Civil rights protestors marched at the State Capitol on June 7, 1964.

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46_Civil Rights.indd 46 12/5/18 4:08 PM FREEDOM ROAD At the convergence of cultures and history, Oklahoma’s place in the nation’s civil rights story is unlike any other. In this feature, a Tulsa writer and researcher team up to track the currents of the from before statehood through the turbulent days of the 1950s and ’60s, following the heroic path of those who fought for their freedom in the Sooner State.

By QURAYSH ALI LANSANA with research by BRACKEN KLAR Portraits by SHANNON NICOLE

HE 1960S GENERALLY are considered ment is important and unique. e state’s red the heart of the modern struggle earth served as battleground and litmus test Tfor African American civil rights, for the movement dating back to and many of that era’s most well-known before statehood. ough great progress has moments happened in the . But been achieved here, many of those old growing Oklahoma’s place in the Civil Rights Move- pains continue to ache. OKLAHOMA HISTORICAL SOCIETY

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46_Civil Rights.indd 48 12/5/18 4:08 PM OST BLACKS INITIALLY These former slaves, known as Infantry and the mostly white “Boom- arrived in Freedmen, attained significant eco- ers” negatively affected race relations Min the middle of the nine- nomic and political gains amid great in the state for decades. teenth century via the Trail of Tears indifference from both Native Ameri- But it was a Kansas businessman, and other forced relocations as the cans and whites. No longer property Edward (Edwin) P. McCabe, who property of the slaveholding Creek, but property owners, the Freedmen envisioned Indian Territory as a new Choctaw, Chickasaw, Cherokee, and cultivated farms and livestock in land of opportunity for black Ameri- Seminole nations. Many attempted addition to becoming entrepreneurs cans free of the oppressive legislated to escape their bondage by revolt or and merchants. Some white people of the post-Civil-War South. by running away, and both black and resented the wealth and stability black McCabe came to Oklahoma in 1890 white abolitionists worked to overturn Oklahomans acquired during the after a visit to Washington, D.C., during this time. By the 1861 period, and their hatred often mani- during which he visited President onset of the Civil War, these tribes fested in threats and lynching bees. Benjamin Harrison to encourage his owned approximately 10,000 Africans. Many Native Americans, also strug- support for African American voting After the war, the federal government gling to sustain their own indepen- and civil rights. McCabe encouraged granted freedom and allotments of dent economy, treated the Freedmen blacks to relocate to Indian Territory, land to newly freed black citizens, an with disdain. But their success paved an initiative that was assisted by the initiative that was not greeted warmly the way for a second migration of Oklahoma Immigration Association of by all Native Americans. African Americans into the land that Topeka, which called for the creation “Following the Civil War, these slaves would become Oklahoma. of Oklahoma as an all-black state with were freed and entered into the tribal McCabe as its first governor. life of the Indians, intermarrying and McCabe’s dream of an all-black state becoming an integral part of the Red never became a reality, but he, along Man’s life and customs,” wrote Roscoe T WAS THE promise of land that with white land developer Charles Dunjee, editor of The Black Dispatch spurred this second migration, H. Robbins, established the town of newspaper in , in an Ibeginning with the first Land Langston in 1890 and the Oklahoma editorial dated April 29, 1939. Run in 1889. During the 1880s, it Colored Agricultural and Normal Col- Portraits, left to right: Oklahoma’s had been the task of Henry O. Flip- lege—now known as Langston Univer- first African American legislator A.C. per, the first black graduate of West sity—seven years later. Hamlin; The Black Dispatch founder Point, and Allen Allensworth, a black Langston was hardly unique. Dur- Roscoe Dunjee; and businessman and Langston co-founder Edward (Edwin) chaplain—they were the only black ing this second migration of blacks to P. McCabe. Top left, The Tullahassee commissioned officers to serve in the Oklahoma, as many as fifty all-black Manual Labor School was a Creek territory—to lead the Twenty-fourth towns were established and served Nation-funded boarding school opened for Freedmen in 1883. Tullahassee is Infantry in their task of preventing as testament to African Americans’ one of the oldest historic all-black towns “Boomers” from illegally relocating resolve to control their own destinies in Oklahoma. Bottom left, Chickasaw from Kansas to Oklahoma. Clashes and live free of racism. Black Okla- Freedmen file for allotments in Tishomingo. between the all-black Twenty-fourth homans bought farmland, established

