The arrival of over a thousand African Americans to this region between 1908 and 1911 marked the Dominion of Canada’s first experience with Black immigration en masse. It sparked a backlash in parts of the press and business community that led the federal government to adopt an unofficial policy of exclusion by race, limiting the numbers of Black people entering Canada until the 1960s. Nonetheless, these courageous settlers established their own institutions, created a rich social life, and forged vibrant farming communities largely in isolation from other groups and in keeping with what they had known in the United States.