Group pushes to have once thriving Charlottetown Black neighbourhood commemorated
CHARLOTTETOWN — Just west of downtown Charlottetown, a trio of modern provincial government buildings sit next to a large parking lot. Off to the side, there’s a small, teardrop-shaped pond, the last reminder that this area was once a thriving Black community.
The pool used to be part of the larger Government Pond, beside which some of Prince Edward Island’s first Black residents settled in the early 1800s and created a neighbourhood known as The Bog. Today, there is nothing to commemorate the community, and some residents of the provincial capital believe that needs to change.
“We talk about The Bog as if it doesn’t exist,” Tamara Steele said in a recent interview. “The physical place, the brick and mortar buildings that were there, maybe they don’t exist anymore, but those families are still here.”
Steele is the executive director at the Black Cultural Society of Prince Edward Island. She said recognizing the former community would increase understanding among the province’s growing Black population that people of colour have a long history in P.E.I.