New Brunswick Black History Society

In June 2021, the organization opened New Brunswick's first Black History Heritage Site located in Brunswick Square in the city of Saint John, New Brunswick. The room, which showcases exhibits providing information about Underground Railroad escapees of slavery and prominent black people of New Brunswick, was created to educate locals of the province's black history, in similar fashion to centres in other provinces.[1][2][3]

The NBBHS has contributed to the renaming of several New Brunswick geographical locations and points with racist names containing the ”N” slur. Many of these locations were renamed to honor early Black sellers to the province,[4] one example being the breakwater that connects Partridge Island to mainland Saint John, which was renamed to Hodges Point Breakwater in honor of Frederick Douglas Hodges, a local labor and civil rights leader.[5]

The organization has also done work to preserve and bring awareness towards preserving Black burial sites in the province,[6] such as the Black Settlement Burial Ground in Willow Grove, New Brunswick, a resting place for numerous Black Loyalists and refugees who had fled the United States in the early 19th century.[7]

In 2021, the NBBHS, along with affiliate organization PRUDE as well as local lawyers, raised funds to implement a headstone for first Canadian-born Black lawyer Abraham Beverley Walker, whose grave was previously unmarked.[8] The new headstone was unveiled at a cemetery in Saint John on 24 June 2021.[9]