[1] Despite her lack of formal education, Black was appointed Chief Librarian of the Fort William Public Library in 1909.

[2] When Black began working at the library, it was a single room in the City Hall basement.

[1] Black, John Ridington, and George H. Locke were hired by the Carnegie corporation to form a commission of inquiry into the conditions of Canadian public libraries.

Black toured Canada with her fellow commissioners, beginning in 1930, to investigate the libraries across the country.

[8][9][10] Black, along with Dr. Clara Todson and Anne J. Barrie, co-led the women's suffrage and reform movement in the twin cities of Port Arthur and Fort William, which were later almagameted into Thunder Bay.

[6] Black was also a member of the West Algoma Equal Suffrage Association and the Women's Business Club, the latter of which she was the president of in 1921.

[12][13] Due to her ill health, in late 1938, Black relocated to Vancouver, British Columbia, to stay with her brother, Norman F.