The modern Black history of British Columbia starts in the Spring of 1858. The discovery of gold, well-publicized in California, attracted hundreds of fortune-seekers to Victoria and to the banks of the Fraser. The first Blacks to arrive in British Columbia were part of that wave of immigration. They landed in Esquimalt, on Sunday, the 25th April, 1858.
Here, like elsewhere, Blacks became an integral part of the society in British Columbia. However, their participation and deeds received little recognition or went unrecorded in the history books.'They remained the invisible, visible minorities.
Culture is evolutionary; influenced and changed by the things around it. British Columbia culture, if we can use that expression, is a result of the many varying peoples that have passed through history. However, the influence of the Black community on that cultural evolution is often omitted or forgotten outright, To fail to acknowledge the contribution is to deny the existence of the contributor.
Depicted below is 'The Commodore', the ship that brought the first Blacks to BC
