Exploring the long history of Black hockey in Nova Scotia
A pioneering Black hockey league in the Maritimes operated from 1895 to 1925
The Colored Hockey League began in Nova Scotia in 1895 and functioned until 1925 but many its history is not widely known.
Teams from across Canada's Maritime provinces played in the league. In 2006, some of the players from those early years were inducted into the newly established Black Hockey and Sports Hall of Fame.
This Aug. 25, 2006 report contains interviews, still images of the early players and archival film footage.
This content is being presented as it was originally created and may contain references or representations of people and cultures that audiences may find offensive or triggering.
In this 2017 report, CBC's Colleen Jones interviews Damon Kwame Mason, director of Soul on Ice a documentary film about the history of the Coloured Hockey League and the history of Black players in ice hockey in the U.S. and Canada.
At the time the report aired on Oct. 14, 2017, the NFL "take a knee" protest was growing.
In 2020, Canada Post issued a stamp recognizing the 125 years since the inaugural season of the pioneering league.
Augustus Adams and his team are featured on the stamp. Adams helped form the hockey league in 1895.
His grandson, Wayne Adams, went on to become Nova Scotia's first Black member of Nova Scotia' legislature.
In this Jan. 23, 2020, report, Wayne Adams talked to the CBC's Jack Julian about the stamp and what it meant to him.
For suggestions on content to feature in CBC's online collection of African Nova Scotia archival material, please email ansarchives@cbc.ca
For more stories about the experiences of Black Canadians — from anti-Black racism to success stories within the Black community — check out Being Black in Canada, a CBC project Black Canadians can be proud of. You can read more stories here.
