Ornella Nzindukiyimana, an assistant professor of human kinetics at St. Francis Xavier University in Nova Scotia, said Black athletes from the United States were often welcomed into communities the way the Rockets were in Indian Head.
Saskatchewan actually passed what the Canadian Encyclopedia calls the “most comprehensive anti-discrimination protections” in the country 1947.
But while the players’ treatment was an improvement over their experiences in the United States, Nzindukiyamana said they saw a different side of Canada than their Black peers living there at the time.
The late 1800s and early 1900s saw the first wave of Black migration to the Canadian Prairies, as fur traders. About 1,000 Black people settled in Alberta and Saskatchewan between 1908 and 1911 as homesteaders.
Following pressure from white Canadians, in 1911 an anti-immigration campaign discouraged – then an order-in-council outright banned – the entry of Black people from the United States.
Immigration remained limited until the 1960s, when a policy change came into play. During that period, employment opportunities for Black people were just as limited, but railway companies provided a bypass to immigration policies. So, most Black men in Canada found themselves working as porters on railcars.
“Many of the Black Canadian athletes are maybe barnstorm players, if we go back to baseball,” Nzindukiyamana said.
“They’re making just enough money to make even, to be able to travel, but they’re not feeding their families on that salary of baseball; they’re having to find a regular job to make ends meet.”
