Black History Month is a crucial time to remember and commemorate the legacy of important black figures in all facets of life. In celebrating and honouring the achievements of influential people, Canadians can take pride in those who have greatly contributed to community and cultural richness nationwide.
It is important to take this time to recognize the immense influence that black figures have had on expressions of art, political and social movements, and revolutionary innovation. Some maintain that all forms of expression are inherently political, or at least have crucial social dimensions. It is difficult to condense the entirety of black cultural history into one article, but here, we encounter a variety of influential political figures, artists, athletes, inventors, and thinkers who, at the forefront of black people’s representation during social and political shifts, are integral figureheads one should familiarize themselves with during this month of memorial.
Listed below are the profiles of figures who have fundamentally shaped and changed the course of history:
Harriet Tubman
Harriet Tubman was a prominent figure in the abolitionist movement. Born into slavery, Tubman grew up in Dorchester County, Maryland. Tubman escaped from slavery in 1849 after dealing with constant illness and the death of her owner. She travelled nearly 90 miles through the Underground Railroad to seek refuge in Philadelphia. Although Tubman escaped, she returned many times to the South to rescue both family members and other non-relatives.
Tubman was able to assist many others to freedom as well. During 13 separate missions, Tubman was able to guide approximately 70 people to safety in parts of Southern Ontario and Northern U.S. Tubman is one of the most well known “conductors” of the Underground Railroad. When slavery laws were changed in 1850, Tubman re-routed the Underground Railroad to Canada to avoid being re-captured.
Tubman also played a crucial role in the outcome of the American Civil war by becoming the first woman to lead an armed assault. Through leading the Combahee River Raid, Tubman was able to liberate more than 700 slaves in South Carolina. She continued her involvement in the civil war, working as a nurse and as a spy for the Union forces.
Tubman remains an icon of bravery, determination, and perseverance. Her contributions to Black history are constantly relevant, and continue to inspire future generations.
Elijah McCoy
Born in Colchestor, Ontario, Elijah McCoy was a prominent inventor, and is best known for his invention of a lubricating device to make travelling with trains more efficient. The McCoy family had escaped from the U.S. before Elijah was born.
At a young age, McCoy started showing interest in mechanics and construction. As a teenager, he was sent to Scotland for an apprenticeship in mechanical engineering. After returning as a certified engineer, McCoy still had a difficulties finding engineering work. McCoy was eventually hired by Michigan Central Railroad as an oiler and fireman. Working tediously, McCoy noticed the inability to properly lubricate specific engine parts. He invented a lubricant distribution system that allowed trains to travel for longer periods of time without constant maintenance.
McCoy became a prominent inventor, who received nearly 60 patents over the duration of his life. Some of his well-known patents include the ironing board and the lawn sprinkler.
Toward the end of his life, McCoy founded the Elijah McCoy Manufacturing Company which produced top of the line lubricators under his name. His legacy as a master of innovation remains consistent in his remembrance to this day.
Willie O’Ree
Born in 1935 in Fredericton, New Brunswick, Willie O’Ree was the first black hockey player in the National Hockey League. O’Ree gained national attention when he played for the Boston Bruins against the Montreal Canadiens in 1958. Often referred to as the Jackie Robinson of hockey, O’Ree effectively broke the colour barrier in NHL and paved the way for a more culturally diverse hockey association. In 2010, O’Ree received the Order of Canada, the most prestigious award for a Canadian citizen. Willie O’Ree has been recognized as a hockey legend, and his contribution to the diversity of the NHL will continue to be commemorated for many years.
Lincoln Alexander
Born in Toronto, Ontario, Lincoln Alexander was a Canadian politician who served as a Member of Parliament, the federal Minister of Labour, and the 24th Lieutenant Governor of Ontario.
Alexander attended McMaster University and Osgoode Hall Law School. At Osgoode, Alexander encountered racism from his classmates, his professors, and his administrators; he took it in stride. He eventually settled in Hamilton to practice law, making name partner at two firms.
In 1968, Alexander ran for the Progressive Conservative Party of Canada for the Hamilton West riding, winning his seat and becoming the first black Canadian Member of Parliament. He held his seat for four elections before stepping down in 1980.
In 1985, Alexander was appointed Lieutenant Governor of Ontario by Governor General Jeanne Suave; Alexander was the first black Canadian to serve in any viceregal position. 1992 saw Alexander appointed to the Order of Ontario; he later became a Companion of the Order of Canada.
From 1991 to 2007, Alexander served as the Chancellor of the University of Guelph – the first and only black Canadian to hold this role for the school. With his term exceeding that of any of his predecessors, he assumed the role of Chancellor Emeritus after his unprecedented fifth term.
