Heidi Jacobs Heidi Jacobs will discuss her work on the Chatham Coloured All-Stars archive in a free public lecture April 25.

First Black baseball champions in Ontario subject of lecture

The Humanities Research Group will present English and history librarian Heidi Jacobs delivering the free public lecture “Libraries, Archives, Memory, and the Chatham Coloured All-Stars,” on Wednesday, April 25, at 4 p.m. in Katzman Lounge, Vanier Hall.

Dr. Jacobs, a 2017/18 HRG Fellow, will explore issues of the archive and memory, as well as the Breaking the Colour Barrier: Wilfred “Boomer” Harding and the Chatham Coloured All-Stars (1932-1939) project that she created with Miriam Wright, Dave Johnston, and a group of community partners.

The project used photographs, newspaper clippings, oral histories, interviews, and curricular resources to preserve the story of the Chatham Coloured All-Stars, a Chatham baseball team which became the first Black team to win an Ontario Baseball Amateur Association championship.

The project secured Ontario Trillium funding and recently won a Lieutenant Governor’s Excellence in Conservation Award from the Ontario Heritage Trust; and an Outstanding Community Engagement, Knowledge Transfer, and Knowledge Mobilization Award from the University of Windsor.

Jacobs’s lecture will be followed by a question-and-answer session, reception, and refreshments.