It's been 50-years since Charlotte Bronte-Perry published The Long Road — a book about African Canadians in Windsor-Essex.
Bronte-Perry was an African-Canadian journalist and socialite. She captured the struggles people of African descent faced in the region and the contributions they made to Windsor's growth.
Author Irene Moore-Davis will be taking that work further with The Long Road Continues to include the contributions of people who have emigrated from Africa and the Caribbean since the first book in 1967.
The Northstar Cultural Community Centre hosted an open house at Windsor's Central Library Branch Saturday for residents to contribute to the project as part of Black History Month.
"The most comprehensive book about people of African descent in this area that had ever been written, maybe the only book, and Charlotte Bronte Perry did a great job with the tools that were available to her in the '60s," she says. "We have the benefit of a lot more information, a lot more research that's been done."
A web-site with oral-histories and all the information gathered will be created with a $63,000 Ontario Trillium Foundation Grant, she added.
"It here are photo's with any historic items they want us to photograph or scan that they would like to be a part of the project, there will be a companion website that goes along with the book as well," says Moore-Davis. "People will have the opportunity to look at the primary sources."
Moore-Davis wants to document all the hard work that went into creating such a diverse community in the border city.
"We just feel like it's always been fantastic and it's always been the most ethno-culturally diverse city and everyone's always gotten along," she says. "We forget about all the work, the hard work and effort had to put in to make it the kind of city that it is now."
The Long Road Continues will be published by Windsor's Biblioasis in the fall of 2018.
Northstar Cultural Community Centre gathering photos for Irene Moore Davis’ book The Long Road Continues @windsorpublib as part of #blackhistorymonth ???? #cklw pic.twitter.com/EPE9e4i6rm
— Gord Bacon (@baconAM800) February 3, 2018