Welcome to our 38th installment of “Ask a Historian”.

Join Historian Matthew Wilkinson on our YouTube channel for a very special episode of “Ask A Historian” on Thursday February 25, 2021 at 4:00 p.m.

This week Matthew welcomes guests Mayor Bonnie Crombie, Linden King, Chair of the Mayor’s Black Caucus, and Natasha Henry, President of the Ontario Black History Society, as they discuss the impetus and necessity of their respective organizations and how people can continue to support and learn about Black History in Mississauga.

Since her election as Mayor in 2014, Mayor Crombie has worked diligently to hold the line on taxes, invested in improving traffic congestion and building transit, attracted major economic development to the City all while managing the growth of Canada’s sixth largest city.

Prior to her election as Mayor, Bonnie served as the Ward 5 City Councillor, and prior to that, as Member of Parliament for Mississauga-Streetsville.

Before entering public service, Mayor Crombie enjoyed a twenty-year career in business. Mayor Crombie has an MBA from York University’s Schulich School of Business and earned a Corporate Director’s Certificate from the Institute of Corporate Directors at the Rotman School of Management.

Linden King is the Chair of Mayor Crombie’s Black Caucus, the Chair for the United Way, the Greater Toronto Black Community Advisory Council, Co-Chair for The Peel Region Police Black Community Advisory Group, the past Chair for The Liberty Silver Foundation, past Vice Chair for The Congress of Black Women Mississauga Chapter, and the Stakeholder Liaison for The Toronto Caribbean Carnival, and has been actively involved with the largest Caribbean festival in North America for over 36 years

Linden also serves on the Board of Directors for the Mississauga Arts Council and the Canadian Mental Health Association, and was a volunteer with the Ontario Trillium Foundation, Halton-Peel Grant Review Team.

In addition, Linden served as a director with the Mississauga Cycling Advisory Committee, Mississauga Youth Games (MY Games), Toronto Electrical Utilities Credit Union, as well as an advisor with the Peel Multicultural Council. He also served his community as video producer at Portico community church and coached children in track & field, baseball and football.

Linden was a torchbearer for Toronto’s 2015 Pan Am Games, recognized as a Top 100 Black Canadian Role Model, and was the recipient of the Gordon S. Shipp Memorial Award as Mississauga’s 2015 Citizen of Year.

Natasha Henry is an educator, historian, author, curriculum consultant specializing in the development of learning materials that focus on the African diasporic experience, and President of the Ontario Black History Society.

Natasha is the author of Firsts (2014), which was awarded the Gold Medal Moonbeam Children’s Book Award for Multicultural Non-Fiction, as well as Talking About Freedom: Celebrating Freedom in Canada (2012) and Emancipation Day: Celebrating Freedom in Canada (2010), amongst many other others articles and publications. Natasha has written several entries for The Canadian Encyclopedia on African Canadian history.

Natasha is also a PhD candidate at York University.

#ApartTogether Heritage Mississauga is honoured to present this special episode with such a distinguished panel of guests, and looks forward to continuing the conversation of Black History in Mississauga.

You are invited to email us questions you have about Mississauga and we encourage you to send a short (less than 1 minute) MP4 video of your question, which we may feature in one of our “Ask a Historian” videos.

Any questions not featured in our videos will receive a written response from Matthew.

We would also love to feature questions from young Mississauga residents who are curious about their city and will feature a dedicated video to these inquisitive kids.

Send your questions to us at: [email protected]