Portia White
Portia White is an operatic contralto who became the first black Canadian concert singer to win international renown, despite difficulties in booking due to her race.
Born to a mother descended from Black Loyalists and a father from a history of slavery, White attended Dalhousie University before moving on to teach music in Africville, a predominantly black Canadian seaside town in Nova Scotia.
White made her national debut as a singer in 1941; in 1944, she made her international debut in New York City. White was known for singing both classical European music and “Negro spirituals.” Critics revered her voice, noting that her voice was “a gift from heaven.”
After retiring due to vocal problems in 1952, White settled in Toronto and went on to teach some of Canada’s foremost singers. White briefly came out of retirement in 1964 to sing for Queen Elizabeth II at the opening of the Confederation Centre of the Arts.
White is considered a “person of national historical significance” by the Government of Canada. Both the Nova Scotia Talent Trust and the Portia White Prize were created in her honour. She is lauded as “the singer who broke the colour barrier in Canadian classical music.”
Gwendolyn Brooks
The first Black author to win a Pulitzer Prize, Gwendolyn Brooks’ poetry continues to inspire, provoke, and act as a sort of time capsule of the intellectual environments of the civil rights movement. Her poems and books We Real Cool, “Still Do I Keep 
My Look, My Identity,” and In the Mecca are all beautiful and important works of black American literature.
Harry Belafonte
An important figure in mainstream Caribbean music, Belafonte popularized the calypso genre of music from the Caribbean to unprecedented levels in the United States, right in the midst of the civil rights movement. As a celebrity performer consistently in the public eye of white America, Belafonte’s contributions to the civil rights movement were subdued but important, working closely with Dr. Martin Luther King’s efforts as a sort of liaison to the mainstream.
Miles Davis
Miles’ trumpet is as iconic as the man himself – enigmatic, alternately gentle and furious, and omnipresent in countless facets of jazz music. His albums Birth of the Cool, Kind of Blue, and Bitches’ Brew, among numerous others, were at the front of jazz’s development throughout much of the 20th century. These developments also brought musicians like John Coltrane, Herbie Hancock, and other important musicians into the spotlight, forever changing the stream of jazz music as an art form in and of itself.
Duke Ellington
A restless composer of hundreds of compositions across a 60 year career, Duke Ellington is truly in his own category. One of the definitive figures of American music, his compositions worked to blend traditional African forms with American jazz music in a crucially important manner, and countless compositions of his have become instantly recognizable as jazz standards. In a style of music that is so emphatic of discourses of liberation and freedom, Ellington is one of its most important figureheads, then and now.
Muhammad Ali
Brash, egotistical, and fiercely perceptive, Ali is undisputedly one of the most influential athletes of the 20th century and almost an archetype for black greatness. Consistently in the public eye, he reached a status more mythic than most athletes – Ali’s historical refusal of the Vietnam War draft in 1966 was a cornerstone moment in his career, and emblematic of further shifts in resistance towards hegemony and the military-industrial complex.
Maya Angelou
Nobel Prize-winning poet Maya Angelou, who passed away last year, has been a hugely important voice in Black poetry for almost half of a century. Her books I Know Why The Caged Bird Sings, And Still I Rise, and Phenomenal Woman are incredible celebrations of femininity, freedom, and blackness that were engaged with across the world by all kinds of people.
Fela Kuti
A composer, multi-instrumentalist, and fervent political activist based mostly in Nigeria, Fela Ransome Kuti caught the eye of the world by popularizing the “Afrobeat” genre of music across the world. Consistently a political prisoner between the numerous military dictatorships of Nigeria during the 70s and 80s, his politics informed his music in terms of its life-affirming vitality, spontaneity (both in music and in production), and urgent social message.
Angela Davis
Scholar, feminist, activist, and leader of the Communist Party USA during the 1960s, Davis’ career and revolutionary legacy has been at once influential and controversial. An activist who tirelessly worked against the prison-industrial complex subjugating black America, her thoughts have inspired numerous revolutionary discourses. Still an active scholar and educator, Davis’ legacy continues on to this day.
bell hooks
The career of scholar, theorist, and critic bell hooks has been at the forefront of intersectional feminist theory, filling in the racial blanks left out by much of the “second wave” of feminist thought. Her approach situates feminism within Black identity 
and white patriarchy and normativity in a crucial and important way, most notably in her books Ain’t I A Woman: Black Women and Feminism, All About Love: New Visions, and Feminism is for Everybody: Passionate Politics.