A member of the St. Clair family was recently recognized at the provincial and national level for her decades of contributions telling the powerful stories of Black History in Windsor and Essex County.
Irene Moore Davis is the Manager of Continuing Education at St. Clair College but is more widely known as the President of the Essex County Black Historical Research Society. In 2020 Moore Davis was executive producer of The North Was Our Canaan, a documentary film chronicling the importance of Sandwich Towne to local Black history which won Best Canadian Short Documentary at the International Black & Diversity Film Festival.
In early January 2022, Moore Davis was surprised to be inducted into the 100 Accomplished Black Canadian Women and was humbled again a few weeks later when she won the Harriet Tubman Award for Commitment to a Purpose by the Ontario Black History Society. Moore Davis was happy to learn she was nominated for both awards by her friend and longtime colleague, Shantelle Browning-Morgan.
"The Black community in Windsor is over 300 years old at this point and is full of incredible stories," Moore Davis said. "There is no way for me not to be inspired to share those stories and make sure everyone knows about them. That is what motivates me all the time."
Moore Davis believes these honours are not a reflection of herself but of the hard work put in by the Essex County Black History Research Society – which recently celebrated its 20th anniversary - to tell the public these powerful stories so our current generation knows and retells them.
"There is a big motivation to make sure that the ancestors' stories are told," Moore Davis said. "This award is encouragement for us to keep telling these stories and make sure they are conveyed in a way that various audiences can relate to."
This month is Black History Month across Canada. The 2022 theme is "February and Forever: Celebrating Black History Today and Every Day." It's an invitation to focus on recognizing all the contributions that Black Canadians have made and are making to Canada, not just in February but all year round, Moore Davis said.
Southwestern Ontario, the region that St. Clair College has traditionally served, is especially rich in Black history, Moore Davis added. Essex County and Chatham-Kent have been populated by people of African descent from the eighteenth century, when people living in slavery, as well as Black Loyalists, were among our area's earliest residents, to the nineteenth century when thousands of freedom seekers and free people of colour made our region their new home, to the twentieth and twenty-first centuries when we have been joined by new Canadians from the Caribbean, Latin America, and the continent of Africa.
St. Clair President Patti France said the College is proud to add its voice to the celebration of Black History Month.
"We encourage all students and staff to delve into the contributions made by Black Canadians in their fields of study," said President France. "They'll find that in almost every profession, Black Canadians have been groundbreaking innovators, providing important improvements to our nation's economy and quality of life. Those are contributions that we recognize throughout the year, but that we are particularly happy to highlight every February."
2022 is proving to be a very busy year for Moore Davis, who will be featured in the four-part mini-series Underground Railroad: The Secret History, which airs on Discovery Channel beginning Feb. 8th. Later in June, Moore Davis will also be releasing a new documentary film called Across the River to Freedom, which sheds a spotlight on a group of historic Black individuals who lived in Sandwich, what they went through, and their impact on the Canadian story.
- Brett Hedges