Black History Month stamp celebrates Vancouver's Hogan's Alley | CBC News (original) (raw)
Hogan's Alley in Vancouver is one of two historic Canadian neighbourhoods with significant links to black history that is being recognized this year by Canada Post for Black History Month.
Nora Hendrix, grandmother of Jimi, and Fielding Spotts, Western Canada's first Baptist, featured
Canada Post describes Hogan's Alley as a "vibrant destination for food and jazz through the 1960s." It explains that Hogan's Alley was the unofficial name of a four-block long dirt lane that formed the nucleus of Vancouver's first concentrated African-Canadian community. (Canada Post)
Hogan's Alley in Vancouver is one of two historic Canadian neighbourhoods with significant links to black history that is being recognized this year by Canada Post for Black History Month.
Along with Africville in Halifax, Hogan's Alley was a small but vibrant community that was dismantled in the 1960s to make way for new construction.
The area, close to where Vancouver's Chinatown currently exists, was home to the city's first concentrated black community.
Two of its most prominent residents — Fielding William Spotts Jr., a cooper by trade and the first Baptist in Western Canada, and Nora Hendrix, grandmother to rock legend Jimi Hendrix and cook at Vie's Chicken and Steak House — are featured on the stamp.
Wayde Compton, a local writer and poet, said the significance of the commemorative stamp is substantial.
"I grew up without these kinds of things," he said. "Knowing that something like this exists, and knowing that generations that are coming up now are going to have this as part of the regular landscape is very satisfying."
Canada Post has begun issuing the stamps today.
Canada Post's stamp commemorating Halifax's Africville features seven young girls, all members of the community, set against an illustrated background of the neighbourhood's hills and homes. (Canada Post)