In honour of Black History Month, the Sheaf is highlighting five Black Canadians who made significant contributions in shaping our nation’s past, present and future. 

This is by no means an exhaustive list — there are many Black Canadians who are worthy of celebration. It is important to share and reflect upon the experiences of these and many more Black Canadian trailblazers.

Dudley Laws was a Canadian civil rights activist and an advocate for social justice. Laws, sometimes referred to as the “Voice of the Voiceless,” helped launch the Black Action Defence Committee — a Canadian activist group committed to fighting police brutality.

The Committee was created in response to the death of Lester Donaldson, a Black man who was shot and killed by a Toronto police officer in 1988. Before the Black Lives Matter movement, the Black Action Defence Committee sought to develop and implement policy solutions to address systemic racism and social inequality for marginalized groups in Canada.

Laws was partially responsible for the establishment of Ontario’s Special Investigations Unit, which investigated police-related incidents that resulted in the death or serious injury of civilians.

Violet King became Canada’s first Black female lawyer and was the first Black person to graduate from law school in Alberta. She was also the only woman in her class when she graduated from the faculty of law at the University of Alberta in 1953.

King practiced law in Calgary for several years before moving to Chicago where she became the first woman to hold an executive position with the American national YMCA.

Jarome Iginla is a former professional ice hockey player and two-time Olympic champion who challenged systemic barriers of racism in sport. In 2002, he became the first Black man to win a gold medal at the Winter Olympics after scoring two goals en route to a 5-2 victory over the United States.

Iginla was recently inducted into the prestigious Hockey Hall of Fame and currently holds the title of all-time leader in points scored for the Calgary Flames. 

Michaëlle Jean became Canada’s first Black Governor General and the third woman to hold the position after she was appointed in 2005. 

Jean was born in Port-au-Prince, Haiti and immigrated to Canada with her family in 1968, where she studied comparative literature at the University of Montreal. During her studies, Jean helped establish a network of emergency women’s shelters throughout Quebec and was a strong advocate for gender equality.

As an immigrant, she used her office to promote solidarity among all Canadians, arguing that it was time to recognize Canada’s multiculturalism.

Viola Desmond was a Canadian civil and women’s rights activist who challenged segregation laws in the 1940s after refusing to leave a whites-only area of the Roseland Theatre in New Glasgow, N.S. She is often credited with inspiring Canada’s civil rights movement and spurring the end of segregation.

In honour of Desmond’s fight for racial equality, the Bank of Canada announced that she would become the new face of the $10 bill, making her the first non-royal woman to appear on a Canadian banknote.

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Jakob Philipchuk | Staff Writer

Photos: As Credited