The Black Press: A Shadowed Canadian Tradition

The Black Press brings together original, multidisciplinary research that explores the history and impact of Black newspapers in Canada. This collection of essays introduces readers to the rich archive of Black Canadian journalism, spanning the period from the abolitionist to the modern civil rights era, and reveals the extensive network of African and African-descended activist-journalists.
The book positions Black Canadian journalists, editors, publishers, and readers as influential intellectual activists whose efforts shaped the press to drive socio-cultural change both in Canada and abroad. Through historical analysis and archival research, each essay highlights how Black journalists countered mainstream portrayals of their community, challenging dominant narratives of Blackness in the Canadian imaginary. The essays demonstrate how the Black Press served as a crucial space for reflecting on Black Canadian identity, belonging, social justice, and human rights within the colonial contexts of the nineteenth and twentieth centuries. Combining historical, archival, and cultural analysis, the book uncovers the profound and often overlooked influence of the Black Press on Canada’s cultural and political landscape.

Claudine Bonner is the Canada Research Chair in Racial Justice and African Diaspora Migration and an associate professor of sociology at Mount Allison University. Boulou Ebanda de b’Béri is a professor of Communication and Cultural Studies and the founding director of the Audiovisual Media Lab for the study of Cultures and Societies at the University of Ottawa.
Nina Reid-Maroney is an associate professor in the Department of History at Huron University College, Western University.