The true story of the first Black team to win an Ontario Baseball
Amateur Association championship.
The pride of Chatham's East End, the Coloured All-Stars broke the colour
barrier in baseball more than a decade before Jackie Robinson did the
same in the Major Leagues. Fielding a team of the best Black baseball
players from across southwestern Ontario and Michigan, theirs is a story
that could only have happened in this particular time and place: during
the depths of the Great Depression, in a small industrial town a short
distance from the American border, home to one of the most vibrant Black
communities in Canada.
Drawing heavily on scrapbooks, newspaper accounts, and oral histories
from members of the team and their families, 1934: The Chatham Coloured
All-Stars' Barrier-Breaking Year shines a light on a largely overlooked
chapter of Black baseball. But more than this, 1934 is the story of
one group of men who fought for the respect that was too often denied
them.
Rich in detail, full of the sounds and textures of a time long past,
1934 introduces the All-Stars' unforgettable players and captures
their winning season, so that it almost feels like you're sitting there
in Stirling Park's grandstands, cheering on the team from Chatham.
