Tuesday, June 21, 2011

2011 Emancipation Day Bus Tour – “The Freedom Trial Celebration”

The Ontario Black History Society is pleased to invite you to join them on the following bus tour -

Date: Saturday, July 23rd

Departure Location: Yorkdale Mall by the Cineplex Entrance

Departure Time: 8:00AM

Return Time: 9:00PM

Cost: $ 65.00- Members, $75.00- Non-Members ($40 Deposit required upon reservation)
RSVP by June 22nd, 2011 to 416)-867-9420 or E-mail: admin@blackhistorysociety.ca

Sites to be visited include

St. Catharines Museum at the Welland Canals Centre
The St. Catharines Museum's award-winning exhibit, Follow the North Star, explores the black experience along the Underground Railroad and recounts the rich legacy of Niagara's African Canadians.

Anthony Burns Gravesite
The provincial historic plaque at this site honours the memory of Reverend Anthony Burns, the last person tried under the Fugitive Slave Act in Massachusetts. A verdict, which returned him to slavery, incited street riots. Boston abolition­ists bought his freedom and educated him before he settled in St. Catharines and successfully ministered at Zion Baptist Church.

St. Catharines British Methodist Episcopal Church (Salem Chapel)
Its proximity to the border, access to rail lines, and employment opportunities, established St. Catharines as a large refugee centre. In 1855 their first small log church was replaced with this larger, more finished building. Its open hall plan includes a three-sided balcony, providing seating capacity for the large number of people who regularly attended, often including the famous Harriet Tubman and the newly arrived refugees whom she had led to freedom.

R. Nathaniel Dett British Methodist Episcopal Church
Constructed in 1836, this building was originally in the area of present-day Niagara Falls, then known as Fallsview. The church was designated a national historic site in 2001. The Chapel continues to be the spiritual and cultural center of the black community. It was named in honour of native-born, world-renowned musician and composer of sacred music, Robert Nathaniel Dett, who, from 1898 to 1903, was the church organist".

The Black History Society
10 Adelaide Street East Suite 402
Toronto, Ontario, M5C 1J3
Telephone:  (416) 867-9420 Fax: (416) 867-8691
Website: www.blackhistorysociety

World Acadian Congress Family Reunions

Organizers of the L'Acadie du Monde (International World Acadian Congress, to be held in August 2014) are looking for people who can organize family reunions. They hope to bring Acadian families from all over the world to celebrate the cultural traditions by attending the Congress in August.

The theme for the 2014 Congress is "Lands and Forests", which will be held in Maine's St. John Valley, in southeast Quebec, and in northwest New Brunswick.

They are hoping for 100 family reunions, and for over 50,000 people to attend the two-week-long Congress.

Acadians are the descendants of colonial French families who were exiled from their homes in 1755 by the British government in what was called Le Grand Derangement, or The Great Displacement.

Applications for families interested in hosting a family reunion are available online at the website for the fifth World Acadian Congress at http://www.acadian.org/congres5.html.