Brenton vanstone biography of alberta

BRETON, ALBERTA — "My name is Vant Hayes and I'm the only Black one left out here."

Hayes, who says he's 88 years old or "somewhere around there," represents the end of an era in the village of Breton, 110 kilometres southwest of Edmonton.

Brenton vanstone biography of alberta canada

His grandparents William and Mollie Hayes and their children moved to the area from Oklahoma in the early 1900s as part of the Great Migration of Black settlers from the United States, lured by the promise of free land and a better life.

An increase in discrimination in the southern U.S.

in the early 1900s led to an exodus of African Americans to four tiny communities in Alberta. Breton, originally known as Keystone, was one.

Most of the descendants of the original 54 families have moved on, but Hayes remains.

"You would get a quarter (section), but you had to clear 10 acres on it before you could get the title.

I guess that was one reason they migrated here.