Despite its long history, Black history has only ‘officially’ been recognized in Canada since 1995, when the House of Commons declared February to be Black History Month. Similarly, The Ubyssey has been covering Black History Month events since roughly 1990, even though Black history has been happening on campus since the beginning of UBC. With that, here is a (limited) timeline of what events have happened in the early years of the celebration of the Month.
1990
The year 1990 marks the first time the phrase “Black History Month” was published in The Ubyssey. To celebrate, there was a film series throughout the month on issues such as “the struggle for American Civil Rights in the 1960’s to today’s anti-apartheid movement in South Africa.”
1992
Films for Black History Month were screened on February 11, 14 and 18 in The Ubyssey office.
1994
This year saw a Black History Week happen in the Student Union Building (SUB), which featured speakers, an art exhibit and video screenings. This was also the first year The Ubyssey published a Black History Month supplement. The supplement had students’ poetry and personal essays.
1996
The newly created resource group Colour Connected Against Racism organized the Black History Month festivities. Events included “Kuumba ’96” art exhibit, film screenings and an information booth in the SUB.
1997
This year featured the “Afro-Aesthetics” art exhibit at AMS Gallery and an information display in the SUB. The display focused on the experiences of Black people in the Lower Mainland, looking specifically at “issues of racial harassment and violence.” There was a Black History supplement in The Ubyssey as well.
1998
Again, there was an art display in SUB art gallery. There was also an “Urban Jam” night in the Pit which included presentations and an event with “Speakers, spoken word and dance” on February 27.
1999
Colour Connected presented films.
2002
Rapper k-os performed at the Pit. The concert was organized by Colour Connected.
2003
This year featured many publicized events. MLA Rosemary Brown and and “tap dancer extraordinaire Jeni LeGo [gave] talks. A one woman show and a “Discussion on growing up in mixed ethnicity” was held in the Norm Theatre. Former Much Music VJ Master T hosted an evening of music from the African Diaspora at the Pit. On top of all of that, there was a film showing on the intersections of being Black and gay.
At this point, reporting on individual Black History Month events drops off. This by no means means that events stopped happening, it just means The Ubyssey stopped covering them in such detail.