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North of the Color Line: Migration and Black Resistance in Canada, 1870-1955

North of the Color Line: Migration and Black Resistance in Canada, 1870-1955

by Mathieu, Sarah-Jane
No customer reviews yet ISBN 9780807871669 University of North Carolina Press

North of the Color Line examines life in Canada for the estimated 5,000 blacks, both African Americans and West Indians, who immigrated to Canada after the end of Reconstruction in the United States. Through the experiences of black railway workers and their union, the Order of Sleeping Car Porters, Sarah-Jane Mathieu connects social, political, labor, immigration, and black diaspora history during the Jim Crow era.

By World War I, sleeping car portering had become the exclusive province of black men. White railwaymen protested the presence of the black workers and insisted on a segregated workforce. Using the firsthand accounts of former sleeping car porters, Mathieu shows that porters often found themselves leading racial uplift organizations, galvanizing their communities, and becoming the bedrock of civil rights activism.

Examining the spread of segregation laws and practices in Canada, whose citizens often imagined themselves as devoid of racism, Mathieu historicizes Canadian racial attitudes, and explores how black migrants brought their own sensibilities about race to Canada, participating in and changing political discourse there.

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Product details

BrandUniversity of North Carolina Press
Pub dateNov 29, 2010
ISBN-100807871664
ISBN-139780807871669
Pages280
LanguageEnglish
Dimensions9.1 × 6 × 0.8 in
Weight1 lb
Last updated 2026-03-15 10:00
$42.87
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