The American West and Alberta have always been in a long distance relationship. Both share a love for cowboys, sports, and an everlasting desire to build a heavily oil-based economy. Veiled inside of The Prairies, however, lies a story of Black resistance. No, I don’t mean the story of John Ware. I’m talking about “The Promised Land,” Amber Valley, a historic Black community outside of Edmonton.
Amber Valley, like many other Black safe spaces or communities, happened in opposition to systemic racism. Many of the Amber Valley residents were descendants of enslaved Africans in the U.S. Upon emancipation, these folks fled to Oklahoma where they lived safely among Indigenous Peoples. By the time the Oklahoma Territory became a U.S. State (1907), things became increasingly unsafe for Black people (i.e. the Tulsa Race Massacre). Many of these same people fled literally as far north away from America as they could.
In comes Amber Valley. This tiny Black community was made up of about 300 people who weren’t specifically interested in coming to Alberta, or even Canada. They needed a place where they could have their own pocket of actual freedom. Its baseball team, founded by notable Amber Valley resident Jefferson ‘J.D.’ Edwards would be no different.
In the early 20th century, there was an African American man named Rube Foster living in Texas. He founded and developed teams for Black people, in what eventually became the world famous Negro National League. Up in Amber Valley, J.D. Edwards was known for using his passion for sports as a tool for political unity. So when he started his own team, known as the Amber Valley Baseball Team, it was no surprise to the community, nor the rest of Wild Rose Country.
While Rube Foster most likely inspired the idea behind baseball in Amber Valley, there was one advantage that Edwards had over him: the diet racism of Canada. In the American South, many of Foster’s teams were placed into the suffocating chokehold of Jim Crow laws (regardless of where the team was traveling from). Alberta wasn’t exactly a ‘racial paradise’ either, but it wasn’t frosted with bigotry bursting at the seams like America. Edward’s teams were thus able to compete against all white teams in what was considered ‘official competition.’
The Amber Valley Baseball Club, like Foster’s teams in the Negro Leagues were known for drawing large crowds of all races, due to their electrifying playing style. Members of this team of hidden sluggers included: Alvin Brown, Cliff Brown, J.B. Brown, Alonzo ‘Moose’ Edwards, Booker T. Edwards, Kenny Edwards, Horace ‘Forty’ Hilton, Oswald ‘Peepsight’ Lipscombe, and Arthur ‘Man’ Sanders. These men competed far and wide against other communities. Almost always, the Amber Valley team won.
Beyond the team itself, this community of 300 Black survivors is an important part of our history. These people are gems, hidden at the bottom of our cultural treasure chest. This is a story of importance, not only for Canadian historical value, but more importantly for Black people. Amber Valley, like Kwanzaa or Juneteenth was born out of survival, birthed from the loins of Black liberation. This is a story that should be shared and highlighted across Canada as well as with our friends down south in America. ‘Black American to Albertan’ history is, and can be so much more than John Ware (as much as I love him).
Sources:
https://www.mentalfloss.com/article/645044/amber-valley-canada-black-history
https://www.newspapers.com/clip/24886186/baseball-in-amber-valley/