Canada's all Black battalion fought during WW1
Photo from Globalnews.ca
Today is Remembrance Day and as far as I can remember, I would always learn of the brave Canadian soldiers that liberated parts of Europe. I mean take a look at the tulips in Ottawa is known for and why that is. If you go to Europe at this time of year and say you are Canadian, you might not have to buy dinner for your whole vacation. I might be exaggerating but the respect for the Canadian war effort in Europe in WW1 and WW2 is legendary. This, we learn as soon as our minds can understand and contain knowledge.
All of the stories and trips to the Royal Regiments and watching the parade is great and well worth it to learn about what young men and women went through during the Great Wars, however, I always knew from the earliest moments of learning about Remembrance Day that something was missing. I realized at a young age that the faces being immortalized in my mind were all white, literally every soldier that we learned about or saw in TV ads or saw pictures of in books were all white. With no Black history in our curriculum to lean on in Canada, I did not know to ask questions about why it was that there were no Black faces that we celebrated too. For years, Remembrance Day would come and go and as many people decreed that soldiers died for us, I asked myself, "did they die for Black people"? Did they die for Black Canadians too? It's a tough question to ask and it might be tough to answer but we know how the society treated Black folks at the time of WW1 and even WW2 and since, heck, there was an all-Black battalion in the Canadian military due to racism so again, my question seems a bit valid.
I am grateful that many more people in higher positions than me have fought to have the legends of Canada's Black soldiers recognized on par with the white soldiers who valiantly fought in Canada's wars. There are still lots to uncover and lots to learn about Canada's Black military history as there is to learn about Black people and our contributions to Canadian society. There are organizations doing the work to ensure that future generations of Black kids in Canada do not grow without knowing that people who look like them represented this country in its finest hour. Organizations like the Ontario Black History Society and the Amherstburg Freedom Museum have been two favourites of mine. If you have others definitely drop a link, the more we know the better.
Our communities have been fighting for this recognition for decades and as these Black soldiers finally get their apology from the government, we hope that with that apology more history gets out and more representation of the Armed Forces is given the freedom to see the light.
Happy Remembrance Day!
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