**START DATE OF BCSE: 1919** **TARGET AUDIENCE: N/A** **FUNDING: N/A**
BRIEF DESCRIPTION: Marcus Garvey’s Toronto-based UNIA chapter ran educational programs for youth and adults, linking Pan-African philosophy and community schooling. “In April 1919, the Coloured Literary Association was founded by a few West Indian men; they would meet in the back room of Occidental Cleaners and Dyers store at 318 Spadina Avenue. Several months later, a charter was obtained from the UNIA headquarters in Harlem, and the Toronto UNIA division was officially founded on December 1, 1919. In its early days, members met at the Occidental Hall at the corner of Bathurst and Queen Street West, which later became a concert hall for many years and is now a CB2 store. Before finding permanent headquarters, UNIA meetings were held in a rented space at 339 Queen Street West, which is now an Arc’teryx store. After fundraising for many years, members were finally able to purchase a building at 355 College Street in 1925, which remained the UNIA’s until 1982 and later became the long-time location of reggae bar Thymeless. At its peak, the Toronto division had around 200-300 members working towards solidarity and independence, engaging in politics, celebrating culture, and fostering what remained a community hub for decades.”
**START DATE OF BCSE: 1960’s** **END DATE OF INITIATIVE: September 1989** **FUNDING: Originally funded by Shriners and the Kiwanis Club, the Rotary Club up until about 1969. As of 1969 it was solely funded by Centraide, Redfeather. (source: Wilma’s interview)**
(1969 - present) BRIEF DESCRIPTION: Founded by parents in Flemingdon Park to supplement mainstream education with Black history and culture; became Toronto’s longest-running Saturday school model and influenced later Afrocentric education initiatives.
**START DATE OF BCSE: 1962** **TARGET AUDIENCE: Jamaican community in Montreal** **Funding: N/A**
BRIEF DESCRIPTION: Volunteer-run tutoring initiative supporting Caribbean students excluded by Toronto’s school system; precursor to later Afrocentric schools and community programs. The Black Education Project (BEP) in Toronto, founded by Marlene Green around 1969, emerged from the Black Power movement to combat systemic racism in education, addressing high dropout rates and streaming of Black students into special needs/non-academic paths, offering after-school tutoring, Black history, and empowerment through programs for Black youth and parents to promote self-esteem and academic success, reflecting broader Black Canadian activism for educational equity in the 60s and 70s.
October 11-14, 1968 BRIEF DESCRIPTION: An international gathering of Black people, which took place on the campus of McGill University, to discuss local and global Black struggle, Black history, the Black Power movement, and Black liberation. Among notable attendees and presenters were Stokely Carmichael (Kwame Ture), Rosie Douglas, James Forman, C.L.R. James, Rocky Jones, Walter Rodney, and Elder Thébaud.
**START DATE OF BCSE: 1969** **TARGET AUDIENCE: Black children and youth; entire Black families** **FUNDING: Predominantly self-funded through community contributions; little or no government funding; sustained by volunteer labour and careful financial management**
**START DATE OF BCSE: 1969** **FUNDING: Non Profit and volunteer run but non school related activities and programs**
(1969) BRIEF DESCRIPTION: The first Black-led student protest in Canada garnering national attention, the Sir George Williams Affair developed at Sir George Williams University (now Concordia University) in Montreal in response to Black students’ complaints about racism they experienced in grading at the hands of a biology professor, and the university’s mishandling of the complaint (which it ultimately dismissed). Students staged a sit-in in the computer lab on the ninth floor of one of the university buildings to solicit the attention of the university administration. After several days, police were called. Chaos ensued as police brutally treated the students, arresting many of them and resulting in the deportation of many students from the Caribbean.
