- George Elliott Clarke
George Elliott Clarke is a Canadian poet and playwright. Born in Windsor Plains, Nova Scotia, he has spent much of his career writing about the black communities of Nova Scotia and served for a time in the African-American Studies department at Duke University. He earned a B.A. honours degree in English from the University of Waterloo (1984), an M.A. in English from Dalhousie University (1989) and a Ph.D. in English from Queen’s University (1993). - Dionne Brand
Dionne Brand (born January 7, 1953) is a Canadian poet, novelist, and non-fiction writer who focuses on issues relating to black women. - Lawrence Hill
Lawrence Hill is a Canadian writer, whose memoir "Black Berry, Sweet Juice: On Being Black and White in Canada", was a Canadian bestseller in 2001. He is the author of the acclaimed novel The Book of Negroes, which was published in January 2007. In 2007, Hill collaborated with former US-Army Soldier (now deserter) Joshua Key to write Key's account of the Iraq War. - Jean Augustine
Jean Augustine, PC, B.A., M.A., LL.D (born September 9, 1937 in St. George's, Grenada) is a former Canadian politician. From 1993 to 2005 Augustine was a Liberal member of the Canadian House of Commons, representing the riding of Etobicoke—Lakeshore. She is a former member of Cabinet, and a former school principal. Augustine served as the Parliamentary Secretary to Prime Minister Jean Chrétien from 1994 to 1996, and was the Minister of State for multiculturalism, … - Austin Clarke
Austin Ardinel Chesterfield Clarke, CM, O.Ont (born 26 July 1934) is a Canadian novelist, essayist and short story writer who lives in Toronto, Ontario. Born in St. James, Barbados, in 1955 Clarke moved to Canada, where he attended the University of Toronto. He was a reporter in the Ontario communities of Timmins and Kirkland, before joining the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation and eventually became a freelance journalist. - Michaëlle Jean
Michaëlle Jean, CC, CMM, COM, CD, DUniv ("honoris causa"), DLitt ("honoris causa"), LLD ("honoris causa"), (born September 6, 1957, in Port-au-Prince, Haiti) is the current Governor General of Canada. Jean was appointed by Queen Elizabeth II, on the recommendation of Prime Minister Paul Martin, to succeed Adrienne Clarkson and become the 27th governor general of Canada since Confederation in 1867. - Oscar Peterson
Oscar Emmanuel Peterson, CC, CQ, O.Ont. (b. August 15, 1925, Montreal, Quebec) is a Canadian jazz pianist and composer. Oscar Peterson is considered by some critics to be one of the greatest jazz piano players of all time. His virtuosity and command of the piano have routinely stunned audiences worldwide for more than fifty years. - Harry Jerome
Henry "Harry" Winston Jerome (September 30, 1940 - December 7, 1982) was a Canadian track and field runner. He was the grandson of John Howard a railway porter who represented Canada in the 1912 Summer Olympics. Born in Prince Albert, Saskatchewan, he moved to North Vancouver at age 12. He competed in college for Bill Bowerman at the University of Oregon. He competed for Canada in the 1960, 1964, and 1968 Summer Olympics, winning 100 metre bronze in 1964. - Jully Black
Jully Black (born Jully Ann Inderia Gordon on November 8, 1977 in Toronto, Ontario, Canada) is a Canadian R&B singer of Jamaican heritage, and was brought up in the notorious Jane and Finch area of Toronto. Her given name is pronounced "JOO-lee". Black had a Top 40 hit on the Canadian charts in 1999 with "Rally'n". She has collaborated and written for many notable artists, including Nas, Missy Elliott, Saukrates, Choclair, Kardinal Offishall, … - Mary Ann Shadd
Mary Ann Shadd Cary (October 9, 1823 - June 5, 1893) was a pioneering educator, newspaper publisher, abolitionist and suffragist in both the United States and Canada. She started the first racially-integrated school in Canada and was also the first female newspaper editor in Canada, establishing "The Provincial Freeman" in Windsor, Ontario. This was a weekly paper designed to cover the lives of Canadian blacks and promote the cause of black refugees to Canada. - Afua Cooper
