Each month, there's a new Ruthy's Reviews and Recs video featuring BIPOC authors and characters! This month Ruthy recommends Africville by Shauntay Grant, illustrated by Eva Campbell.
Africville was a vibrant Black Nova Scotian community for more than 150 years, but even though its residents paid municipal taxes, they lived without running water, sewers, paved roads and police, fire truck and ambulance services. Over time, the city located a slaughterhouse, a hospital for infectious disease, and even the city garbage dump nearby. In the 1960s, city officials decided to demolish the community, moving people out in city dump trucks and relocating them in public housing. Today, Africville has been replaced by a park, where former residents and their families gather each summer to remember their community.