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For 150 years, Africville, sitting right next to Halifax, was a thriving Black Canadian community.
Halifax refused to provide city services, and eventually forced residents to move as they bulldozed their homes.
This is the story of that community.
Africville began as a small community of Black Canadians in the early 1800s.
In 1849, the Seaview African United Baptist Church was built. The church became the heart of the town. The Nova Scotia Railway was built straight through the community with no consultation.
In 1883, the city built an elementary school and charged residents for construction.
In 1906, another railroad, the Halifax and Southwestern Railway, was built through Africville and trains ran constantly through the community.
Africville never received proper roads, health services, electricity, or water from Halifax.
Instead, Halifax built a prison there in 1853, an infectious disease hospital in 1870, along with a slaughterhouse and a fecal waste depository. All without consultation.
Following the Halifax Explosion in 1917, nearly no funds were given to Africville residents to help them rebuild. With no source of proper water, residents usually had to boil their water before drinking it.
In 1958, Halifax built the town landfill next to Africville.
Despite efforts to remove residents, and Halifax's treatment of the community, it produced several famous Black Canadians.
Boxer George Dixon was born in the community, as was painter Edith Hester McDonald-Brown. Singer Portia White taught there in the 1930s.
From 1964 to 1967, in order to take the land from Africville residents, Halifax began a formal relocation. Residents and their belongings were transported by garbage trucks out of the community. As soon as a resident left, their house was demolished.
Even if a resident was away, their absence allowed the city to demolish their home. The historic church was demolished in the middle of the night on Nov. 20, 1967. The church was torn down before the city legally possessed the building.
Documents were forged to give the impression that the city bought the church prior to the demolition. Nearly all the vital records of residents were bulldozed inside the church and lost forever.
Part of the area of Africville is now occupied by the A. Murray MacKay Bridge interchange. Eddie Carvery, a former resident of Africville, has continued to lived on the Africville land since 1970 to protest the demolition of the community.
In 2010, Halifax announced the Africville Heritage Trust to design a museum and replica of the church. Mayor Peter Kelly also made the Africville Apology.
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