{"id":554055,"date":"2026-03-22T22:17:32","date_gmt":"2026-03-22T22:17:32","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/554055\/"},"modified":"2026-03-22T22:17:32","modified_gmt":"2026-03-22T22:17:32","slug":"meet-the-colored-peoples-protective-association-little-known-history-of-calgarys-early-black-community","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/554055\/","title":{"rendered":"Meet the Colored People’s Protective Association: Little-known history of Calgary’s early Black community"},"content":{"rendered":"

Over 115 years ago, more than 150 members of Calgary\u2019s Black community gathered at a venue called Eagle Hall on First Street S.W. for what a local newspaper called \u201cone of the most successful balls of the season.\u201d<\/p>\n

In those days, only 16 years after incorporation, the city welcomed an influx of Black settlers \u2014 many seeking a life away from the discriminatory Jim Crow laws south of the border.<\/p>\n

\"A<\/p>\n

(Newspapers.com)<\/p>\n

\u201cPopular dances and ragtime two-steps were the order of the night, and many a giddy hour the dusky belles and their boisterous gentlemen friends reeled and swung about the spacious floor in one long round of enjoyment,\u201d the Calgary Daily Herald story from Oct. 12, 1910, read.<\/p>\n

\"An<\/p>\n

An archived photograph of Calgary shows Eighth Avenue and First Street S.W. in 1912, during the time the Colored People’s Protective Association was active. (City of Calgary Archives)<\/p>\n

The event, an annual affair, was held by the Colored People\u2019s Protective Association (CPPA) \u2014 a group first formally organized by five Black men in January of that same year \u201cfor the advancement of the colored race,\u201d the newspaper article says.<\/p>\n

According to historian and multiplatform storyteller Cheryl Foggo, who has been researching the collective for decades, the first gathering took place in the home of William King.<\/p>\n

\"A<\/p>\n

A Jan. 18, 1910, story from the Herald documented the first official meeting of the Colored People’s Protective Association, at William King’s home. It also involved Charles Watts, Robert Clayton, Clinton Ford and Frank Birtch. (newspapers.com)<\/p>\n

The organization did far more than hold dances.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe purposes were to socialize and let people get to know each other, but also to raise money for their other activities, because the CPPA supported people in whatever their needs were,\u201d Foggo said.<\/p>\n

She described coming across a reference of a young, pregnant Black woman without a support system. The group helped her out, Foggo said.<\/p>\n

\u201cI think they were very generous and kind with people.\u201d<\/p>\n

Foggo has included the CPPA\u2019s historical contributions in Making Place: A Map of Black Calgary, recently launched and made in collaboration with local artist Simone Elizabeth Saunders as part of theCalgary Atlas Project.<\/a><\/p>\n

LISTEN | Map shines light on Calgary’s early Black communities:<\/p>\n

Calgary\u2019s early Black community \u2018protected their joy\u2019<\/p>\n

The Herald\u2019s recounting of the ball continues: \u201cthere was music a-plenty, both vocal and instrumental\u201d with the crowd bursting into song on the dance floor.<\/p>\n

The story also leans into a number of racist tropes.<\/p>\n

Written less than 50 years after the end of the American Civil War, the story recounts that several party attendees reminisced about old times: \u201cThere were people there who had seen sunny Alabama and dear \u2018ole Georgia\u2019 in their childhood days.\u201d<\/p>\n

In actuality, Black people were subject to immense racial violence, including lynchings, and segregation laws in states including Alabama and Georgia in the early 1900s.<\/p>\n

From roughly 1910 to 1970, approximately six million Black people moved from the U.S. south to northern, midwestern and western states in a movement now known as theGreat Migration,<\/a> with many turning to Canada for a better life.<\/p>\n

\"A<\/p>\n

(Newspapers.com)<\/p>\n

The first main wave of Black immigrants \u2014 several hundred, primarily from Oklahoma \u2014arrived in Western Canada<\/a>\u00a0between 1905 and 1912 in response to Canadian government advertisements, but continued to face discrimination in their new home.<\/p>\n

In 1911, the Canadian government passed an order-in-council banning “any immigrants belonging to the Negro race, which is deemed unsuitable to the climate and requirements of Canada.”<\/p>\n

While the order was not invoked officially, or put into the Immigration Act, it signified \u201ca powerful indication<\/a>\u201d of the government’s desire to prevent any Black Americans emigrating to Canada, according to cultural and special education consultant, and third-generation African American Albertan, Deborah Dobbins.<\/p>\n

In the face of this kind of adversity and stereotypical, negative portrayals in local newspapers, Foggo said, Black Albertans carved out space for themselves and their communities.<\/p>\n

\u201cIf you look at the venom that was aimed at the [Black] community at that time, and then you look at their lives, that they were working and raising families and socializing and having fun and looking after each other and getting married,\u201d Foggo said.<\/p>\n

\u201cYou realize that they protected their joy, while also being incredibly courageous and steadfast in their dignity.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"A<\/p>\n

(Newspapers.com)<\/p>\n

Another newspaper clipping revealed the CPPA held an Easter dance in 1911. A Herald article notes these events had become \u201cyearly functions, and guests attend from all over the province.\u201d<\/p>\n

