This episode features an interview with Elizabeth Cooke-Sumbu, granddaughter of the legendary Frank Cooke, who played in the Colored Hockey League of the Maritimes. Elizabeth talks about Frank’s legacy, the racial barriers Black hockey players overcame in the past — and must still overcome today — as well as why more needs to be done to tear down barriers, so that anyone who wants to play, can play. The episode also includes an interview with Percy Paris, an eighth-generation African Nova Scotian who was part of the first all-Black line in Canadian university hockey in the 1970s. He became a politician and an activist, but never forgot his love for the game.

LINKS

Transcript

https://www.historymuseum.ca/dod/podcasts/transcripts/s01e02

Canadian Museum of History Blog: Breaking Ice

https://www.historymuseum.ca/blog/artifactuality-breaking-ice/

Article on the Colored Hockey League in The Canadian Encyclopedia 

 https://www.thecanadianencyclopedia.ca/en/article/coloured-hockey-league 

International Ice Hockey Federation article on the Colored Hockey League

 https://www.iihf.com/en/news/19969/celebrating-the-colored-hockey-league

NHL article featuring Percy Paris

 https://www.nhl.com/news/saint-marys-university-first-all-black-canada-college-line/c-320925546

Colored Hockey League of the Maritimes National Historic Event
https://parks.canada.ca/culture/designation/evenement-event/colored-hockey-league