Black History Month and Humanism

According to the Government of Canada, February is Black History Month and “the 2025 theme for Black History Month is: Black Legacy and Leadership: Celebrating Canadian History and Uplifting Future Generations.” The federal government’s website provides further information regarding the motivation for the official designation as well as an invitation to, “learn more about Black Canadian communities, and how they continue to help shape Canada.” A number of resources and tools are provided to support this invitation -including a timeline of significant events in “Black history in Canada.”

For our part, we decided to investigate whether there may be evidence that “Black history in Canada” and “humanism” overlap in clear and meaningful ways.

Prior to the modern era, the history of Black communities in Canada is closely connected to the global history of slavery. An excellent place to begin learning about this history is Amherstburg Freedom Museum (AFM). The museum was founded in 1975 by residents of Amherstburg, Ontario. It preserves and presents artifacts and tells the story of African-Canadians’ journey and contributions.

According to the AFM , between they years 1800 and 1860, some 50,000 people fled slavery to Amherstburg, now well known for its place in the “Underground Railroad.” The AFM also explains that, “the ‘Underground Railroad’, as it became known, is commemorated at the Amherstburg Museum, so that we may all continue to seek solace and inspiration from what human beings can achieve when they offer an open hand of kindness to those driven by determination.” and, “We will vigorously champion the power of human beings to come together across the dividing lines of our societies. We will openly challenge those who limit the dreams of others through racial, economic, or social oppression. We will work tirelessly to scale and dismantle the barricades that prevent people from building new lives and new futures.” If there are more definitively humanist sentiments linking humanism to Black history in Canada, we look forward to reading them.

Ontario-based inquirers may also wish to use the DestinationOntario.com resource to identify information about (early) Black settlement in Ontario.

The history of humanism in the modern era is irrevocably linked to the advancement of human rights. To pinpoint what “the modern era” means, we look to the creation of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights in 1948. Perhaps more precisely, we look to that document as the beginning of the modern era for humanism and the human rights that humanist principles imply. In this way, we may have an expectation that humanists and the organizations which they create are positively aligned with the promotion of human rights for Black Canadians as individuals and as communities.

This is not quite evidence of what form such an alignment might take. We look forward to receiving and publishing details as they are discovered or are provided to us.

In the meantime, we found a 2020 blog post by Andrew Copson (of Humanists UK) which had some words that resonated with our inquiry and thought it would be worthwhile sharing them here, “Humanists, who care about the building of a more rational and fairer society, should always be ready to combat not just hate and prejudice but the injustice that arises from long standing inequalities. Humanists UK co-organised the first global congress against racism in the UK in 1911 and was a campaigner against colonialism, and its social and intellectual forebears have a good record on opposing slavery and injustice. What we don’t do as often is celebrate the black humanists who have shaped the humanist movement and are part of our modern tradition so here are seven of the best!“

We also found a CBC’s Ideas episode titled, Négritude: The birth of Black humanism. Historian Merve Fejzula had presented a talk at the University of Toronto in November 2022 which led to the Ideas episode.

Throughout our publication history, Humanist Heritage Canada (formerly HumanistFreedoms), we have covered stories and issues connected to African and Black humanists, most recently and frequently concerning Mubarak Bala. In the sprit of Copson’s seven best, here are seven of our best posts:

“Humanism, which I consider the ideological plank of humanity, reclines on the principles of reason and rationality. To attain a better society where love, humane value, and freedom reign, away from excessive religiosity (not religion), the human agency places the power for individual action in some other forces outside of the self and has brought so much human destruction since many centuries ago.” Toyin Falola 2021

Note: Humanist Heritage Canada will continue to expand this article as additional information is identified.

Up For Discussion

If you’re interested in analyzing and discussing this issue, there are actions you can take. First, here at Humanist Heritage Canada (Humanist Freedoms), we are open to receiving your well-written articles regarding “Black history month in Canada’ and any links to the history of humanism in Canada.

Second, we encourage you to visit the New Enlightenment Project’s (NEP) Facebook page and discussion group.

Citations, References And Other Reading

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Up For Discussion

Citations, References And Other Reading

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