At the time, Black settlers had begun establishing several communities across the province, including in Amber Valley<\/a>,Junkins<\/a>(now known as Wildwood),Keystone<\/a>(now known as Breton), and Campsie<\/a>, near the town of Barrhead in central Alberta.<\/p>\n

\"<\/p>\n

(Glenbow Library and Archives, University of Calgary Digital Collections)<\/p>\n

Foggo noted community members were actively writing and submitting columns to papers like the Calgary Herald, though many didn’t identify themselves as Black.<\/p>\n

“In some cases, yes, [Black people] were dependent upon what a white writer or editor might say and how they might say it. That’s why the language of that article about the coloured ball is \u2026 not language that we would necessarily want to think of as respectful today,\u201d Foggo said.<\/p>\n

\u201cBut you do see that people, the community, was very proactive, that they understood the importance of the media. They were very savvy. These were smart people. And they did also find ways to control, or at least to impact, the narrative that was being shared about themselves.\u201d<\/p>\n

The CPPA comes under attack<\/p>\n

In one Calgary Herald article from Dec. 11, 1911, the CPPA came under fire from a police magistrate who believed the group \u201cwas a society for the purposes of raising money to engage legal advice to protect any of their members accused of charges in the court.”<\/p>\n

\u201cHe was of the opinion that it was the duty of the Crown prosecutor to investigate whether this was the case,\u201d the article continued.<\/p>\n

\"In<\/p>\n

(Newspapers.com)<\/p>\n

The case in question involved Harry and Bertha Palmer of Lethbridge, Alta., two Black people who were sentenced to six months imprisonment by the magistrate for keeping a \u201cdisorderly house.\u201d<\/p>\n

In another Calgary Herald report, the Palmers were reported to have pleaded not guilty, \u201cclaiming that they kept a lodging house and had six or seven steady roomers, several of them being porters<\/a> on runs out of Calgary.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"A<\/p>\n

(Newspapers.com)<\/p>\n

\u201cIt was kind of like they were in a situation where they couldn’t win no matter what they did \u2026 Black people were criticized for existing,\u201d Foggo said.<\/p>\n

\u201cPeople would complain when Black people had, you know, restaurants or businesses that were to support other Black people, and then they would try to shut those businesses down.\u201d<\/p>\n

A lasting legacy\u00a0<\/p>\n

Despite the adversity the CPPA faced, its legacy has lived on in the generations of organizations that came after it, Foggo said.<\/p>\n

\u201cPeople needed to organize at every stage, and they did. And then future generations built upon their work. \u2026 You see the same people linking between different organizations over the generations.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"Cheryl<\/p>\n

(Mike Tan)<\/p>\n

According to Foggo, the CPPA fed into the local Universal Negro Improvement Association, which was linked to an international Black nationalist movement founded by Marcus Garvey in Jamaica.<\/p>\n

That led up to the formation of the Brotherhood of Sleeping Car Porters, which then paved the way for the Alberta Association for the Advancement of Coloured People (AAACP), Foggo said.<\/p>\n

\"Members<\/p>\n

Members of the Brotherhood of Sleeping Car Porters, who worked for Canadian Pacific Railway, are photographed with their families in Calgary. Back row, left to right: P.T. Clay, Wilbur Milton, Jeff Bowen, Willis Richardson, ‘Doomy’ Hicks, Embert ‘Amos’ States, Melvin Crump. Middle row, left to right: Peaches Coleman, Willa ‘Gotchie’ Sneed, Louella Bellamy, Ethel Kay, Alex Kay, Rachel Walton, Charlie Walton. Front row, left to right: Ray Williams (holding Judy Williams), Odelle Holmes, Mr. Blanchette, Helen Braithwaite, Cordie Williams. (Glenbow Library and Archives, University of Calgary Digital Collections)<\/p>\n

Black Calgarian Corporal\u00a0Theodore (Ted) King <\/a>was president of the AAACP from 1958 to 1961, according to Jennifer Kelly, professor emeritus from the University of Alberta, who has written extensively <\/a>about Alberta’s Black history.<\/p>\n

\"Corporal<\/p>\n

Corporal Theodore (Ted) King, pictured centre, is met by his family on his return to Calgary. King was the president of the Alberta Association for the Advancement of Coloured People (AAACP) from 1958 to 1961. (Glenbow Library and Archives, University of Calgary Digital Collections)<\/p>\n

There are still several questions about the CPPA that need to be answered, such as how large its membership was in Calgary. It’s one of the details Foggo hopes to uncover in her research for a book chapter she\u2019s working on.<\/p>\n

But of what she does know about the trailblazing group of early Black Calgarian settlers, Foggo said: \u201cI have incredible admiration and respect for them.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Over 115 years ago, more than 150 members of Calgary\u2019s Black community gathered at a venue called Eagle…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":554056,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[194293],"tags":[214905,137840,49,2798,48,214900,214904,214902,214906,214903,112709,214901],"class_list":["post-554055","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-calgary","tag-black-albertans","tag-black-community","tag-ca","tag-calgary","tag-canada","tag-cheryl-foggo","tag-colored-people39s-protective-association","tag-cppa","tag-pregnant-black","tag-the-calgary-daily-herald","tag-university-of-calgary","tag-william-king"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/554055","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=554055"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/554055\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/554056"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=554055"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=554055"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=554055"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}