WILLIE O’REE, 1ST NHL PLAYER

Willie Eldon O’ReeCM ONB (born October 15, 1935) is a Canadian former professional ice hockey player, best known for being the first black player in the National Hockey League. O’Ree played as a winger for the Boston Bruins. O’Ree is referred to as the “Jackie Robinson of ice hockey” for breaking the black colour barrier in the sport,[1][NB 1] and has stated publicly that he had met Jackie Robinson when he was younger. [2][3] He was inducted into the Hockey Hall of Fame in November 2018.

Also in 2018, the NHL instituted the annual Willie O’Ree Community Hero Award[4] in his honour, to “recognize the individual who has worked to make a positive impact on his or her community, culture or society to make people better through hockey.”

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Josephine Baker, legend

Born Freda Josephine McDonald in St. Louis, Missouri, Josephine Baker (1906–1975) was an African-American dancer and singer who was “the most successful music hall performer ever to take the stage” (Ebony magazine). Josephine Baker was larger than life: She was the toast of Paris in the 1920s with her trademark banana skirt, a star of stage and […]

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The Untold Story of the Integration of Pro Football

(The Forgotten Four (clockwise from top left): Marion Motley, Bill Willis, Kenny Washington, Woody Strode) The story of how Jackie Robinson broke baseball’s color barrier in 1947 is the stuff of legend. But there’s another story about the desegregation of a professional sport that hardly gets told. A year before Robinson joined the Brooklyn Dodgers, […]

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Untold Stories of Black Women in the Suffrage Movement

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