As a teacher of courses that reference Black people of African descent in Hamilton and in Canada, Kojo Damptey has come to realize that the majority of undergraduate students just “don’t know about these stories.”
Damptey, a part-time faculty member at McMaster and Wilfrid Laurier universities, says he felt it was important to create a public lecture series that speaks to some of these things — so he’s done just that.
The four virtual interactive public lectures, titled Unnoticed Histories of Black Communities in Hamilton, will be held during Black History Month, on Feb. 5, 12, 19 and 26.
“You go across Hamilton, we have neighbourhoods that are named after loyalists and settlers, British settlers that came here in the 1700s and 1800s that worked with Black community members. And yet the histories [of those Black community members] are not known,” Damptey told CBC Hamilton.
For example, Damptey said there was a Black regiment that supported Sir Allan MacNab during the wars with the United States. He said while “everybody knows about Sir Allan MacNab,” the history of the Black regiment is not known.
“I think this lecture series will provide at least a taste of some of the histories of Black communities,” he added.
Lectures open to everyone
Damptey said the lectures are “fully accessible” to anybody in Hamilton — “teachers, high school students, residents and anyone else that might be interested.”
Damptey noted that people of African descent have been in Hamilton long before the city was incorporated, and there are many stories of Black Hamiltonians that have done “so much” and made “so many contributions here in the city.”
Yet, he said, the general public, and even members of the Black community do not know about this history.
“So, I think it’s very, very, very important,” Damptey said.
Mara Benjamin, the site supervisor at Griffin House National Historic Site, will be presenting at one of the lectures. So will Daunte Hillen, a Grade 12 student at Sherwood Secondary School.
Hillen serves as the Indigenous student trustee on the Hamilton-Wentworth District School Board and chair of the Indigenous Student Trustees Council at the Ontario Student Trustees Association.
Black, Indigenous youth voices, often ‘overlooked in conversations’
As a young person “shaped by Hamilton’s history,” Hillen said he feels “responsible for helping [to] shape the future of our city.”
“As a youth in governance and advocacy, I often see how young voices, especially our Black and Indigenous youth voices, are overlooked in conversations with the future of our city,” Hillen told CBC News.
“So … I do think that this series does give me a chance to honour the past, but also speak to where we’re going and who gets to be a part of that future.
“I want people to really understand that Black history is not separate from Hamilton’s history, but it is central to it,” he added.
Hillen said his presentation will focus on how Black history in Hamilton is continuing today through youth leaders, family and community.
“I’ll share a couple stories about young people today and how they’re really carrying that legacy forward, a legacy of resistance, creativity and community building that came before us,” said Hillen.
“I do also want to talk about my personal responsibility, but also experiences of other Black youth navigating leadership spaces … I’ll reflect on how our imagination and hope is just as important in that struggle in shaping the next chapter of Black history in Hamilton.”
‘Our stories are always simplified’: Damptey
Meanwhile, Damptey believes the perception of Black communities is sometimes misunderstood.
He said a number of Black community members in the 1800s and 1900s owned businesses, many were involved in civic and political engagements and a number of them were part of the Underground Railroad.
“They were all doing different things, but I think our stories are always simplified, and that is another reason why the title of the lecture series is called Unnoticed Histories of Black Communities,” Damptey said.
While noting that “these are histories that are either left behind or are just simplified,” Damptey said the lecture series is also meant to detail the different experiences of Black people in Hamilton, “whether they can trace their histories to freedom seekers from the 1700s or 1800s, whether they immigrated here in the in the 1900s or in the 1960s, or came here in the 2000s or recently just arrived.”
“I think that is a very, very, very important historical context to provide for the current Black community here in Hamilton and even across Ontario and the country,” he said.
For more stories about the experiences of Black Canadians — from anti-Black racism to success stories within the Black community — check out Being Black in Canada, a CBC project Black Canadians can be proud of. You can read more stories here.
