New Brunswick’s Black History Society wants to provide permanent displays to showcase the province’s Black community.
The society has been seeking a space to house historical displays for quite some time, in order to showcase the community’s rich history.
Ralph Thomas is the projects coordinator with the Black History Society, and he says a permanent public space is sorely lacking in New Brunswick.
“We look around and see Montreal and Toronto, they’ve got huge buildings that show the history of Black folks,” Thomas said. “In the province of New Brunswick, you don’t have anything.”
In the Maritimes, Nova Scotia has the Africville Museum as well as the Black Loyalist Heritage Centre.
Thomas says the Black community has a rich history in the province, citing Beaver Harbour as being the first community in British North America to outlaw slavery.
The Saint John Black Lives Matter movement and PRUDE Inc. have both been working with the Black History Society in order to help find a permanent space.
Li Song is the managing director for PRUDE Inc., and she says they have worked with the society to get the message out to New Brunswickers.
“We have been in schools and the community to reach out and talk about unconscious biases,” she said. “In recent years, we’ve been giving cultural diversity workshops.”
Visitors, a vintage clothing store in Saint John, also made an $8,000 donation to the cause after a recent raffle involving dozens of local businesses.
