Canadian Black History Summit

[Guest Rosemary Sadlier]

Canadian Black History Summit

Program Outline

 

This first Canadian Black History Summit will provide an innovative opportunity to connect with Black History and Black Genealogy experts and new information which will be made generally available fall 2016 through the recently announced Freedmen's Bureau Project. The Freedmen’s Bureau Project will provide access to over 4 million searchable records from the Freedmen’s Bureau. This data will also be especially important in Canada because of the ties to those who came to Canada through the Underground Railroad.  

After the Civil War, the Freedmen’s Bureau was established by the US Government to help the nearly four million slaves freed by emancipation to transition from slavery to freedom.  It provided food, housing, medical care, and legal assistance, and built over 3,000 schools to provide education.  And for the first time in history, the names of those individuals and related information were systematically recorded and preserved for future generations.ls 

The Freedmen’s Bureau Project was created as a set of partnerships between FamilySearch International, the National Archives and Records Administration (NARA), the Smithsonian National Museum of African American History and Culture, the Afro-American Historical and Genealogical Society (AAHGS), and the California African American Museum.

 

Conference topics 

• Freedmen's Bureau Project
• Underground Railroad
• Black family history -- examples and initiatives

Time and location

• Saturday, April 16, 2016, 2:00 to 5:00 p.m. (on-site registration opens at 1:00 p.m.)
• Toronto (Etobicoke) at the LDS Church building, 95 Melbert Road (corner of Rathburn across from Centennial Park)
• Registration will begin at 1:00 p.m. – there will also be displays and videos available for participants, as well as the ‘hands-on’ opportunity to participate in indexing data drawn from the Freedmen’s Bureau Project.  The main session will begin promptly at 2:00 p.m., and presentations will feature African American and African Canadian presenters.  The conference will conclude by 5:00 p.m., followed by light refreshments and the chance to meet the conference speakers.  
• Free registration and free parking

 

Presenters for the CANADIAN BLACK HISTORY SUMMIT: 

• Darius Gray – Co-director for Freedmen’s Bank Project; journalist, author, historian, popular speaker, and seasoned family history professional; former member of Reach The Children advisory board.
• Bryan and Shannon Prince – Bryan is an award-winning author/historian/consultant; past member of Executive Committee, Harriet Tubman Institute (York University); recipient of Queen’s Golden Jubilee Award (2002); Rotary International’s Paul Harris Fellowship award (2010); Shannon is the Curator of the Buxton National Historical Site and Museum; Bryan and Shannon are among the organizers of the annual Canadian/American Black History and Genealogy Conference in Buxton, ON. Among the awards that the couple has received are YMCA’s Peace Medallion (2011), Underground Railroad Free Press international prize for “The Advancement of Knowledge” (2011), and Chatham-Kent Citizens of the Year (2014).
• Thom Reed – Senior Marketing Manager for FamilySearch, specialist for Freedmen’s Bureau Project, MBA, former business college Adjunct Professor, experienced marketing and business development professional.
• Rosemary Sadlier, O. Ont. – author of six books on African Canadian history, headed the Ontario Black History Society for 22 years and is responsible for initiating the successful commemorations of February as Black History Month in the Provinces and in Canada as well as August 1st as Emancipation Day and was recently identified as one of Canada’s global defenders of human rights by the Robert F. Kennedy Centre.
• Dr. Bryan Walls – Dental surgeon (U. of Toronto); author, "The Road That Led to Somewhere"; founder, John Freeman Walls Historic Site and Underground Railroad Museum (at the site of his ancestral home); past president, Ontario Historical Society; Order of Ontario (1994); Order of Canada (2003); Queen’s Diamond Jubilee Medal (2012); and Mathieu Da Costa award from Ontario Black History Society (2014).