[img_inline align=”right” src=”http://padnws01.mcmaster.ca/images/Hill_Lawrence.jpg” caption=”Author Lawrence Hill visited McMaster last week. “]Black history should be celebrated throughout the year, not just in February, “the shortest month of the year — and the coldest,” said award-winning novelist Lawrence Hill, who visited McMaster last week in anticipation of Black History Month.

Hosted by the Anti-Violence Network, the Ontario Public Interest Research Group and the Office of Human Rights and Equity Services, Hill had lunch with a group of students, met with local community members and delivered a public lecture at McMaster.

He answered a variety of questions from students, one of whom asked about Barack Obama's chances of winning the upcoming U.S. presidential election.

Hill responded by saying that some black voters “don't think he's electable…they don't want to throw their vote away,” adding that Hilary Clinton is more popular among black voters because they think she has a better chance of defeating the Republicans.

On the subject of Black History Month, Hill said, “I'm a real keener for getting outside February. Since when is it only legitimate to talk about [black history] in February?”

There's more to black history than reading To Kill a Mockingbird, said Hill, explaining that his two eldest children have each read the book three times as part of their school's curriculum.

Although Hill praised the literary classic and its author, Harper Lee, he said the Canadian education system is overlooking hundreds of years of black history by focusing on just one book.

Most Canadians don't know much about black history, said Hill.

“If you asked 1,000 Canadians who graduated from high school, they could tell you about American slavery, but only a dozen of them would know it existed in Canada until it was abolished in 1834,” he said.

Hill has a B.A. in economics from Laval University and an M.A. in writing from Johns Hopkins University. He is the author of several titles, including Someone Knows My Name, Black Berry, Sweet Juice: On Being Black and White in Canada and The Deserter's Tale: The Story of an Ordinary Soldier Who Walked Away from the War in Iraq. Hill lives in Burlington with his wife and five children.