Jack Johnson and Montreal

Several accounts suggest that the great boxer Jack Johnson, who ran into trouble in the USA due to his ability to conquer white men as well as white women, found a temporary haven of tolerance in Montreal where he arrived with his white lover July 25, 1913. The story promotes the idea that Montreal was a place where black men could date white women without anybody being bothered by it, which wasn't the case in the States, where he was sought for participating in exactly this custom with girlfriend Lucille Cameron.
   While there may be some basis to the notion that black men could date white women unmolested in Montreal, it's not necessarily proven by Johnson's story. Another version of this story - told by Roger Kahn (somewhere in googlebooks) also claims that Johnson furtively entered Canada pretending to be a member of a travelling Cuban baseball team.
  In fact, from what we can tell from from this article, Johnson left Chicago by car Tuesday June 24 and stayed one day in Montreal before leaving for for Le Havre France on his way to St. Petersburgh Russia for a boxing match. He returned to Montreal in 1924, then aged 45, and fought a ridiculously fake match that was widely booed.