Test Your Knowledge

On August 1, 1874 at the age of 18, this person became the first Black teacher on Vancouver Island.

This individual is a founding member and first president of the British Columbia Baseball Umpires Association.

This Edmonton born musical artist was the first artist of colour in North America to host a national weekly television show.

Emery Barnes was a Canadian football player and went on to become the first Black “Speaker of the BC Provincial Legislature” .

In 1858 Governor James Douglas sent an invitation to the San Francisco Black community inviting them to settle here on Vancouver Island.

She was the first member of a visible minority hired by the Vancouver School Board.

Grafton Tyler Brown painted landscapes of British Columbia and is known as the first professional Black artist in the Pacific North West.

He was inducted into the Canadian Amateur Athletic Hall of Fame in 1967, Canada’s Sports Hall of Fame in 1971 and was invested with the Order of Canada in 1970.

Hogan’s Alley is the local name for Park Lane, that was the first neighbourhood in Vancouver with a concentrated black population.

This man was born in Port-of-Spain in 1863 and settled in British Columbia in 1885. In 1986 the Vancouver Historical Society formally declared him as “Vancouver Citizen of the Century”.

In 1604 Mathieu Da Costa is the first person of African heritage to come to what is now Canada.

In 1868, this person was a representative for Salt Spring Island at the Yale (B.C) Convention, where the terms were laid out for British Columbia to join Confederation.

It was not until November 1872 that Blacks were formally added to jury lists in Victoria, but this man was the first Black to serve as a juror in February 1860.

On what date did The Abolition of Slavery Act, passed by the British Parliament in 1833, come into force in Canada?

Rebecca Gibbs who was a laundress in Barkerville circa 1865-1870 is considered one of Canada's first Black female poets.

In 1975 this person ran for the leadership of the Federal NDP Party.

This person developed the first Suzuki Piano Program in western Canada at the Vancouver Music Academy.

The Fraser River Gold Rush that brought about 30,000 miners to British Columbia lasted for about 7 years from 1858 to mid-1860’s.

What was the name of the church in rural Saanich, Vancouver lsland that was started by the Alexander family?

She managed her family’s farm, acted as a volunteer nurse and midwife. She lived to be 106 years old.

The Black settlers that arrived in Victoria on April 25, 1858 called themselves "The Pioneer Committee".

In 1859, when the volunteer Fire Department was being created in Victoria, several blacks volunteered to serve but they were rejected by the white men organizing the committee. The Blacks went to Governor Sir James Douglas to offer their services as a volunteer militia unit. Their official name was?

Who is the Canadian civil rights icon on the Canadian $10 bill?

In 1886 he was the first dentist in B.C. to be granted a license under the British Columbia Dental Act.

The Government of Canada plaque that commemorates the arrival of the Black Pioneers in 1858 says these pioneers faced “intense discrimination”.