February is black history month which Canada Post is recognizing with a pair of stamps that highlight the hope and perseverance of Black Pioneers who founded Willow Grove, New Brunswick in 1817 and Amber Valley, Alberta in 1910.

Those in New Brunswick were offered their freedom and land in exchange for supporting the British in the War of 1812. The black community in Alberta was populated by settlers who were escaping escalating violence and segregation laws in the American south.

Canada Post describes those communities as providing stepping stones for the future generations of Black Canadians. In Saskatchewan, Mattie Mayes and her husband Joseph as well as several other families left Oklahoma to escape segregation and the Jim Crow laws and established a community in the Maidstone region. They were the first black community in the province in 1910 and the Shiloh Baptist church and cemetery are still there.