Railway porters were hired from cities with established Black communities, including Vancouver’s Hogan’s Alley. The Canadian Museum for Human Rights states “porters tended to be highly educated men, with university degrees in science, medicine or business...
The Battle of Vimy Ridge took place on April 9, 1917. Pte. R. Gilbert, one of the few Black men permitted to enlist, (the 103rd Battalion recruited in, and was mobilized at Victoria, British Columbia) captured a German Officer who then gave Pte. Gilbert his own Iron...
Many of the pioneers came to the British Colonies beginning in 1858 as young men and women and young families. It was their grandchildren and great-grandchildren who enlisted to fight for Canada in World War I and World War II. Hiram Whims was born in Tennessee and...
Henry Houston Scott, his wife Amy, and their three youngest children came from Oklahoma. The Scott’s settled in Surrey in 1912, purchasing a seven-acre parcel along today’s 64 Avenue at 181A Street. They were among the earliest Black families in that area. The family...
On August 12, 1911, the Canadian government issued its infamous Order in Council to limit Black immigration to Canada. The purpose of the order was to ban Black persons from entering Canada for a period of one year, supposedly for the reason that “the Negro race … is...
