The first Canadian in the baseball hall of fame Ferguson “Fergie” Jenkins came from a baseball background. His father played with the Chatham Coloured All-Stars which helped break colour barriers in Ontario in the 1930’s. Further back and through his mother he was descended from slaves who escaped from the U.S via the ‘underground railway’ Born in Chatham Ontario, he was a star athlete in school and was signed at

An aged photo of three young black hockey players hangs in Darren Lowe’s basement. His dad Arthur is in the centre, stick on the ice, hunched over beside teammates Howard Sheffield and Gary Smith. Read More…

Renowned journalist Elvis Mitchell takes A-list filmmakers and actors to places of inspiration around the world, with unprecedented access, exploring how each location shaped their work and identity. Read More…

The year was 1934 and discrimination was still quite common throughout society, including sports. That year however, in spite of all kinds of obstacles, the black players of the Chatham Coloured All Stars broke through the barriers to become Ontario baseball champions.  At the time, black players were banned from professional baseball. Jackie Robinson broke that barrier when he became the first to black player in pro-ball when he joined

Hockey is Canada’s national winter sport, but historical racism was strong as it was in many other aspects of society, and the teams were white as the snow. It is little known that in the eastern Maritime provinces, black churches, initially around Halifax, took matters into their own hands. Hoping to use hockey to attract young men to the church, the various churches organised teams to compete for the  “coloured