Black and African Canadians | The Canadian Encyclopedia

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  • Article

    Hénoc Muamba

    Hénoc Muamba, football player (born 23 February 1989 in Kinshasa, Congo). Defensive lineman Hénoc Muamba was named the best defensive player in Canadian university football in 2010. Selected first overall in the 2011 Canadian Football League (CFL) draft, Muamba has played for the Winnipeg Blue Bombers (2011–13), the Montreal Alouettes (2015, 2018–19), the Saskatchewan Roughriders (2016–17) and the Toronto Argonauts (2021–present). A two-time CFL All-Star and the 2019 Most Outstanding Canadian, Muamba was named both Most Valuable Canadian and Most Valuable Player at the 2022 Grey Cup. He is only the second player in CFL history (after Andrew Harris in 2019) to earn the double honour.

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    https://d3d0lqu00lnqvz.cloudfront.net/2022-_10-_Henoc_Muamba_2.jpg Hénoc Muamba

  • Article

    Jeremiah Jones

    Jeremiah “Jerry” Alvin Jones, soldier, farmer, truck driver (born 30 March 1858 in East Mountain, NS; died 23 November 1950 in Halifax, NS). Jeremiah Jones was a Black Canadian soldier who served during the First World War. Jones was 58 years old (13 years above the age limit) when he enlisted with the 106th Battalion in 1916. For his heroic actions during the Battle of Vimy Ridge, he was awarded the Canadian Forces Medallion for Distinguished Service in 2010 — 60 years after his death. 

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    https://d3d0lqu00lnqvz.cloudfront.net/media/Twitter_Cards/Jeremiah jones.jpg Jeremiah Jones

  • Article

    Jimmy Claxton

    Jimmy Claxton, baseball player, stevedore (born 14 December 1892 in Wellington, BC; died 3 March 1970 in Tacoma, Washington). On 28 May 1916, Jimmy Claxton became the first Black person to play Organized Baseball (MLB and all of its affiliated minor leagues) in the 20th century. The left-handed pitcher did so 30 years before Jackie Robinson played for the Montreal Royals. Claxton was also the first Black player to be featured on an American baseball card. He is the only Negro Leagues player from Canada to have his statistics upgraded to major league numbers. He was inducted into the Canadian Baseball Hall of Fame in 2021.

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    https://d3d0lqu00lnqvz.cloudfront.net/Jimmy-Claxton.jpg Jimmy Claxton

  • Article

    Joseph Lewis

    Joseph Lewis, alias Levi Johnston, also Lewes and Louis, fur trader (born c. 1772–73 in Manchester, New Hampshire; died 1820 in Saskatchewan District). Joseph Lewis was a Black fur trader, originally from the United States, who participated in the fur industry’s early expansion into the Canadian Northwest in the late 18th and early 19th centuries. He is one of very few Black people involved in the fur trade whose name was documented in existing texts. Joseph Lewis is further notable for being the first Black person in present-day Saskatchewan, as well as, in all likelihood, Alberta.

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    https://d3d0lqu00lnqvz.cloudfront.net/media/new_article_images/BlackFurTraders/Le_Code_Noir_1742_edition.jpg Joseph Lewis

  • Article

    Jully Black

    Jully Ann Inderia Gordon, singer, songwriter, actor, TV personality (born 8 November 1977 in Toronto, ON). Jully Black is known as “Canada’s Queen of R&B.” In 2013, CBC Music named her one of the 25 Greatest Canadian Singers Ever. Her rich and soulful alto voice has drawn comparisons to Tina Turner and Amy Winehouse. She has won a Juno Award from 10 nominations and has written songs for Destiny’s Child, Nas, Sean Paul and Missy Elliott, among others. She also started her own recording, management and publishing company, and her own fitness enterprise. Black has appeared onstage in productions of trey anthony’s play Da Kink in My Hair and Tony Kushner and Jeanine Tesori’s musical Caroline, or Change; the latter earned Black a 2020 Dora Award. She is also a popular television and radio host and panel guest. She was inducted into Canada’s Walk of Fame in 2021.