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46_Civil Rights.indd 49 12/5/18 4:08 PM banks and other businesses, and ran can to serve in the new state legis- the world—had ever seen at the time. for political office. Two black men, lature. Hamlin was elected in 1908 Tulsa’s Greenwood District, which Green I. Currin and David J. Wallace, in the midst of a Republican renais- came to be known as “Black Wall served in the Territorial Legislature sance in state politics, but his election Street,” grew with Tulsa during the oil prior to statehood during a time when prompted the legislature to draft a boom of the 1910s. The area contained school segregation by race still was constitutional amendment requir- thirty-five blocks of more than a hun- optional—though in the late 1890s, ing voters to pass a literacy test—one dred prosperous African American- the legislature passed statutes making from which most white citizens were owned businesses and residences. A it mandatory. exempt—though this was overturned dollar spent here would remain in the by the Supreme Court in 1915. In neighborhood for more than a year. 1916, the legislature passed another The area also was home to two clause denying blacks the right to newspapers, most notably The Tulsa EGREGATION AND CIVIL vote. These actions reflected a larger Star. Andrew J. Smitherman, the Star’s rights played a major role during trend across the South. publisher, began his career by found- Sthe formation of a proper state “. . . by 1910, the Negro had been ing The Muskogee Star in 1912 before on the land that was Indian Territory. effectively disenfranchised by consti- moving the operation to Tulsa in At the 1906 Constitutional Con- tutional provisions in North Carolina, 1913. Through his newspaper, Smith- vention, a “race distinction” passage , Virginia, Georgia, and erman shared his message of African formally separated school and trans- Oklahoma,” wrote the late historian American autonomy and encouraged portation facilities. President Theo- John Hope Franklin, a Rentiesville na- armed resistance to combat lynching dore Roosevelt even became involved, tive, in his 1947 book From Slavery to bees and other forms of racial vio- threatening to deny Oklahoma’s entry Freedom: A History of American Negroes. lence. He authored searing editorials into the Union if the transportation and poems that spoke to economic provision, which he strongly opposed, and racial disparities. In 1920, Smi- remained in the state’s founding docu- therman was invited by Governor ment. The clause was removed but ESPITE A GENERAL atmo- J.B.A. Robertson to participate in an swiftly reinstated by sphere of legalized discrimina- interracial conference on the ram- Bill One, the first piece of legislation Dtion in housing, employment, pant lynching of black Oklahomans. in the state’s history. transportation, education, and voting When the Tulsa Race Massacre of A.C. Hamlin, a Republican from restrictions, black Oklahomans built 1921 broke out, many white Tulsans Guthrie, was the first African Ameri- a community unlike any America—or blamed Smitherman, and he was

The Long Journey LEARN MORE ABOUT AFRICAN AMERICANS’ HISTORY IN OKLAHOMA FROM THE TRAIL OF TEARS THROUGH THE CIVIL WAR, THE CIVIL RIGHTS MOVEMENT, AND INTO THE PRESENT DAY AT THESE EVENTS AND SITES ALL OVER THE STATE.

The John Hope Franklin Center for John Hope Franklin Reconciliation Park Reconciliation, Greenwood Cultural Center 290 North Elgin Avenue in Tulsa 322 North Greenwood Avenue Tulsa Historical Society & Museum in Tulsa, (918) 295-5009 or jhfcenter.org 2445 South Peoria Avenue in Tulsa, (918) 712-9484 or tulsahistory.org Oklahoma Jazz Hall of Fame For more on Oklahoma’s black history, MEGAN ROSSMAN order the Long Road to Liberty or visit 5 South Boston Avenue in Tulsa, TravelOK.com/long-road-to-liberty (918) 928-5299 or okjazz.org

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46_Civil Rights.indd 50 12/5/18 4:08 PM charged with inciting a riot by local courts. By this time, however, he had moved to Springfield, Massachusetts, and the case never was brought to trial because that state refused to comply with Oklahoma’s extradition efforts. The race massacre devastated the Greenwood neighborhood. More than three hundred black people were killed and 10,000 rendered homeless after white mobs set fire to businesses and more than a thousand homes in the area. Some even flew over the riot in their private planes dropping kero- sene bombs to aid in the devastation. Many black Tulsans were imprisoned at several locations around the city, in- cluding a baseball stadium at McNulty Park. Afterward, black Tulsans walked back down Archer Street to bury their neighbors and sleep in makeshift tents amid the smoldering rubble of their own prosperity. “Their scorched earth assault on the Greenwood District left little un- scathed: homes and businesses reduced During a protest, Oklahomans held a Jim Crow funeral at the State Capitol on August 28, 1963, which was the same day Martin Luther King Jr. delivered his “I Have a

