February is Black History Month

Category: DistrictSchool

Delta School District is proud to celebrate Black History Month. The Learning Services team has curated various resources to help our students celebrate, honour, explore and learn about Black History over the next few weeks and beyond.

These include:

  • The British Columbia Black History Society (BCBHAS) creates awareness of the history of Blacks in B.C., and celebrates historical and current achievements in arts, education, government, sports, science and more.
  • Periodic Table of Canadian Black History made by some teachers in Ottawa. The squares link to the Canadian Encyclopedia which is known for its Black Canadian authorship of these topics.
  • If you’d like to learn Hogan’s Alley, which was historically home to Vancouver’s Black population, check out the Hogan’s Alley Society website.
  • The Canadian Olympic School Program has created resources for teachers that profile Black Canadian Olympic athletes. Each lesson includes reading materials and activities designed to support students in learning outcomes relating to goal setting, overcoming challenges and understanding stereotypes.
  • CBC has produced a series of interviews with Canadian Track and Field athletes about their experiences with racism.

Last month, many schools throughout the Delta School District participated in Black Shirt Day to help promote awareness and get more conversations started about racism and civil rights.

“At Delta School District, our vision of education is success for all. We have been engaging in a series of actions that involve using an anti-racist lens to reflect on resources and curriculum, professional learning, communication, and policies and procedures. As part of this, we established an Anti-Racism Committee. In addition, over the summer, a team of Delta educators launched a website (https://deltalearns.ca/antiracism/) to help our school community learn about anti-racism. These are just a few examples of our overarching and ongoing commitment to address racism and be part of the solution,” said Nancy Gordon, Assistant Superintendent.

Black History Month has been officially recognized in Canada since 1995.