A local writer is shining a light on how race has played a role in sport through the experiences of Chatham-Kent athletes.
Ian Kennedy’s On Account of Darkness: Shining a Light on Race and Sport takes you through more than 100 years of stories about athletes who excelled through times of social injustice and systemic racism.
The book features first-hand accounts from baseball hall-of-famer Fergie Jenkins, as well as stories about the Chatham Colored All-Stars, and Indigenous and Japenese-Canadian athletes from Chatham-Kent who have had a lasting impact on sport.
"I think that if we don't learn about our history, we can't make any plans to be a better, safer, more inclusive space and society in the future," said Kennedy. "There are still, to this day, so many children, people of colour, that don't feel welcome in sport or don't feel safe in sport."
When the pandemic hit and live-action sports came to a halt, that gave Kennedy the time to start this project.
"[It took] hundreds of hours of face-to-face, zoom, and telephone interviews with descendants and athletes themselves from First Nations communities, Japanese-Canadian athletes and their families, as well as our local Black community," said Kennedy. "I spent numerous hours in local libraries and museums, researching online. Just a ton of research comes across in the depths of some of the discoveries in the book that were not out there before."
That whole process provided Kennedy with an opportunity to gain an insight into what athletes experienced in those times.
"There is so much here, whether it be the ins and outs of Chatham Colored All-Stars, or how integral our area was in Japanese-Canadian internment, or how many children in our area went to residential schools and what their roles in sports were at those facilities in terms of assimilating indigenous youth to feel or be more Canadian," said Kennedy.
Without learning about our history, Kennedy believes we won't be able to make the future a better, safer, and more inclusive place.
"Without learning why that is and where we come from, it is impossible to make that actionable change in the future," said Kennedy.
Kennedy will be celebrating the launch of his book at Sons of Kent on Saturday, June 4, and at the Buxton National Historic Site & Museum on June 11.
The book will be available at book stores in Canada and the United States, as well as online.
