After looking through local archives to study Black history in Guelph, the Guelph Black Heritage Society discovered that there isn’t much to be found.
To commemorate Black Heritage Month, the GBHA turned to Natasha Henry, historian and president of the Ontario Black History Society, to tell the tale of the Guelph British Methodist Episcopal Church which has been around for over 150 years, and has been a pillar for the Black community in Guelph.
Henry’s booklet, Change Starts Now: Our Stories. Our History. Our Heritage focuses on the church and the people who helped build the community around 1870.
“There's so much history and we needed a place to start and we figured why not start with the building that we now occupy?” said GBHA’s president Denise Francis.
“We need to create the resources for our community because they really do not exist.”
Henry said what stood out to her while researching was the extent of Black roots in Guelph and the role of the church as an anchor for the community.
“You have this material artifact, you have the building, which signifies that part of that history as a place of worship, but also as it has evolved over time, it remains an anchor in the community and remains a place to educate and to preserve history,” said Henry.
The project was special to Henry because she was able to contribute to the community by documenting history.
“There's been ongoing work, obviously, the university, people who have connections as descendants, and that's a lot of the work that I wrote and it was just great to be able to pull all of that together,” said Henry.
“Even though it's moved away from a place of worship, per se, it still does have a spiritual connection especially for people who are seeking to make those connections to that model, black history in Canada.”
The $20 cost of the booklet goes toward the cost of producing the booklet and the Change Starts Now education initiative. The booklet will be available all year around online and at the Flora Francis Memorial Library in the GBHA.
“We're very grateful that we're able to get some funding from the Guelph Community Foundation because they helped offset some of the costs,” said Francis.
Francis said she was surprised to read some interesting facts about the building in the booklet such as discovering that the board had female ministers and a vivid description of the building by Melba Jewel.
“It's been inspiring because I thought I was like a little local historian and I found out things about the building and members of the community that I didn't learn, and I hope others will find it valuable in that way too,” said Francis.
“We keep on telling people that even though we're doing this in February, we want people to think about Black history as Canadian history and it's something that should be celebrated all year round,” said Francis.