Afua Cooper is a Jamaican-born Canadian historian and dub poet. Born in Westmoreland, Jamaica, Cooper grew up in Kingston, Jamaica and migrated to Toronto in 1980. She holds a Ph.D. in African-Canadian history with specialties in slavery and abolition. Her dissertation, "Doing Battle in Freedom’s Cause", is a biographical study of Henry Bibb, a 19th century African American abolitionist who lived and worked in Ontario. - Robert Nathaniel Dett
Robert Nathaniel Dett (October 11, 1882 - October 2, 1943), often known as R. Nathaniel Dett, was a composer in the United States and Canada. During his lifetime he was one of the most successful black composers, known for his use of folk songs and spirituals for choral and piano compositions in the romantic style. He was among the first African American composers during the early years of the American Society of Composers, Authors, and Publishers. - Lincoln Alexander
Lincoln MacCauley Alexander, PC, CC, K.St.J., O.Ont, CD, QC, BA, LL.B (born January 21, 1922, in Toronto, Ontario), served as the 24th Lieutenant-Governor of Ontario from 1985 to 1991. Alexander was a Governor of the Canadian Unity Council Born to West Indian immigrants to Canada, Lincoln Alexander first distinguished himself by serving in the Royal Canadian Air Force during the second World War. - Clement Virgo
Clement Virgo (born Kingston, Jamaica) is a Canadian film and television director. His films include "Rude", "The Planet of Junior Brown", "Love Comes Down" and "Lie with Me". He has also directed episodes of "The Wire", "The L Word", "Platinum", "Side Effects" and "ReGenesis". He is an alumnus of the Canadian Film Centre in Toronto. Virgo's newest feature film is "Poor Boy's Game". - Portia White
Portia May White, was a singer who achieved international fame because of her voice and stage presence. As an African-Canadian, her popularity helped to open previously closed doors for talented blacks who followed. Portia White was born in the town of Truro, Nova Scotia, Canada, to Reverend William Andrew White and Izie Dora White. She made her musical debut at the age of six in her fathers’ church choir. At the age of 17, while teaching school, … - Elijah McCoy
Elijah J. McCoy(May 2 1843 - October 10, 1929) was a Afro-Canadian inventor. McCoy had wanted to work as an engineer but was repeatedly frustrated in this goal due to racial discrimination. After studying engineering in Edinburgh, Scotland, and returning home to Canada, he found work as a fireman and oiler at the Michigan Central Railroad. Working in a home-based machine shop in Ypsilanti, McCoy invented an automatic lubricator for oiling the steam engines of locomotives, … - Nalo Hopkinson
Nalo Hopkinson (born December 20, 1960) is a Jamaican-born writer and editor who lives in Canada. Her science fiction and fantasy novels ("Brown Girl in the Ring", "Midnight Robber", "The Salt Roads") and short stories such as those in her collection "Skin Folk" often draw on Caribbean history and language, and its traditions of oral and written storytelling. - Wayde Compton
Wayde Compton (b. Vancouver, 1972) is a Canadian writer. He is the author of two collections of poetry, "49th Parallel Psalm" (Advance Editions, 1999) and "Performance Bond" (Arsenal Pulp, 2004); he is also the editor of "Bluesprint: Black British Columbian Literature and Orature" (Arsenal Pulp, 2001). Compton is co-founder of Commodore Books, the first press in Western Canada devoted to publishing the work of black writers. - Djanet Sears
Djanet Sears is a Canadian playwright, actor and director. Born in England to a Guyanese father and a Jamaican mother, Sears was raised in England and in Saskatoon, Saskatchewan. Her birth name was Janet — she added the D when she came across a town called Djanet on a trip to Africa. Her play "Harlem Duet" won many Canadian awards, including four Dora Mavor Moore Awards and a Governor General's Award for drama. - Ray Lewis
