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CBC Ideas did a story about the assassination of Lincoln how Canada was complicit in money laundering and Confederate spies on our side of the border. Even.a future Prime Minister was involved! Insane! But not surprising: look at our hidden history with Black people. Please follow the link and listen to the podcast. It will blow your mind.

https://www.cbc.ca/radio/ideas/julian-sher-north-star-confederation-civil-war-1.6964098

Several years ago I was on Facebook reading a comment that there where no Black people in Sci-Fi. Nonsense I replied and set about putting together a Pinterest list of female and male Black actors in the genre.

Admittedly, my list is outdated (I think I ended with Black Panther) but here is my pictorial list. There are so many to add so if you see that I have missed someone let me know.

https://www.pinterest.ca/MBHistories/black-actors-in-scififantasy-media/

Too often Black history happens randomly when you are looking for something else. So was the case with this footage of Prince in his youth.

Fascinating. The sad thing is, this news report was posted on Youtube where it could easily get lost in the data. Relying on the algorithm is not helpful in research.

Yes, I’m a year older and spent me day doing what I love to do – Black history research.

What I was looking into was my grandmother’s service as a nurse during WWI. As it turns out, there is very little research on the presence of Black women or women of Colour. When you discuss race in Guyana, things can get complicated. My grandmother was Black, Indian and Portuguese (and likely Dutch). Based on my conversations with my mother, Guyanese are very particular about what is deemed “white”. If you had Portuguese heritage, you were not considered white (something in my reading was encouraged by the British).

I did come across and essay by maritime scholar Jo Stanley who explores this in her post Searching for Histories of Black Women’s Service across the Seas in the Second World War. The thing is her post was made in 2013 and I don’t see further work on the topic. 

But I will keep looking.

Also on the go, I found a new resource online called History Workshop. For Black history topics, see here.