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    https://d3d0lqu00lnqvz.cloudfront.net/media/media/b6a32a48-ba61-430f-ae45-d0a981b72a89.jpg Jully Black

  • Article

    Junius Lyman Edward Hokan

    Junius Lyman Edward Hokan, pilot (born 4 March 1922 in St. Catharines, ON; died 26 September 1942 in the English Channel). Hokan was likely the first Black-Canadian commissioned officer and fighter pilot in the Royal Canadian Air Force (RCAF). He served his country with distinction in the Second World War but was killed when his plane crashed on the way back to England after a mission.

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    https://d3d0lqu00lnqvz.cloudfront.net/BlackPilots/Hokan-redone.jpg Junius Lyman Edward Hokan

  • Article

    Kay Livingstone

    Kathleen (Kay) Livingstone (née Jenkins), organizer and activist, broadcaster, actor (born 13 October 1919 in London, ON; died 25 July 1975). Kay Livingstone founded the Canadian Negro Women’s Association in 1951 and organized the first National Congress of Black Women in 1973. An established radio broadcaster and actor, Livingstone also devoted a great deal of her life and energy to social activism and organizing. Her tireless work to encourage a national discussion around the position of racialized people in society, particularly Black women, led Livingstone to coin the term visible minority in 1975.

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    https://d3d0lqu00lnqvz.cloudfront.net/media/new_article_images/KayLivingstone/2018_Black_History_Kay_Livingstone_Stamp.jpg Kay Livingstone

  • Article

    Lincoln Alexander

    Lincoln MacCauley Alexander, CC, OOnt, QC, lieutenant-governor of Ontario 1985–91, member of Parliament 1968–80, lawyer, public servant (born 21 January 1922 in Toronto, ON; died 19 October 2012 in Hamilton, ON). Alexander was the first Black Canadian member of Parliament (1968), Cabinet minister (1979) and lieutenant-governor (Ontario, 1985). In recognition of his many important accomplishments, 21 January has been celebrated as Lincoln Alexander Day across Canada since 2015.

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    https://d3d0lqu00lnqvz.cloudfront.net/media/media/Lincoln_Alexander_with_police_horses_at_the_Royal_Winter_Fair.jpg Lincoln Alexander

  • Article

    Lucille Hunter

    Lucille Hunter (sometimes spelled Lucile), prospector (born 13 January c. 1874–1882 in the United States; died 10 June 1972 in Whitehorse, YT). Lucille and her husband Charles were among the first Black people to settle in the Yukon. They arrived in 1897 as part of the Klondike Gold Rush. The couple staked claims to mine for gold in Dawson City and silver in Mayo. Lucille Hunter remained in the Yukon for the rest of her life, later moving to Whitehorse.

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    https://d3d0lqu00lnqvz.cloudfront.net/LucilleHunter/LucilleHunter2.jpg Lucille Hunter

  • Article

    Maestro Fresh Wes

    Wesley Williams (a.k.a. Maestro Fresh Wes, Maestro), rapper, actor, author, motivational speaker, radio and TV host (born 31 March 1968 in Toronto, ON). Maestro Fresh Wes is regarded as the “godfather of Canadian hip hop.” His debut album, Symphony in Effect (1989), was the first album by a Black Canadian artist to be certified platinum in Canada. It yielded the hugely successful and influential hit single “Let Your Backbone Slide.” In 2019, it became the first rap song to be inducted into the Canadian Songwriters Hall of Fame. Maestro has been nominated for 17 Juno Awards and has won two, including the inaugural award for Rap Recording of the Year in 1991. In 2013, he was named No. 1 on CBC Music’s list of the greatest Canadian rappers. Between 2022 and 2024, he earned three straight Juno nominations for Children’s Album of the Year. He was inducted into the Canadian Music Hall of Fame and received a Governor General’s Performing Arts Award for Lifetime Artistic Achievement in 2024.