Raymond ("Ray") Gray Lewis, C.M. (October 8, 1910 - November 15, 2003) was a track and field athlete, and the first Canadian-born black Olympic medalist. Born in Hamilton, Ontario, Lewis was nicknamed "Rapid Ray" for his speed on the track. While excelling in the 100, 200, 400 and 800 metre distances in high school, Lewis was subjected to racism from coaches, teachers and the public. - Cecil Foster
Cecil Foster (born September 26, 1954) is a Canadian novelist and essayist. Born in [[Bridgetown, Barbados][Barbados]], he emigrated to Canada in 1979. Currently, he lives in Rockwood, Ontario and serves as a professor of sociology and anthropology at the University of Guelph. His most recent book, "Where Race Does Not Matter" (2004), explores the potential of multiculturalism in Canada. - Willie O'Ree
Willie O'Ree (born October 15, 1935, in Fredericton, New Brunswick, Canada) is a retired professional ice hockey player, known best as the first black player in the National Hockey League. He played as a winger for the Boston Bruins. He is frequently but erroneously referred to as the first African-American player, though he is in fact African-Canadian. - Perdita Felicien
Perdita Felicien (born August 29, 1980 in Oshawa, Ontario, Canada) was a world-class hurdler in track and field athletic competition, most famous for her disappointing failure to jump over a single hurdle in the 2004 Athens Olympic games. Felicien carries her mother's maiden name, whose origins are in the tiny Caribbean island nation of Saint Lucia. Her mother named her "Perdita" after a contestant on the television game show, "The Price is Right". - Rosemary Brown
Rosemary Brown, P.C., O.C., O.B.C., M.S.W., LL.D. (June 17, 1930 - April 26, 2003) was a Canadian politician. Brown was born in Kingston, Jamaica in 1930, and moved to Canada in 1951 to study at McGill University in Montreal. She served as an Member of the Legislative Assembly (MLA) in the British Columbia legislature from 1972 to 1986, making her the first Black Canadian woman to be elected to a Canadian provincial legislature. - William Hall
William Hall (April 28, 1827 - August 25 1904) was the first black person, the first Nova Scotian, and third Canadian-born recipient of the Victoria Cross. Born at Horton's Bluff, Nova Scotia, in 1827 as the son of a freed slave, at age 17 Hall joined the merchant navy as a seaman. Later, he volunteered for the Royal Navy at Liverpool, England, February 1852. When the Indian Mutiny broke out in May 1857, Hall was on HMS Shannon en route to China. - Promise
Promise Jj Shepherd (born on September 16) is a Canadian Hip Hop/Soul artist known for his conceptual songwriting and potent lyrical content that focuses primarily on life, love and the consciousness of mankind. Managed by artist management firm S4 Entertainment Promise's world premiere boasts guest appearances by Rhymefest, Tonex, Montell Jordan, Elzhi of Slum Village, Really Doe, GLC, Award-winning poets J. Ivy, Malik Yusef and many more. - Tonya Lee Williams
Tonya Lee Williams (born Tonya Maxine Williams on July 12, 1957 in London) is a african Canadian actress, best known for her role as Dr. Olivia Barber Winters on the American soap opera "The Young and the Restless", from 1990 to 2005, and for a brief time in 2007. Williams and her family lived in London and Kingston, Jamaica while she was a young child. At age 5, she contracted rheumatic fever; she and her mother went to live in Birmingham, … - Clark Johnson
Clark Johnson, (born September 1954) sometimes credited as "Clark 'Slappy' Jackson", "Clarque Johnson", and "J. Clark Johnson," is an American actor and director who has worked in both television and film. Johnson was born in September 1954 in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, and spent much of his life in Canada, including studying at Concordia University in Montreal, Quebec. He began doing feature film work in 1981, … - Alison Sealy-Smith
Alison Sealy-Smith (born in Barbados) is a Canadian actress. Sealy-Smith attended Mount Allison University (New Brunswick, Canada). Initially she studied psychology on a scholarship, but later switched to drama. She is the founding director of Obsidian Theatre, a company that specializes in Black Canadian drama. Her credits have included the series "Street Legal", "This is Wonderland" and a recurring role in "Kevin Hill". - John Ware
