{"product_id":"1934-the-chatham-coloured-all-stars-barrier-breaking-year-9781771964777","title":"1934: The Chatham Coloured All-Stars' Barrier-Breaking Year","description":"\u003cp\u003e\u003cstrong\u003eShortlisted for the 2024 Speaker's Book Award\u003c\/strong\u003e\u003cstrong\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003c\/strong\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003e\u003cstrong\u003eThe true story of the first Black team to win an Ontario Baseball Amateur Association championship.\u003c\/strong\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cp\u003eThe 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.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eDrawing heavily on scrapbooks, newspaper accounts, and oral histories from members of the team and their families, \u003cem\u003e1934: The Chatham Coloured All-Stars' Barrier-Breaking Year\u003c\/em\u003e shines a light on a largely overlooked chapter of Black baseball. But more than this, \u003cem\u003e1934\u003c\/em\u003e is the story of one group of men who fought for the respect that was too often denied them.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eRich in detail, full of the sounds and textures of a time long past, \u003cem\u003e1934\u003c\/em\u003e 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.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003eAbout the Author\u003c\/b\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003eHeidi LM Jacobs\u003c\/b\u003e' previous books include the novel \u003cem\u003eMolly of the Mall: Literary Lass and Purveyor of Fine Footwear\u003c\/em\u003e (NeWest Press, 2019), which won the Stephen Leacock Medal for Humour in 2020, and \u003cem\u003e100 Miles of Baseball: Fifty Games, One Summer\u003c\/em\u003e (with Dale Jacobs, Biblioasis, 2021). She is a librarian at the University of Windsor and one of the researchers behind the award-winning Breaking the Colour Barrier: Wilfred \"Boomer\" Harding \u0026amp; the Chatham Coloured All-Stars project.\u003cbr\u003e","brand":"Biblioasis","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":50533802770706,"sku":"9781771964777","price":13.99,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0831\/4771\/8930\/files\/img_6dae4eef-7b97-496d-af95-6b0c67d37cd6.jpg?v=1731412054","url":"https:\/\/surprise-castle.myshopify.com\/products\/1934-the-chatham-coloured-all-stars-barrier-breaking-year-9781771964777","provider":"Surprise Castle","version":"1.0","type":"link"}