As we look back on Canadian history, how many Black Canadian pioneers can we name that changed our way of thinking in this country? For Dorothy Williams, she hopes that one day, people’s perceptions of how Black Canadians have contributed to this country will change.

Willams, 62, who grew up in the Little Burgundy area of Montreal, is a historian, specifically focused on Black Canadian history. Having completed a BA in History at Concordia as well as a masters in History at McGill, Williams has published three books over the years; Blacks in Montreal; 1628-1986, written in 1989 and looks at racism in the housing market, The Road to Now; A History of Blacks in Montreal, published in 1997, and the translation of Blacks in Montreal known as Les Noirs à Montréal, Essai de démographie urbaine, in 1998. Since then, she has completed a Library and Information Studies Doctorate (2006) and Masters (2010) at McGill. She also created Blacbiblio.com Inc, an online library that records “the historical presence of Blacks in Canada.” For Williams, this is primarily why she became a historian in the first place; she wanted to give Black Canadians a voice, a place in our history.

“The more that I learned about the Black Canadian experience, the more intrigued I was and puzzled by why we don’t teach it in school and why we don’t talk about the Black presence in this country,” Williams says.

Williams mentioned that people are often shocked when you talk about Canadian figures in our history because many assume there simply aren’t any.

“It’s not unusual to think Blacks have only been here 40 years or 50 years and are quite surprised when you talk about how long Blacks have been here and that they’ve contributed to building this country,” Williams says.

Williams hopes that Black Canadian history will eventually be part of the school curriculum. “[Blacks] were literally erased from the history books, as if we didn’t exist at all,” Williams says. "By not talking, you’re just perpetuating stereotypes and people’s distortions and misrepresentations and the very non-Canadian reality of being Black.”

Williams added that part of the problem is that most universities in Canada don’t really have any African-Canadian studies programs, unlike our neighbours south of the border.

“You have real scholars out there in the United States who run departments [and] who actually run really deep research and understanding regionally or nationally,” she explains. “As I was told years ago, ‘you can’t get a job teaching African-Canadian history, so don’t try.’”

Has anything changed for Black Canadians and how they’ve been treated over the years? Williams sees some progress, crediting the Quebec Human Rights Commission for its work to help protect the rights of visible minorities. For example, her first book looked at how Black Canadians were often denied the ability to rent or buy a home simply because they were Black. Because of the Quebec Human Rights Commission, Williams says, today this is much less tolerated.

“The housing opportunities are better because we’ve had enough precedence in the courts and in the tribunals against landlords refusing to rent to Blacks,” Williams says. “You’re seeing Blacks in places you wouldn’t have seen before.”

For Williams, however, besides the need to teach kids about Black history, Williams says the fact there is still a huge wage gap between Blacks and the rest of the country is still a major issue. In fact, according to a McGill University study from 2010, although more and more Blacks have become bilingual and have completed a higher education since 1996, the unemployment rate is still disproportionate between Blacks and non-Blacks (13.4 per cent vs. 6.6 per cent). Additionally, a Statistics Canada study released in 2011 also concluded “second-generation blacks face a wage gap of about 10 to 15 per cent compared with non-visible minorities,” reported the Globe and Mail.

“We’re still overrepresented in low-paying jobs. Black people who have BAs over their careers will probably not earn much more than many whites who graduated high school,” Williams explains. “Our labour prospects don’t seem to be much better than when I was born.”

Viola Desmond now being the new face on our $10 bill is a step in the right direction when it comes to education. Williams hopes that more Canadians will learn of the importance of Black Canadians in Canada and see even further progress continue in the years to come.