Bob Ingraham, past president of the BC Philatelic Society and great conveyor of information regarding all things philatelic, sent us this news release from Lillian Au of Canada Post.
To recognize February as Black History Month, Canada Post will issue two stamps. One will feature Abraham Doras Shadd, who played a major role in the Underground Railroad and was reported to be the first black person to hold a political office in Canada. The second stamp will honour Rosemary Brown, the first Black woman to be elected to public office and the first woman to run for the leadership of a Canadian federal political party.
The National Congress of Black Women Foundation will host the stamp launch on February 1, 2009 at the Vancouver Playhouse. Representatives from the Brown and Shadd family and NDP Leader Jack Layton will be in attendance. Tickets to the black tie event are $75.00 each. To order tickets, please contact the Congress at 604-605-0124. The new stamps will be on sale at the event, one day prior to the official release date.
World renowned jazz singer Dee Daniels will also be performing at this Vancouver event. Just as a coincidence, Andrew and I have just come home from seeing her here in Victoria at the Alix Goolden Performance Hall where she performed an exceptional repertoire of Billy Holiday and Ella Fitzgerald standards. To go to her website, click here.
Rosemary Brown was known for her integrity, intelligence and inclusiveness. Her accomplishments include the areas of social work, politics and academia. Go to the two following links for an overview of her life and career:
This photograph below of the 1995 Order of British Columbia recipients and Provincial Government Representatives reflects the social mosaic that forward-thinking people like Rosemary Brown championed.
Standing (Left to Right): Herbert Skidmore; Arthur Skidmore; the Honourable John A. Fraser; the Honourable Allan McEachern, Chief Justice; the Honourable Mike Harcourt, Premier; the Honourable Garde B. Gardom, Lieutenant-Governor; the Honourable Emery O. Barnes, Speaker; the Honourable Ujjal Dosanjh, Minister of Government Services; Robert M. Cooper; Edna A. Cooper; Isabelle M. Diamond.
Seated (Left to Right): Robert C. Davidson; David W. Foster; Michael Smith; Rosemary Brown; Nava Ashraf; J.Fenwick Lansdowne; Tara Singh Hayer; Kenneth McVay.
Absent: George Curtis; David Suzuki; David & Dorothy Lam
Abraham and Mary Ann Shadd
Abraham Shadd is best known as the first black person to be elected to office in Canada. Much of his abolitionist work was done in the United States before he immigrated to Canada with a good number of his family members. Here is a short bio we got from the web.
Abraham D. Shadd (1801-1882)
Abraham D. Shadd was one of the most important black leaders in Delaware during the 19th century. His accomplishments in the cause for the abolition of slavery rank him among national figures. Born in Mill Creek Hundred in 1801, Shadd was a descendant of a German military officer who had settled in West Chester years before. He married, fathered 13 children and earned a respectable living as a shoemaker, a trade he learned from his father. After attending the first National Convention to protest racism in Philadelphia in September 1830, Shadd went on to attend most major meetings regarding the abolition of slavery over the course of the next decades including: the National Negro Convention (1830, '31, '32), the American Antislavery Society's meeting (1835, '36), and the National Convention (elected president in 1833). Along with Peter Spencer, he opposed African colonization and argued for the entitlement to civil rights he felt black Americans should have as a result of their significant investment in the country's foundation. Shadd conducted anti-slavery and Underground Railroad activity from his home in West Chester, Pennsylvania, until his move to Canada in 1851. The successes of his children include: Mary Ann Shadd (1823-1893), educator, lawyer and journalist; I.D. Shadd, member of the Mississippi Legislature from 1871 to 1874; Abraham W. Shadd, graduate of Howard Law School; Emaline Shadd, professor at Howard University.
In researching Abraham Shadd, we consistently found far more references and sources linked to his daughter, Mary Ann. She is considered by many to have been one of the most influential North American women of the 19th century. Teacher, publisher, suffragette and lawyer were only a few of her areas of expertise.
Mary Ann Shadd
Mary Ann Shadd was a female pioneer in the quest for racial and gender equality in America. Born in Wilmington, Delaware in 1823, Mary Ann became an important teacher, newspaper publisher, lawyer, and abolitionist. Appalled by the passage of the fugitive slave act in 1850, Shadd relocated to North Buxton, Ontario. There she founded the "Provincial Freeman", becoming the first black woman to publish a newspaper in North America. Along with Samuel Ringgold Ward, a runaway from Kent County, Maryland, Shadd helped fugitives find land granted by the Province to runaways. In 1855 she was the first woman to speak at the National Negro Convention and eventually testified before Congress in favor of women's suffrage. In 1883 she obtained a law degree from Howard University in Washington, D.C. and established a legal practice dedicated to obtaining equal rights for black Americans. She continued to write for newspapers and fight for equality until her death in 1893.
To read more on this renaissance wonder of the 1800s go to the following links: