has not issued a formal apology to Africville residents and has paid no further compensation. Razing Africville examines this history as the prolonged eviction of a community from its own space. By examining a variety of sources - urban planning texts, city council documents, news media, and academic accounts - Jennifer J. Nelson illustrates how Africville went from a slum to a problem to be solved and, more recently, to a public space in which past violence is rendered invisible. Reading historical texts as a critical map of decision-making, she argues that the ongoing measures taken to regulate black bodies and spaces amount to a 'geography of racism.' Through a geographic lens, therefore, she manages to analyse ways in which race requires space and how the control of space is a necessary component of delineating and controlling people. A much needed re-examination of an important historical example, Razing Africville applies contemporary spatial theory to the situation in Africville and offers critical observations about the function of racism.

Righting Canada's Wrongs: Africville

Righting Canada's Wrongs: Africville
Author: Gloria Ann Wesley
Publisher: James Lorimer & Company
Total Pages: 98
Release: 2021-08-17
Genre: Young Adult Nonfiction
ISBN: 1459416511

Beginning in the 18th century, Black men and women arrived from the U.S. and settled in various parts of Nova Scotia. In the 1800s, a small Black community had developed just north of Halifax on the shores of the Bedford Basin. The community became known as Africville and grew to about 400 people. Its residents fished, farmed, operated small retail stores and found work in the city. Jobs for Black people were hard to find, with many occupations blocked by racist practices. Women often worked as domestics and many men were train porters. A school and a church were the community’s key institutions. The City of Halifax located a number of undesirable industries in Africville but refused residents’ demands for basic services such as running water, sewage disposal, paved roads, street lights, a cemetery, public transit, garbage collection and adequate police protection. City planners developed urban renewal plans and city politicians agreed to demolish the community. Residents strongly opposed relocation, but city officials ignored their protests and began to seize and bulldoze the homes. In 1967, the church was demolished — in the middle of the night. This was a blow that signaled the end of Africville. In the 1970s, some community members organized and began working for an apology and compensation. In 2010, Halifax’s mayor made a public apology for the community’s suffering and mistreatment. Some former residents accepted this; others continued to campaign for restitution. This new edition documents the continued fight for compensation by community members and their descendants. The spirit and resilience of Africville lives on in new generations of African Nova Scotians.

Decolonial Daughter

Decolonial Daughter
Author: Lesley-Ann Brown
Publisher: Watkins Media Limited
Total Pages: 266
Release: 2018-05-15
Genre: Social Science
ISBN: 1912248107

A Trinidadian-American writer and activist explores motherhood, migration, and identity—and how it relates to land, imprisonment, and genocide for Black and Indigenous peoples. Having moved to Copenhagen, Denmark from Brooklyn over 18 years ago, Brown attempts to contextualize her and her son’s existence in a post-colonial and supposedly post-racial world, where the very machine of so-called progress has been premised upon the demise of her lineage. Through letters to her son, Brown writes the past into the present—penned from the country that has been declared “The Happiest Place in the World”—creating a vision that is a necessary alternative to the dystopian one currently being bought and sold.