Black History Month Profile: Nicole Brooks 
February 21, 2024
Why is Black History Month/African Heritage Month meaningful for you?
Nicole Brooks
Communications Manager – Home Office, NS
I’m incredibly proud of my family, where we’ve come from and what we’ve accomplished despite systemic and societal barriers.
Recently, we re-discovered an interview that my grandparents Rita and George Brooks did with a “community elders” church publication 40 years ago. My grandparents described meaningful lives filled with hard work growing up and raising children in East Preston, Nova Scotia.
To their grandchildren, it was the humblest of understatements knowing that Granny raised 18 children and finished school after Grade 3 (her family needed her to support their blueberry farm) and that Granddad farmed his entire life across the street from his family home – the first Black-owned hotel in Nova Scotia (The Stag Hotel) that was opened by his great-uncle who was formerly enslaved.
They persevered through being the first free generation of their family to create a legacy of love that stretches across Canada.
The African Nova Scotian community is small – there are 52 towns in Nova Scotia where indigenous Black Nova Scotians are from – African Heritage Month in Nova Scotia is dedicated time to loudly promote our culture, accomplishments, and impact we’ve had on this province and Canada.
