Obadiah Place

rdf:langString Obadiah Place

rdf:langString Obadiah Place is a historic site in Amber Valley, Alberta. It was the homestead of Willis Reese Bowen and later the home of his son Obadiah Bowen, a pastor for the town. Willis (sometimes spelled Willace) Reese Bowen brought his family and four other black Oklahoman families to the Amber Valley in 1911. They had applied for homesteads under Clifford Sifton's immigration campaign to bring new settlers to the Canadian Prairies. Sifton had not anticipated that African Americans would migrate to Canada. Most immigrants were of European ancestry, from Britain, the United States and Europe, including Ukraine and Russia. Sifton later sent immigration officers to the US South to try to dissuade black farmers from emigrating to Canada. He and the Department of Immigration also implemented racist policies that created barriers to such immigration, while not explicitly prohibiting entry of people of African descent. These policies were not overturned until 1962. Violet King Henry, whose family was among the first settlers with the Bowens, was the first Black Canadian women to earn a law degree, and helped to develop more progressive policies.