Evangeline Cain-Grant has been engaged in community service throughout her life. She was born in North Preston, Nova Scotia, one of Canada’s oldest and largest Black communities with a history that dates back to the 16th century. She became the First Black woman to open a sole law office in Canada, First Black woman member of the Nova Scotia Barrister Society Council; as well as North Preston’s First graduate from Dalhousie Law School and admission as a Lawyer to the Nova Scotia Barrister Society and the Nova Scotia Supreme Court.

She gained public prominence as President and co-founder of the Parent-Student Association of Preston, an organization viewed by many, as one the most powerful and peaceful movements for educational reform that this country has ever seen. It was organized as a direct response to the nationally covered 1989 Cole Harbour High School Racial Riot, that resulted in the introduction of Nova Scotia’s First-Time Race Relation legislations and programs including but not limited to the Department of Education African Canadian Services Division, Council on African Canadian Education, Afrocentric Institute, Student Support Workers, Ethnic Curriculum and numerous other race- related initiatives within the province’s school system.