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    https://d3d0lqu00lnqvz.cloudfront.net/media/media/43d42d71-70ac-431c-b58c-9a8eca0b50e5.jpg Maestro Fresh Wes

  • Article

    Marie-Joseph Angélique

    Marie-Joseph Angélique (born circa 1705 in Madeira, Portugal; died 21 June 1734 in Montréal, QC). Angélique was an enslaved Black woman owned by Thérèse de Couagne de Francheville in Montréal. In 1734, she was charged with arson after a fire leveled Montréal’s merchants' quarter. It was alleged that Angélique committed the act while attempting to flee her bondage. She was convicted, tortured and hanged. While it remains unknown whether or not she set the fire, Angélique’s story has come to symbolize Black resistance and freedom.

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    https://d3d0lqu00lnqvz.cloudfront.net/media/media/a23e5818-7604-48c4-86a6-fa0a0dba478d.jpg Marie-Joseph Angélique

  • Article

    Jamaican Maroons in Nova Scotia

    The ancestors of the Maroons of Jamaica were enslaved Africans who had been brought there by the Spanish in the 16th and 17th centuries, and later by the British (who captured Jamaica from Spain in 1655), to work its lucrative sugar plantations. The word maroon was widely used to describe a runaway, and maroonage to denote the act and action of escaping enslavement, whether temporarily or permanently. After a series of wars with the colonial government in Jamaica, one group of Maroons was deported to Nova Scotia in 1796. While Maroon communities existed in Nova Scotia for only four years before they were sent to Sierra Leone, their legacy in Canada endures.

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    https://d3d0lqu00lnqvz.cloudfront.net/media/media/ec55dd45-84f0-4ca8-a613-cadef5f53496.jpg Jamaican Maroons in Nova Scotia

  • Article

    Mary Ann Shadd

    Mary Ann Camberton Shadd Cary, educator, publisher, lawyer, abolitionist (born 9 October 1823 in Wilmington, Delaware; died 5 June 1893 in Washington, D.C.). Mary Ann Shadd became the first Black woman in North America to publish and edit a newspaper, The Provincial Freeman. As one of the first Black newspaperwomen in North America, Shadd promoted the abolition of slavery and the emigration of African Americans to Canada ( see Black Canadians; Black Enslavement in Canada; Slavery Abolition Act, 1833). She also advocated on behalf of women’s rights (see Women’s Movements in Canada).

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    https://d3d0lqu00lnqvz.cloudfront.net/maryannshadd/maryannshaddcanadapost.jpg Mary Ann Shadd

  • Article

    Mathieu Da Costa

    Mathieu Da Costa (depending on the language of the documents that mention his name, also known as “Mateus Da Costa,” “Mathieu de Coste,” “Matheus de Cost” and “een Swart genamd Matheu”), interpreter (dates and places of birth and death unknown). Da Costa is one of the most fascinating and elusive figures in the early history of Canada. Historians consider him the first Black person known to have visited Canada, probably in the company of Pierre Dugua de Mons and Samuel de Champlain). (See also Black Canadians; African Canadians.) But many aspects of his life remain unclear or unknown.

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    https://d3d0lqu00lnqvz.cloudfront.net/media/media/122b2db3-8b90-411b-97f2-6c1c1390feef.jpg Mathieu Da Costa

  • Article

    Michaëlle Jean

    Michaëlle Jean, social activist, journalist, documentary filmmaker, governor general of Canada 2005–2010, secretary general of the Organisation internationale de la Francophonie 2014–2019 (born 6 September 1957 in Port-au-Prince, Haiti).

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    https://d3d0lqu00lnqvz.cloudfront.net/media/media/3d69059c-caed-4996-be72-7ab27510f014.jpg Michaëlle Jean