By Leroy Graham

Each February, during Black History Month, the contributions of Black Canadians are highlighted through community, classroom and political events.

For 28 precious days (sometimes 29), the roles of iconic figures like Lincoln Alexander, Liberty Silver and Donovan Bailey are examined and lauded. But for Mhairy McLachlan and Ricardo McRae, the founders of WhosWhoInBlackCanada.com, a single month of recognizing Black Canadians was simply not enough.

That’s why they brought the lives of Canada’s best and brightest to the Internet. “Our site is a representation of community,” says McRae. “It’s a project born out of frustration. We were tired of seeing inaccurate representations and portrayals of our community. We decided to do something about it.”

The pair contacted the print publisher of Who’s Who in Black Canada to speak about the advantages of providing content online. Within a day, they had inked a deal to produce WhosWhoInBlackCanada.com.

Within 30 days the site was up and connecting with visitors from around the world. “The misconception is that the site is just for Black people,” says McLachlan. “The site is for everyone. We get comments from Turkey, Japan, Ireland, everywhere you can imagine. And that’s the point: We’re showing that our contributions reach around the world. Also, we’re demystifying success. We tell people, ‘Look, they did it and you can, too.’”

McRae and McLachlan have had to deal with their fair share of detractors, including those who wonder if there are enough suitable candidates to continue the site’s daily profiles, and those who question whether a site that focuses exclusively on African-Canadian achievement is actually needed. However, McRae has a simple retort for critics: “Whenever someone asks me if we need Black History Month or WhosWhoInBlackCanada.com, I just ask one simple question: ‘Can you name two Black Canadian architects?’ Yeah, exactly.”

Favourite Who’s Who

Mhairy McLachlan: “I really love the profile of Gloria Baylis. She’d been refused employment as a nurse and found out it was because of her skin colour. She decided to fight back, and in a high profile court case against the Queen Elizabeth Hotel, she had to testify about being Black. It touched me that someone had to testify to their ‘Blackness.’”

Ricardo McRae: “One of my favourite profiles is Dr. Kwesi Ampong-Nyarko. When we published it, I was at home in Windsor. When my mom read the profile, she realized that he was reading the same book that she had just bought. To see my mom getting excited, and to see that something we did in Toronto was connecting with her in Windsor, that was amazing.”

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