John Ware (c. 1845 - 12 September 1905) was an African-American born into slavery in South Carolina, or, according to another source, in northern Texas. After the American Civil War he became a cowboy and worked his way into Canada. He is remembered for his ability to ride and train horses. He is credited with bringing the first cattle to southern Alberta in 1876, helping to create that province's important ranching industry. - Kandyse McClure
Kandyse McClure (b. 1980 in the Republic of South Africa) is a resident-Canadian actress. Born and raised in South Africa, she became a popular young star through the teen-oriented Fox Family series "Higher Ground" (along with Hayden Christensen), as well as the NBC's Saturday-morning series "Just Deal". She scored a lead role with her first ever audition, playing opposite Lou Diamond Phillips in the 1999 telefilm "In a Class of His Own". - Stephen Williams
Stephen Williams is a Canadian film and television director. Williams has directed several modern day television programs including work as a regular director on the ABC drama series, "Lost", where he is also a producer. In addition to "Lost", Williams has been a director on "Crossing Jordan", "1-800-Missing", "Soul Food: The Series" and "21 Jump Street". - Fefe Dobson
Felicia Lynn (Fefe) Dobson (born February 28, 1985) is a Canadian singer and songwriter. - Kardinal Offishall
Kardinal Offishall (born Jason Harrow on May 21, 1976 in Scarborough, Ontario) is a Canadian hip-hop MC and producer of Jamaican descent. Kardinal is often viewed as "Canada's hip-hop ambassador", and along with MC's such as Saukrates and Maestro Fresh Wes, he's arguably the most popular. Kardinal blends soul, dancehall, reggae and hip-hop to create a truly unique sound. - Rae Dawn Chong
Rae Dawn Chong (born February 28, 1961 in Edmonton, Alberta) is a Canadian born actress and daughter of Tommy Chong. She is of African, First Nations, Chinese and Irish ancestry. Her half-sister Robbi Chong is a model and actress. She is best known for appearing in the films "Quest for Fire" (1981), "The Color Purple" (1985), "Choose Me" (1984), "Commando" (1985), "Cheech & Chong's The Corsican Brothers" (1984), … - Viola Desmond
Viola Davis Desmond (July 6, 1914-1965) was born in Halifax, Nova Scotia, Canada. She was an African-Canadian who ran her own beauty parlor and beauty college in Halifax. She has been referred to as a Canadian version of Rosa Parks. Desmond's story was one of the most publicized incidents of racial discrimination in Nova Scotian and Canadian history. - Rocky Johnson
Rocky Johnson (born Wayde Bowles on August 24, 1944) is a former Canadian professional wrestler. Quite popular in his own right in the 1970s and 80s. He is also known for being the father of actor and former wrestler Dwayne "The Rock" Johnson. - Ben Johnson
Benjamin Sinclair "Ben" Johnson CM (born December 30, 1961) is a former Canadian sprinter who enjoyed a high-profile career during most of the 1980s, winning two Olympic Bronze medals, and an Olympic Gold which was subsequently rescinded. He set consecutive 100 m world records at the 1987 World Championships in Athletics and the 1988 Summer Olympics, but he was disqualified for doping, losing the Olympic title and both records. - Sarah Barrable-Tishauer
Sarah Barrable-Tishauer (born July 6, 1988) is a Canadian actress. She is known for her role on the television series "Degrassi: The Next Generation". - Choclair
Choclair (born Kareem Blake in Scarborough, Ontario) is a Canadian rapper. Starting at the age of 11, Blake followed in his older brother's footsteps, who was also a rapper. In 1996, he released his debut album, "Twenty One Years", on his own independent label, Kneedeep Records. He subsequently appeared on Rascalz' "Northern Touch" single, and signed with Virgin Records for his 1999 second album "Ice Cold".
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