Dream” speech in the nation’s capital. OKLAHOMA HISTORICAL SOCIETY

Oklahoma Black Museum & Honey Springs Battlefield and Visitor Center Bass Reeves Western History Conference Performing Arts Center 101601 South 4232 Road in Checotah, July 26-27 at the Three Rivers Museum, 220 4701 North Lincoln Boulevard in Oklahoma City, (918) 473-5572 or Elgin Street in Muskogee, (918) 686-6624 or (405) 213-8077 or naajlm.com/obmapac okhistory.org/sites/honeysprings bassreevesconference.com Charlie Christian International Music Festival Fort Sill National Historic Landmark & Museum Boley Historical Museum June 1-3 at the Montellano Event Center, 11200 435 Quanah Road in Fort Sill, Open by appointment. 10 West Grant Street in John Hope Franklin Reconciliation Park North Eastern Avenue in Oklahoma City (580) 442-5123 or sill-www.army.mil/museum Boley, (918) 667-9790 290 North Elgin Avenue in Tulsa Ralph Ellison Library Answering the Call Monument Rentiesville Museum and Oklahoma Blues Hall Tulsa Historical Society & Museum 2000 Northeast Twenty-third Street in Oklahoma Buffalo Soldiers Heritage Plaza, 200 West Gore of Fame 2445 South Peoria Avenue in Tulsa, City, (405) 424-1437 or Boulevard in Lawton 103020 D.C. Minner Street in Rentiesville, (918) 712-9484 or tulsahistory.org metrolibrary.org/ralph-ellison-library Fort Gibson Historic Site (918) 855-0978 or dcminnerblues.com Oklahoma Jazz Hall of Fame 907 North Garrison Avenue in Fort Gibson, Rentiesville Dusk ‘til Dawn Blues Festival 5 South Boston Avenue in Tulsa, 800 Nazih Zuhdi Drive in Oklahoma City, (918) 478-4088 or August 30-September 1 in Rentiesville. (918) 928-5299 or okjazz.org (405) 522-0765 or okhistory.org okhistory.org/sites/fortgibson (918) 855-0978 or dcminnerblues.com

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46_Civil Rights.indd 51 12/5/18 4:08 PM 46_Civil Rights.indd 52 52 this time. established RoscoeDunjee activism during a centerofcivilrights per owner whomade City Oklahoma citizens,black - itwasanother newspa guitarist Charlie Christian. Charlie guitarist as home tothegroundbreaking jazz aswell Rushing andJimmy Grant Earl Ellison andinfluential Ralph musicians ofrenownedwas thebirthplace author known asDeepDeuceand became life Street. American This centerofAfrican to anarea along Second Northeast housing ordinances, boundblacks which initialsegregationistof thecountry’s ofintegrationpassed one fearful officials as Bricktown.1915, In City Oklahoma FeSanta Railroad—an area now known of theCanadian River andeastofthe the city’s warehouse tothenorth district hundreds ofjobsin hadthey claimed 1889, andby ofthecentury, theturn of Run in thearea theLand following neighborhood. Freedmen had settled had itsownhoma well-known City black today.”even palpable psychic etched scars of itall B. Johnson. breadth andbrutality “The ney, Hannibal scholar history andblack and destitute,” wrote Tulsa author, attor- and wounded; andhundreds homeless to charred rubble; scores dead, dying, But of all the city’sBut ofall well-known About ahundred milesaway,- Okla January/February 2019 January/February

I the state’s flagshipuniversity. twentieth century, andbothconcerned Civil RightsMovement ofthemid- impact andprovide momentum tothe would proveparticular tohave national State.the Sooner Two in ofthesecases segregation challenging in cases court NAACP inmany wasinstrumental Dunjee’s direction, City theOklahoma intheUnited States.branches Under the firststateconference of NAACP national board ofdirectors andcreated People. on theNAACP’s Heserved tion theAdvancement for ofColored oftheNationalcity’s branch Associa- offices werehis Bricktown home tothe National Negro BusinessLeague, and progress andunity. economic ofblack relentless supporter andwasa statewide struggle rights ing speaker, aleader inthecivil became Dunjee, andcommand- writer amoving publisher until1955. thistime, During community, in1915, andhewasits American City’s Oklahoma African for DispatchThe Black , thefirstnewspaper law at the time prevented blacks from law atthetimeprevented from blacks didn’t have itsown lawschool, andstate was toattendlawschool. ButLangston Dunjee served aspresident ofthe served Dunjee University with honors,University hergoal LangstonFisher graduatedfrom Sipuel N 1945,WHENAda Lois on June 1, 1963. downtown OklahomaCityonJune 1,1963. gathered atBishop’s Restaurantin organizer ClaraLuper. Right,protesters Lois SipuelFisher;teacherand community first AfricanAmericanlawstudent Ada Smitherman; theUniversityofOklahoma’s Star Portraits, lefttoright:TheMuskogee College of Law in1949,College ofLaw butshecould OU’s was admitted to finally She edict. Court’s equal pertheSupreme Fisher appealedthissituation asnot OU’s campus. Marshall’s With help, on than allow hertosetfoot rather housed inrooms Capitol, attheState Fisher, for lawschool ated aseparate Oklahomans. The statelegislature cre- asitprovidedlegal education toother a securing for the sameopportunities mustOklahoma provide Fisher with the nation’s that ruled highestcourt justice,Supreme Court first black thecountry’s became who eventually Court.Supreme Statesshe filedanappealtotheUnited there Court, andatthestateSupreme Court. District County losing After Fisher filedalawsuitin theCleveland andtheNAACPDunjee behindher— onschool thebasisofrace—andwith of1946. inthespring Law Collegeof ofOklahoma the University encouragedFisher toDunjee toapply attending whiteuniversities. Roscoe So Guided byGuided , tothe beingdeniedentry After and The Tulsa StarfounderA.J. 12/5/18 4:08 PM

