Mayor Don Darling (left) stands with organizers Lily Lynch (centre) and Ralph Thomas (right) during the inaugural raising of the Pan-African flag. (Danielle McCreadie)
Saint John is celebrating Black History Month by flying the Pan-African flag outside City Hall.
An inaugural flag-raising was held late Monday afternoon. It’s the first time the flag is being flown in the province to honour Black History Month.
Lily Lynch, the organizer of the flag-raising, says she hopes the flag encourages reflection.
“It’s really important to see that visually so that the community can know its a month of celebration and acknowledgement,” she said.
“I hope that people pause and reflect on the privileges that we have as Canadians and really take a moment to think back to impactful black Canadians who have made our history in Canada so strong,” she said.
Lynch says there are a number of prominent black figures in Atlantic Canada who have made history, including Viola Desmond, and Carrie Best, the first black journalist in the country.
She organized the event to honour her grandfather, a black Loyalist settler from Nova Scotia.
“I lost my grandfather really recently, and I really wanted to bring about this even to acknowledge black Canadian history and the impacts of individuals like Rose Fortune and like my grandfather,”
Lynch says Fortune is one of her ancestors. She was one of the first unofficial black policewomen in the area. Lynch says the Fundy Rose ferry was named after her.
“It’s important to recognize that there are black settlers here, even though we might not visually see them that much in Saint John.”
Lynch says the Pan-African flag isn’t one of the 54 flags from Africa, but rather was created in the 1920s by activist Marcus Garvey as a symbol of Black Liberation and Black Power.
She hopes to make the flag-raising an annual event in the city.
Up it goes! The colours on the flag —also known as the Black Liberation Flag — represent the blood that was shed for liberation, the colour of their skin, and the abundance of lush green in Africa. pic.twitter.com/hJv9TMSGR5
— Danielle McCreadie (@danimccreadie) February 3, 2020
Community activist Ralph Thomas says acknowledging the history and contributions of black people is the first step, but more needs to be done.
“We all ask the question ‘how do you work with the African people that are here today,’ and we don’t have the answers really because we don’t get together enough,” he said.
Thomas is currently working on a project that would see a number of historic black documents and works displayed permanently somewhere in the city
Mayor Don Darling says being the first city in New Brunswick to fly the flag during Black History Month sends an important message.
‘We’re at a time where we’re experiencing growth again, where the community is becoming more diverse. It sends a signal that in this community, we celebrate diversity and that we are a city that wants to celebrate its past, but at the same time is moving forward,” he said.
Darling says he has learned a lot from community activists like Thomas about being black in New Brunswick.
He says there is still more work to be done to combat racism and to highlight the contributions of black people.
