Notable facts: Date of birth: Apr. 1, 1942; date of death: Jan. 9, 2012. In 1976, Windsorite Pat Alexander founded, directed and choreographed a group of girls called the Afro-Canadian Ensemble. The group, who included Terryll Chase, Pam Porter, Angela Walls, Cheryl Walls and Patty Alexander, was the youngest and only Black group from Canada chosen for a part in the cultural program at the Olympic Games in Montreal.
Notable facts: Date of death: Apr. 16, 1996; played with the Chatham Coloured All Stars, an all-Black baseball team founded in 1932, due to segregation. They became the first Black team to win a provincial amateur league baseball championship in 1934 (Ontario Baseball Association).
Notable facts: Date of birth: Apr. 17, 1823; date of death: Jul. 11, 1915; first Black elected municipal judge in the United States. Hon. Gibbs helped to organize his town's first militia, an all-black unit known as the African Rifles. The National Vigilance Committee was established to protect Blacks who were being threatened by slave catchers.
Notable facts: Date of birth: Apr. 18, 1950; he has had featured roles in major American films such as The Sum of All Fears, S.W.A.T and Get Rich or Die Trying. He has also done much voice work, including voicing the character of Bishop for the X-Men animated series and Tripp Hansen in Monster Force.
Known for: Masters student in Land and Water Systems; studying to become an agrologist
Notable facts: Completed an Honours Double Major in Physical Geography and Geology; upon graduation she received a Gold Media award for BSc Honour in Geography and a Certificate of Merit for Academic Excellence in Geography.
Notable facts: Date of birth: 1839; date of death: Apr. 21, 1905; African Methodist Episcopal Church clergyman; founder of the Canadian Jubilee Singers.
Notable facts: Award-winning author; storyteller; creative writing instructor at Dalhousie University; third Halifax Poet Laureate; curator of Dalhousie Art Gallery exhibit Stitched Stories: The Family Quilts.
Notable facts: Individually he was voted top speaker, making him Canada's best high school debater at the 19th Annual Senior National Debate Championships for high schoolers in Vancouver on Apr. 20-23, 2017.
Notable facts: Gerald was assigned to the Canadian Pacific Railway's brand new and finest train, "Canadian" on its first run across Canada on Apr. 24, 1955. He was put in charge of the sleeping car/lounge car.
Notable facts: On Apr. 25, 1858, a group of 35 Blacks from San Francisco arrived in Victoria, British Columbia to examine the colony before accepting Governor James Douglas' invition to settle in B.C. A couple of the men returned to San Francisco and said, "The climate is most beautiful; the strawberry vines and peach trees are in full blow... All the colored man wants here is ability and money... It is a God-sent land for the colored people." About 800 Blacks moved to B.C shortly after.
Notable facts: Date of birth: Apr. 28, 1827; date of death: Aug. 27, 1904; he volunteered for the Royal Navy sometime before 1852 and was decorated in the Crimean War in 1854-1855. In 1857, he was sent with a brigade of sailors to Lucknow, India to relieve the British garrison besieged there. Only Hall and one officer survived and between them, they loaded and served the last gun. For this, he won the Victoria Cross, making him the first coloured man to do so.
