Karen Hoshal always knew her family history in Victoria goes back to her great-grandparents, two of the early black settlers to British Columbia.

But Hoshal said she never fully investigated her background until the early 1990s, after her five children started asking questions about their family, by then widely racially extended.

"My own children started asking me why half the family was black and half the family was white," she said.

So Hoshal said she started researching her great-grandparents. They were Charles and Nancy Alexander, two free-born African-American settlers who arrived in Victoria in the 1850s.

"At least my kids understood where they came from," said Hoshal, now in her senior years and a great-grandmother of four.

The stories of the Alexanders are also part of a large and little-told portion of B.C.'s past, now being celebrated as Black History Month.

Organized by the B.C. Black History Awareness Society, it will include talks, films and music.

Mavis DeGirolamo, president of the B.C. Black History Awareness Society, said black settlers, mostly from the U.S., played a significant role in B.C. history, settling places such as Saltspring Island and portions of the Fraser Valley.

"They came searching for a better life," DeGirolamo said.

Meanwhile, what began as an investigation into family history to satisfy her kids turned into a lifelong fascination for Hoshal.

"I have gone out to every place that would have me and I speak," she said.

"I tell them about the black pioneers of B.C."

She tells them her great-grandparents, the Alexanders, were just two of hundreds of black settlers sought out and invited to B.C. during the 1850s.

Hoshal learned James Douglas, then colonial governor of B.C., was himself part African, through his mother, a Creole woman.

And she learned Douglas had become concerned about American expansion and put out a special invitation to African-Americans asking them to come and settle the then-British colony.

Her great-grandfather, born in Missouri, was living in California when he accepted Douglas's invitation.

A carpenter and cabinetmaker, Alexander would eventually be part of the construction team hired by noted Victoria architect Francis Rattenbury, perhaps best known for designing the legislature building.

Hoshal speaks with knowledge and pride about the contributions to B.C. and Victoria made by all the men and women like her great-grandparents.

"If James Douglas hadn't got more settlers to the south end of this Island, then the 49th parallel [the Canada/U.S. border] would have gone straight through Ladysmith," she said.

"And we would have all been American," Hoshal said.

For more information about Black History Month in B.C., go to islandnet.com/~bcbhas.

rwatts@timescolonist.com

BLACK HISTORY MONTH EVENTS

• Today, 8 p.m., Metro Studio Theatre, 1411 Quadra St., at Johnson.

Tribute to Mahalia Jackson, A gospel performance by Gergana Velinova, accompanied by Pablo Cardenas; and Son of Africville: a monologue play by Justin Carter. Tickets at the door, cash only, $15 ($10 students/seniors) or in advance at ticketrocket.org.

• Feb. 19, 2 p.m., Ross Bay

Cemetery Tour

A guided tour of many of the graves of Victoria's early black citizens. $5. Meet in front of Starbucks, Fairfield Plaza.

• Feb. 25, 1 p.m., James Bay New Horizons Centre, 234 Menzies St.

B.C. Black Heritage Day; screening of a new NFB documentary Mighty Jerome: The Greatest Comeback Ever, which follows the life of sprinter Harry Jerome, one of Canada's greatest athletes. Admission by donation.