'It gives you a glow': New calendar offers 2020 vision of black history

After more than 20 years of collecting facts about black history, a Kentville, N.S., woman has created a calendar with entries for every day of 2020.

"I want the black history put out there for the kids," said 71-year-old Juanita Pleasant, who identifies as black, and whose ancestors were black, Mi'kmaq and European.

"When I was growing up and going to school, which was eons ago, they didn't have any black history," she said."I didn't know that our people did anything important.There was nothing around that said we had any value."

Pleasant said she's gathered her historical facts for more than two decadesand worked on the calendar for the last seven years.

"It's just information I gather up from talking to people,orold newspaper clippings,or off of people's obituaries," she said.

Pleasant has more than a dozen large boxes and bins of newspaper clippings stored in her home, which she combs for black historical facts.

But many of her calendar entries come from her own community, such as the one documenting Elroy Hill, whom she knew growing up.

'Warm and fuzzy all over'

"I seen this nice-looking black manin his uniform every dayand I just thought he was nice looking," she said."It was years later, when I was in my 30s, I found out he was [Nova Scotia's] first paid, black, professional firefighter."

Pleasant enjoyed the surprise of discovering each new fact."It gives you a glow. It makes you feel warm and fuzzy all over," she said.

The calendar has more than 400 entries, from local history to world events. Here are two from Jan. 2:

• Aaron (Pa) Carvery, last resident to vacate home in Africville (1970).
• Oscar Micheaux, filmmaker,born (1884).

The oldest entry is from 1604, which documents the arrival of translator Mathieu da Costa at Port Royal. He was the first black man to set foot in Nova Scotia.

The most recent entry is the May2018 marriage of Prince Harry to black actress Meghan Markle.

Donating copies to schools

The cover has a sketch of seven generations of Pleasant's family.

She named it Aaliyah's Walk Through History,after her eldest grandchild.

Pleasant saidshe spent hundreds of dollars to print 125 copies of her calendar. She's gifted many to her large family, but she's giving 25 of them to schools in Nova Scotia's Annapolis Valley.

She hopes they will inspire black Nova Scotian students.

"I think they should be proud of their culture, so that's one of the things I want them to know. And I'm hoping the calendar will do that," she said.

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