Sometimes French speaking Blacks are thought widely to have
originated in Haiti or French speaking African nations; such as the Democratic
Republic of Congo (Zaire). The history of Black people in Montreal and the
rest of Canada is a fairly old one. The first documented Black visitor to Canada
was Matthew da Costa in 1606 who traveled to Canada with Champlain; he was
a translator. But many historians believe that there were Blacks on Canada
before da Costa, the biggest theory is that Libyans traveled through Canada in
500 A.D. and that there were Africans who came in the 14th century.
Afro-Canadians didn�t live in peace for a long period of time, until they finally
got a break in 1834 when the Canadian government enforced slavery laws to
stop Blacks being mistreated. Many Black people started coming shortly
after, when the American Revolution broke out. Plus it was only 25 years after
they enforced the slavery laws when the Civil War broke out. At this time Blacks
came to Canada and settled usually in either Nova Scotia or Ontario, via either
underground railways or by mail. But it wasn�t long until the Black Canadians
spread to Montreal and the rest of Quebec.
Most of the Black Canadian citizens lived in peace for 76 years while the
laws stood and the Canadian government welcomed the Black population, when the government made the Immigration Act of 1910. This act stated that
coloured were not allowed in the country. However the Canadian government
did not send the already settled Blacks packing, but they did make it legal to
disallow coloured persons into restaurants and made it so that they didn�t have
much choice in where they lived. The poor Blacks lived near Saint-Laurent Blvd.,
where rooms were rented for four dollars a week. The wealthier Black families
lived on the South Shore, where they built houses on fifty dollar hundred square
foot lots. Nine of ten Black families lived in the St-Antoine district, near the
railways where they worked as servers and tenders.
The St-Antoine district was hit the hardest during the Depression of the
1930s. Many Blacks went back to America straight after their jobs ended.
But the 1940s brought more than a new hope, it sky rocketed both the
working Black man and brought Blacks and whites closer to living together in
peace. Black families with men in the war got loans and permits and many
moved to Montreal North and Ville Saint-Laurent.
One of the biggest boosts for the Black pride was the arrival of Jackie
Robinson, a baseball player who signed with the Major League team the
Brooklyn Dodgers at the wars end, but who came and played for Montreal's
AAA team. Jackie Robinson did go on to play for the Dodgers and is still known
to be a big inspiration for Black athletes of any sport. (AAA teams are teams for
players who have talent but not enough for the big leagues.)
St-Antoine, Montreals biggest Black community, broke when politicians
decided to build highway 720, which brought a lot of disruption to the peaceful
community. It took a long time but the Black community rebuilt a lot of its
district, but there were many things that got changed, including its name which
became Little Burgundy. But as racism decreased Black families started moving
throughout the city, and today its largest Black community, with one third of the
Black population of Montreal, is Cote-des-Neiges. Thanks to the loving
people of Montreal, Blacks live almost all over the city, and most of them live
peacefully at that.
