There is a strong Chatham-Kent connection to Friday's Google Doodle, which is being featured across the world.
The doodle, illustrated by Alberta-based artist Michelle Theodore, celebrates the 197th birthday of Mary Ann Shadd Cary, an American-Canadian newspaper editor and publisher, journalist, teacher, lawyer, abolitionist and suffragist who moved from the United States to Windsor and then Chatham in the 1850's.
Mary Ann Shadd Cary, who was born in Wilmington, Delaware in 1823 before moving to Canada, is widely credited with being a publishing pioneer as the first Black female newspaper editor and publisher in North America.
A plaque outside the Chatham-Kent Black Historical Society & Black Mecca Museum notes that Shadd Cary published her paper, the "Provincial Freeman" out of Chatham for several years in the 1850's, noting that she started the paper to "encourage Blacks to seek equality through education and self-reliance."
Curator of the Buxton National Historic Site and Museum Shannon Prince says she was shocked, but also very proud to see Mary Ann Shadd Cary honoured by Google.
"Sometimes it takes something like Google to remind us of the importance of the sacrifices and the legislatures that she had changed, and how very forthright and passionate about her cause she was," said Prince. "She's really a woman to be honoured and recognized as a hero... we should be very proud that she set roots here in Chatham."
You can read more about Mary Ann Shadd Cary and the story behind today's Google Doodle by clicking here.
