A moving and vivid memoir of a young girl switching between worlds, wanting only to be loved. When Anais Granofsky's parents met at Antioch College in Ohio in the early 1970s, they were each foreign and fascinating to the other - he, Stanley, the son of fantastically wealthy Jewish family from Toronto and she, Jean, one of 15 children from a poor Black Methodist family who are the direct descendants of the freed Randolph slaves. When they became pregnant...

"A historical work of non-fiction that chronicles the little-known stories of black railway porters-the so-called "Pullmen" of the Canadian rail lines. The actions and spirit of these men helped define Canada as a nation in surprising ways, effecting race relations, human rights, North American multiculturalism, community building, the shape and structure of unions, and the nature of travel and business across the US and Canada. Drawing on the stories...

Living in pre-Civil War Philadelphia, young Black activist Mifflin Gibbs was feeling disheartened from fighting the overwhelming tide of White America's legalized racism when abolitionist Julia Griffith encouraged him to "go do some great thing." These words helped inspire him to become a successful merchant in San Francisco, and then to seek a more just society in the new colony of Vancouver Island, where he was to become a prominent citizen and...

Discover the main features of Emancipation Day celebrations, learn about the people of African ancestry's struggle for freedom, and the victories achieved in the push for equality into the 21st century. On August 1, 1834, 800,000 enslaved Africans in the British colonies, including Canada, were declared free. The story of Emancipation Day, a little-known part of Canadian history, has never been accessible to the teen reader through either the school...

"An enthralling, deeply personal examination of the search for a home and the long-lasting effects of colonialism. "The Queen designed my brain. Everyone I knew as a child was born in a time when Trinidad was her property. With no right to vote or make their own laws, they were all perfect British subjects in training. This meant Anglican hymns, little schoolboy uniforms and the single greatest sanitizer of our savagery--the King James Bible" This...

As a young child, George Elliott Clarke knew that a great deal was expected from him and his two brothers. The descendants of a highly accomplished family on his father Bill's side, including famed opera singer, Portia White, and the first Black officer in the British Army, William Andrew White, he felt pressured to live up to the family name. Visits to his paternal grandmother, Nettie, in Halifax were formal; in contrast, his mother, Geraldine's,...

A look at the community of Africville in Halifax, which was founded in the 1800s by African Nova Scotians and grew to become a tight-knit community of about 400 people, until the City of Halifax decided to demolish the community in the 1960s. Also discussed is the city's eventual apology and offer of some compensation after years of pressure, as well as how the spirit of the community lives on. Includes links to video clips.