Black history is something that surrounded me every day as a youth. I grew up in North Buxton, a mostly black town in southwestern Ontario that was a popular destination for slaves escaping from the southern U.S. via the Underground Railroad. The original one-room schoolhouse from the Elgin Settlement still stands near the center of town. I can recall one year, during Black History Month, my class at the mostly white school I attended in nearby Merlin had arranged to visit North Buxton on a field trip.