Descendants of the Black 1000: Flight from Oklahoma Black Towns to Canada

Descendants of the Black 1000: Flight from Oklahoma Black Towns to Canada was on view in the Mary LeFlore Clements Gallery from Nov. 9, 2023-April 1, 2024 .

A journey toward freedom

Descendants of the Black 1000: Flight from Oklahoma Black Towns to Canada featured the work of Canadian artists Donna Paris and  David Ofori Zapparoli, whose collaborative project uncovered the historical movement of Black communities from Oklahoma to Canada.

Black-and-white portraits and poignant voices

A selection of 12 photographs with corresponding audio recordings revealed the deep connections between Black Canadians and Oklahoma, from where many of the portrait sitters’ ancestors hail.

Stories untold

Upon statehood, the first state laws enforced disenfranchisement and enacted Jim Crow laws, leading to flight further west, to Mexico, and to Canada.  Between 1908 and 1911, more than 1,000 Black Oklahomans migrated to the Canadian prairies in Alberta and Saskatchewan.

Oklahoma history

The photograph of Antoinette Snow’s class (left) is what former slaves, now sharecroppers, envisioned and strove to achieve: the equity and freedom that served as the bedrock for more than fifty thriving Black towns starting in 1865. 

But equity and freedom were swiftly denied with the signing of Senate Bill One, the state's first Jim Crow law and first bill signed into law upon statehood in 1907 (right).

Their story continues

Descendants of the Black 1000 revealed an important story that not only charted migration but also captured the human spirit that stirs people into movement away from persecution.

The exhibition spoke to the sheer will to traverse the unknown, drawn from a wellspring of fortitude and hope passed down to descendants.