Sask. family has deep roots in province’s black history

Deep roots in Sask. Black history Carol Lafayette-Boyd's family was the only black family in the community when they moved to Saskatchewan in the early 1900s.

Carol Lafayette-Boyd has deep roots in Saskatchewan’s black community.

Her family moved to Canada from Iowa in 1906. The family’s patriarch, Lewis William Lafayette, planned to move to Regina.

“When he arrived nobody had received any property, so he did have to begin homesteading and he started to homestead out in the Rosetown area.”

They were the only black family in the area at the community. They had to build a school — named Oskaloosa after Lewis’ homestead in Iowa — so their children could get an education.

“It was an integrated school and my father’s aunt came from Iowa as a teacher and taught at the Maidstone area, where all of the black people were in schools there,” Lafayette-Boyd said. “She wanted to come teach at Oskaloosa and apparently the chairman of the board said there’s no way any black woman is teaching my children.”

Fleeing to the north seemed like a move to a more accepting place, but Canada still has its own dark history.

The Civic Museum of Regina found a gold Ku Klux Klan token from the 1920s was found in a heritage home in 2018. At the time, it’s believed the KKK had a membership of 25,000 people in Saskatchewan — one of the largest groups in Canada at the time.

Lafayette-Boyd says her family was lucky and didn’t face much overt racism, but her family’s attitude in the era of racial unrest and inequality was simple.

“We’re just as equal as anyone else,” she said. “If people call you names, that’s their problem. And it’s usually because they don’t feel so good about themselves.”

February is recognized as Black History Month in Canada. In the 1970s, it only lasted for a week. The month was officially recognized in 1995.

“I think as young people are exposed more and more to the diversity of our city and the diversity of the world that minds may be changing,” said Pamela Brown, a 12th generation Canadian.

“This is something that makes Canada and Saskatchewan very, very special, but you take it for granted,” Regina-Wascana MP Ralph Goodale said.

Black History Month represents the acknowledgement of the sacrifices and strides forward that have brought us to where we are today. In Saskatchewan, it’s hoped that the province will continue to grow and live up to its motto: From many peoples strength.