Newspaper facsimile of The Black Dispatch, Thursday, January 12, 1922

Facsimile of a newspaper page featuring "Great Canadian Northwest Open for Settlement" by Geo. W. Slater Jr., in The Black Dispatch, Thursday, January 12, 1922.

In acts of defiance to systemic oppression, Black Oklahomans sold everything they had and fled for Canada in the hope of finding free land and opportunities. Canada had advertised in newspapers encouraging people to move north and farm homesteads, but they envisioned White settlers, not Black ones. Immigration officials could not imagine there was a marketing campaign specific to Oklahoma Black towns and newspapers. Deborah Dobbins, a descendant of Black Oklahomans, says, “We were invited to come to Canada.”

Canada, the place that had been a safe haven for the Black slave seeking freedom, began to implement policies to deter the influx of Black migrants. Meanwhile, the Black 1000 would receive criticism from their own communities for fleeing. Between the heightening persecution in Oklahoma and the uncertainties of a new place, home is in the heart of the resolute will to survive and thrive.

Image courtesy of the Oklahoma Digital Newspaper Program, Oklahoma Historical Society.