How It Started
The Black Council of Windsor-Essex, or Le Conseil des Noirs de Windsor-Essex, was founded on August 26, 2020, by a grassroots collective of local Black organizations, elders, leaders and advocates. On February 1, 2022, the Council became incorporated as an Ontario not-for-profit corporation. In recognizing the French and English bilingualism of our membership, the Council adopted a bilingual legal name, hence Le Conseil des Noirs de Windsor-Essex/The Black Council of Windsor-Essex.
The Black Council of Windsor-Essex/Le Conseil des Noirs de Windsor-Essex is the place where organizations and individuals, representative of the global African Diaspora in Windsor and Essex County, unite to contravene all forms of anti-Blackness found in our community.
We support each other in our individual and collective efforts to create a healthy “village” for our children by practicing collaborative work and responsibility and cooperative economics while celebrating our rich history and culture in all of its international variations.
Created at the end of the “Pandemic Summer” of 2020, where the tragic deaths of George Floyd, Ahmaud Arbery and Breonna Taylor were witnessed amid the resonant cries of “Black Lives Matter”, The Black Council is where the collective, common good of the Black community matters most.
How It’s Going
Now, we represent over 60 organizations and individuals from the local Black community in Windsor-Essex. We serve and advocate on the frontlines to deliver results.
● In an extremely productive first year we engaged with the Mayor’s office and, though we were not successful in negotiating for an ABR Task Force, we were influential in having the city administration realize that multiculturalism is not anti-Black racism, an important first step, and we will continue to advocate for an Anti-Black Racism Strategy Position in the city.
● We were involved in community consultations for the Racialized Persons Enhanced Sector Network Group for the city’s Community Safety and Well Being Plan, the new Grace hospital site development and the city’s planned new Civic Esplanade for downtown.
● We are working with notable Black Female Urbanist, Jay Pitter, on an audit of “Black places and spaces”, a project also being supported by the University of Windsor Centre for Cities, and are expecting her equity report shortly.
● We held a very successful Emancipation Jubilee Celebration in 2021, thanks to a generous grant from the University of Windsor’s VPEDI Office, with community support already having been offered for 2022.
● We have held food banking events for our community members and we have long been engaged with the school systems in addressing the anti-black racism.
● The current equity systems review that the Greater-Essex District School Board is conducting was in response to our tireless advocacy and we are working closely with Tana Turner and the Turner Consulting Group throughout this process.
● We are deeply engaged in the anti-Black racism work being undertaken at the University of Windsor and have our eyes on the Windsor-Essex Catholic School Board and St. Clair College moving forward.
“We” means more than The Black Council as an individual entity: It is our collective of Black member organizations and community members that work cooperatively in collaboration with each other to advance the collective interests of the Black community.
Connect With Us
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