'We Played Ball Just the Same': Selected Recollections of Black Women's Sport Experiences in Southern Ontario (1920s-1940s)

Due to historical systemic subordination, few Black women's histories are preserved in public archives and written records. In Canada, oral traditions' prevalence in Black communities made written documentation rare, affording their histories less legitimacy in academia. Hence, Black women's experiences are largely absent from national grand narratives about sport. By bridging the gap between dominant narratives and Black women's marginal narratives, we may appreciate how their gendered and racialized identities are situated within, and reorganize, the nation's identity. Using the Multicultural History Society of Ontario's archived oral histories, we present a novel sporting account of a group of Black women in Southern Ontario. Collected to preserve minority ethnic/racial groups' life memories in the late twentieth century, the histories centred individuals who were active early in the century. Informants recalled participating in a range of athletic endeavours, and a small number were in coaching and umpire positions, while men and boys played a role as inspiration and gatekeepers. Within that, women's sport spectatorship emerges as a key unexplored dimension of sport involvement. These narratives demonstrate the influence of gender, racial, and class forces on women's sport, while also suggesting that sporting spaces could contribute to socio-cultural expression, resistance, and survival.