Digital Museums, Videos, Documentaries

British Columbia's Black Pioneers: Their Industry and Character influenced the Vision of Canada   

This exhibit, designed and developed by BC Black History Awareness Society with investment from the Digital Museum of Canada, tells the story of the Black Pioneers who came to British Columbia starting around 1858. It is unlike any other story about Black migration to Canada in the 1800’s.
This digital exhibit includes 20 stories, 86 images and nine videos that you can watch from this gallery.

Secret Victoria: Rush to Freedom.
In the 1850s, in what is now Victoria, Governor James Douglas fought against American expansionism by bringing over hundreds of Black Americans from San Francisco. The legacy of this population is still felt today.  Filmed in 2019 by B.C. filmmaker Anthony Brown.

Charles and Nancy Alexander.
Both Charles and Nancy were born in St. Louis Missouri as free blacks; they married in Springfield, Illinois on December 25, 1849.  On July 1, 1858, Charles and Nancy boarded the ship “Oregon” to Fort Victoria.   

137 years later, in July 1995 the Alexander family gathered for a reunion in Victoria. “Over 200 descendants of one of Victoria’s oldest and most successful pioneer families are coming from all across Canada and the United States.” (Richard Watts “Victoria’s Alexanders: Pioneering Black family back for reunion” Times Colonist 1995-July 15 Page C8). Today more than 100 descendants of the Alexander family still live in the area today.

“The Story of Charles and Nancy Alexander”, narrated by great-grandson Doug Hudlin was recorded in February 2011 by Dale Hitchcox, a member of the BC Black History Awareness Society.

You can also read the Alexander’s story and Doug’s story on our website.

In 2019, a 2 minute video was recorded as part of the BCBHAS and Digital Museums Canada Project, narrated by direct descendant Karen Hoshal.

The Royal BC Museum and Archives “This Week in History” series aired the story of fugitive Slave Charles Mitchell.
In Victoria “as many as 700 gathered dockside September 25, 1860 calling for his release…”

Tour of Ross Bay Cemetery in Victoria  Did you know there are more than 50 Black Pioneers and/or their descendants at Ross Bay Cemetery here in Victoria? Filmed in February 2021, an online guided tour of the graves of Black Pioneers and others who were influential in the migration of Blacks to the British Colony. The hosts for this online tour are John Adams, Old Cemeteries Society and Valin Marshall, BC Black History Awareness Society.

The Black Inventor Online Museum
is “the #1 resource on the web” focusing on the ingenuity and accomplishments of the top Black inventors over the last 300 years. Their contributions are chronicled and the inventors are profiled, providing information for students and others interested in these pioneers of Black History.

Meet George Alcorn a pioneer in the field of plasma semiconductor devices and Patricia Bath a pioneer in laser eye surgery; and just as eclectic, find out who invented the potato chip, “Super Soakers” and improved the golf tee.

Long Road to Justice: The Viola Desmond Story 
Viola Desmond was a businesswoman, civil rights activist; she built a career and business as a beautician and was a mentor to young Black women in Nova Scotia.

On Nov. 8, 1946, Viola Desmond stood up against a racially segregated movie theatre in New Glasgow, Nova Scotia. Her courageous stand, nine years before Rosa Parks' action, was a seminal event in Canada's civil rights movement.

This is the full documentary.  

We Are The Roots: Untangling Alberta’s Complex Black History
“Between 1905 and 1912, more than 1,000 African-Americans crossed the border to settle in small communities around Edmonton. Most came from Oklahoma, fleeing the Jim Crow laws which stripped them of their rights when Oklahoma became a state in 1907.

It’s a story that tends to be told and retold every year during Black History Month. But what happened to the settlers afterwards? What happened when the Depression hit and they left their isolated farms, and moved to Edmonton? That’s the crux of this intriguing and moving documentary” Paula Simons, Edmonton Journal, February 2018.