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June Black Canadian Calendar

  • ​Known for: Director; producer; writer
  • Notable facts: Date of birth: Jun. 1, 1966; founder of Conquering Lion Pictures; has won many awards. 
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  • ​Known for: Educator; coach
  • Notable facts: Date of birth: May 14, 1967; date of death: Jun. 2, 2017; Smith was the principal of Citadel High School. He was a passionate advocate for Africentric education, he was also a basketball coach. Smith received the 2017 Sport Nova Scotia Chair Award on May 29 for an "extraordinary contribution" to sport. 
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  • ​Known for: Baseball player; police officer
  • Notable facts: Date of birth: Jun. 3, 1919; date of death: Aug. 19, 2000; 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); Harding became the first Black police officer in Chatham. 
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  • ​Known for: Musician; singer; actor
  • Notable facts: On Jun. 4, 2016, Richardson was honoured with the 2016 Transformation Award for her long history as a singer and actor. She has also won the Gemini Award for Best Performance by an Actress in a Leading Role in a Dramatic Program or Mini-Series for The Gospel According to the Blues and a 2004​ Dora Award for the musical Cookin' at the Cookery. 
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  • ​Known for: Athlete; horse race jockey
  • Notable facts: Patrick received the Avelino Gomez Memorial Award on Jun. 5, ​2014, an award that honours horse race jockeys who have made contributions in the sport. He received the Outstanding Jockey Sovereign Award seven times and was inducted into the Brampton Sports Hall of Fame in 2005. 
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  • ​Known for: Executive director
  • Notable facts: Date of birth: Jun. 6, 1954; date of death: Sept. 26, 2016; former executive director of Etobicoke-based Community MicroSkills Development Centre since 1988 which provides settlement, employment and self-employment services to tens of thousands of immigrants, low-income women and youth in the GTA. 
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  • ​Known for: Lecturer 
  • Notable facts: First book, The Souls of Yoruba Folk: Indigeneity, Race and Critical Spiritual Literacy in the African Diaspora, was released on Jun. 7, 2015; lecturer in Education and Sociology at Victoria University and the Transitional Year Programme at the University of Toronto. 
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  • ​Known for: Judge 
  • Notable facts: Date of birth: Aug. 6, 1920; date of death: Jun. 8, 2013; first Black judge appointed in Canada when he was named to the Ontario Bench. 
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  • ​Known for: Yukon gold and silver prospector; laundry operator
  • Notable facts: Date of death: Jun. 10, 1972; was one of approximately 100 Blacks living in the Yukon in 1901.
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  • ​Known for: Artist
  • Notable facts: Alaga, known artistically as Benny Bing, participated in the fourth annual 2016 Toronto Art Crawl on Jun. 11, 2016, leading live demonstrations of his paintings. 
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For hands on educator resources, go to shopETFO.

Download the 365 Black Canadian Curriculum
  • ​Known for: Teacher; principal; soldier
  • Notable facts: Date of birth: Jun. 13, 1924; date of death: Apr. 10, 1994; first Black teacher and principal in the Toronto District School Board; soldier in the Royal Canadian Air Force. 
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For hands on educator resources, go to shopETFO.

Download the 365 Black Canadian Curriculum
  • ​Known for: Minister; activist
  • Notable facts: Date of birth: Jun. 15, 1789; date of death: May 5, 1883; founder of the Dawn Settlement. 
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  • ​Known for: Chaplain
  • Notable facts: Date of birth: Jun. 16, 1874; date of death: Sept. 1936; only Black chaplain in the British army during World War I. 
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  • ​Known for: Politician
  • Notable facts: Date of birth: Jun. 17, 1930; date of death: Apr. 26, 2003; Canada's first Black female member of a provincial (British Columbia) legislature (1972-1986) and the first woman to run for leadership of a federal political party. 
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  • ​Known for: Dentist; gold miner
  • Notable facts: Date of birth: Jun. 18, 1831; date of death: Mar. 13, 1897; received his degree in dentistry at Oberlin College in 1857 and began his practice in Barkerville, British Columbia. He was the first registered dentist in British Columbia and became known as "The Barkerville Dentist" or "Painless Jones."
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  • ​Known for: Project manager
  • Notable facts: Date of birth: Jun. 19, 1975; project manager for the initiative titled Child Welfare Service to African Canadian families in Ontario, with the Ontario Association of Children's Aid Societies. 
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  • ​Known for: Lawyer
  • Notable facts: On Jun. 20, 2016, Renatta received a 2016 Lexpert Zenith Award for the University of Toronto Faculty of Law Alumni; she specializes in serving low income clients and students who have been expelled or suspended. 
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  • ​Known for: Facilitator; founder
  • Notable facts: Date of birth: Aug. 1, 1955; community and youth engagement facilitator; founder of the Zero Gun Violence Movement which launched on Jun. 21, 2013; member of the African Canadian Heritage Association. 
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  • ​Known for: Dentist; art collector and curator
  • Notable facts: In 1997, he founded Wedge Curatorial Projects, a not-for-profit organization dedicated to promoting contemporary art that investigates Black identity. He is also the owner of the Wedge Collection, which primarily includes historic and contemporary photography, but has recently grown to encompass video work, painting and design. Kenneth received an honourary doctorate from OCAD in 2016. He was appointed trustee for the Art Gallery of Ontario on Jun. 22, 2015 and is the chair of the AGO's Education and Community Engagement Committee. 
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  • ​Known for: Doctor
  • Notable facts: Date of birth: Jun. 23, 1939; immunologist; Dr. James became the first Black woman accepted into the Faculty of Medicine at the University of Manitoba in 1960 and was the first Black woman to receive the Order of Manitoba on Jun. 15, 2004. She was an assistant professor in the Faculty of Medicine at the University of Manitoba. Since 1976, Dr. James has operated a practice in allergy and immunology at the Winnipeg Clinic. 
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  • ​Known for: Singer
  • Notable facts: Date of birth: Jun. 24, 1911; date of death: 1968; first Black Canadian concert singer to win international acclaim. 
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  • ​Known for: Founder
  • Notable facts: Date of birth: Jun. 26, 1961; founder of the Legacy Voices Project which was formed to collect, record and preserve Black Canadian military history. 
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  • ​Known for: Public health spokesperson; associate director
  • Notable facts: Toronto Public Health spokesperson; associate director of Healthy Environments; presented with the Canadian Institute of Public Health Inspectors (CIPHI) and the Environmental Health Foundation of Canada National Sanitation Foundation Food Safety Award on Jun. 27, 2011 at the annual conference in Halifax. 
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  • ​Known for: Founder and artistic director of Caribbean Tales; Caribbean-Canadian filmmaker; writer; producer; distributor
  • Notable facts: Date of birth: Jun. 28, 1966; recipient of many prestigious international awards. 
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  • ​Known for: Dub poet
  • Notable facts: Date of birth: Jun. 29, 1952; 1992 recipient of a James Michener Fellowship to the University of Miami's Caribbean Writers' Summer Institute; nominated for a John C. Holland Award. 
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  • ​Known for: Consultant
  • Notable facts: Date of birth: Jun. 30, 1964; principal consultant at Turner Consulting Group Inc. which offers ​a range of services to help clients create diverse workforces, comply with employment equity legislation, meet their policy development and research needs and evaluate programs. 
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