The first African American Black Canary I read was in Elseworlds Finest: Supegirl & Batgirl and the second was in 'Justice League: Generation Lost' in a storyline set in a post apocalyptic world and that version of Canary was said to be a descendant of Hawk and Dove.

I remember some complaints about it being racist that they chose to racebend the character who has black in their codename. I hardly saw any of those complaints pop up when Jurnee Smollett was cast in the role and the audience seems to have fully embraced her version of the character.