AFRICAN AMERICAN EXODUS TO CANADA

Between 1897 and 1911 Clifford Sifton, Canadian minister of the interior, actively promoted immigration to western Canada, offering free land to prospective immigrants from western and northern Europe and the United States. When these efforts failed to produce the desired results, Sifton recruited in eastern and southern Europe and in the United States. African Americans from Oklahoma enthusiastically responded. When Oklahoma became a state in 1907, William H. Murray, president of the constitutional convention that united Indian Territory and Oklahoma Territory, remarked: "[I]t is an entirely false notion that the Negro can rise to the equal of a white man in the professions or become an equal citizen to grapple with public questions." The first state legislature discussed the possibility of disenfranchising Black voters. Segregation legislation was passed in 1907 and implemented in 1908. It mandated separate railroad cars, streetcars, and schools. Black people challenged segregation laws in the courts and organized protests, some of which were violent. Black people also fought against Jim Crow transportation laws and against a grandfather clause that prohibited them from voting. Ultimately, they voted with their feet, and many migrated to western Canada.