While not specifically a day in history, there is an interestin feature of BC history from 150 years ago.
In California, during the gold rush of 1848 and following, a number of African Americans could be found in California. They were generally prohibited from most occupations in the gold fields.
In about 1857, a group of about 600 African Americans wrote to James Douglas, the HBC Factor and Governor, who was incidentally half black himself, asking to come to Canada to settle. Douglas welcomed the overature. The advance party booked passage to Victoria. It just happened that word of gold being found in Fraser's river had reached San Francisco, and the first miners also boarded the same ship. Its arrival in Victoria doubled the non-native population of what is now British Columbia.
The arrival of the black settlers resulted in mixed experiences. They were excluded from membership in the volunteer fire department in Victoria, but eventually they did form the colonies first militia company. Later I will tantalize you with more on that topic.
The bulk of the black settlers moved to nearby Saltspring Island to take up farming. Some of their descendants still resided there.
In the July 20, 2008 issue of the Victoria TIMES-COLONIST, there was a piece about a family gathering of some of the descendants of Lewis and Sylvia Stark who were part of that group of settlers. The location was the original homestead. Lewis was a renowned orchardist and had a variety of apple, the STARK, named after him. Lewis was the son of a white "master" and a black woman. He was a freeman, and in California he could work, as he could pass as Spanish! His father had operated a tree nursery and taught him his craft. A few of the original apple trees still stand.
Among the experiences of the first blacks were fights with cougars, trouble with hostile natives, and friends and neighbours being shot by whites. I wonder if it is just coincidence that many of the black settlers returned to the USA, generally after emancipation, and that most of the attendees at the Stark reunion now live in California?