Michelle Theodore, who was born and raised in Edmonton, is the illustrator behind the Google Doodle celebrating American-Canadian newspaper editor and publisher Mary Ann Shadd Cary. It would have been her 197th birthday.
Shadd Cary was the first Black female newspaper editor and publisher in North America and the second Black woman to earn a law degree in the U.S.
She was also a journalist, teacher, lawyer, abolitionist and suffragist.
“Shadd Cary is renowned as a courageous pioneer in the fight for abolition and women’s suffrage,” Google said, describing the tribute.
In a message on Twitter, Theodore called Shadd Cary “inspiring” and said she wished she had learned about her — and her Canadian history — sooner.
Shadd Cary was born Oct. 9, 1823 in Wilmington, Delaware. She was the oldest of 13 children. Her parents used their home as part of the Underground Railroad to protect escaped slaves.
After graduation, she became a teacher and later, opened her own school for African Americans. Her writing was first published in a newspaper in 1948. It was “a bold call to action for the abolitionist movement,” Google wrote.
The 1850 U.S. Fugitive Slave Act prompted her family to move to Canada, where she started a newspaper.
She met her husband Thomas F. Cary in Canada.
Shadd Cary moved back to the U.S. to help in the Civil War effort. She worked as a recruiting officer for the Union Army. In 1883, she earned a law degree.
She died in 1893 in Washington, D.C.
In 1994, Canada named Shadd Cary a Person of National Historic Significance.
Global News has reached out to the artist Michelle Theodore and this article will be updated if we hear back.
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