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46_Civil Rights.indd 54 12/5/18 4:08 PM only sit in the back of the room and the statewide struggle for black civil was forced to eat, study, and watch rights and the national movement football games in areas separate was during the fight for the end of from the white students. . In Oklahoma, that Despite these additional barri- fight was led by Clara Luper. ers, Fisher received her law degree In 1958, Luper, a public school in 1952, served as a professor and teacher at John Marshall High administrator at Langston until 1987, School, led thirteen young people and was named to OU’s Board of from the NAACP Youth Council Regents in 1992. She died in 1995. to Katz Drug Store in downtown Around the same time Fisher’s case Oklahoma City to stage a “sit was gaining steam, another school and wait” protest. At Katz, she segregation case was making its way and the other protesters ordered through state courts. Sixty-one-year- lunch and were asked to leave. The old George W. McLaurin was one of group remained at the counter and six black Oklahomans who applied respectfully asked to be served. The OKLAHOMA HISTORICAL SOCIETY for undergraduate admission to OU group endured threats, insults, and A civil rights on June 6, 1964, in 1948. All were denied admission. spit from angry white customers at the State Capitol drew around 150 Once again, Thurgood Marshall was for two consecutive days. Under marchers both black and white. eager to help, and soon, the case public pressure, Katz staff served stood before the U.S. Supreme Court, the group burgers and sodas on the which found that segregation inhib- third day. The Katz chain ended its ited McLaurin’s ability to study. This segregation policy shortly after the effectively ended segregation not only Oklahoma City sit-in in all thirty- ODAY, MOST OF Oklahoma’s at OU but at all other state-supported eight of its stores in four states. all-black towns have disap- universities throughout the nation. Luper continued to lead sit-ins and Tpeared or been unincorpo- This case, McLaurin v. the Okla- marches until 1964. rated—though a handful, including homa State Regents, was pivotal to U.S. The Oklahoma City sit-ins Boley and Langston, still remain. But Supreme Court Chief Justice Earl occurred a year and a half before the African American civil rights leaders Warren’s later attempts to make clear country’s most famous sit-in, at the in the state understand the mighty that segregation was, by its very na- Woolworth’s store in Greensboro, shoulders on which they stand and ture, unequal. McLaurin and Fisher’s North Carolina. In Oklahoma, Luper from which they still advocate. cases were precursors to the 1954 was jailed twenty-six times for her “As we continue the struggle toward Brown v. Board of Education of Topeka activism, but her example—plus equality and equal opportunity, the case that led to the end of school the success of sit-ins and marches best strategies of today are rooted in segregation nationwide. Without nationally as well as the devastating the historical acts, commitments, and these pioneering Oklahoma fights for assassinations of Martin Luther successes of those who came before us,” equality, the Civil Rights Movement King Jr., , and John F. and says Michael Eric Owens, founder and that grew across the country in the Robert Kennedy—galvanized young executive director of the Oklahoma years that followed may have unfold- people anxious for progress. During City-based Ralph Ellison Foundation. ed very differently. the 1960s and ’70s, student walkouts The significance of the Sooner State occurred statewide as African in the African American struggle for American youth demanded greater civil rights continues to leave indelible representation in terms of teachers, imprints on the nation’s parchment. ITHOUT A DOUBT, course content, and access. More Oklahoma is one of the youngest states one of the most famous African Americans ran for and were in the Union, and the concerns, as well Wpoints of contact between elected to political office, including as triumphs, of its past remain both Hannah Diggs Atkins, the first black burdens and opportunities. Ayanna Najuma, center, participated in the Katz Drug Store sit-in in Oklahoma woman elected to the state House of As Luper once said, “My biggest job City when she was only seven years old, Representatives. She went on to serve now is making white people understand along with a number of other children as Oklahoma’s secretary of state from that black history is white history. We OKLAHOMA HISTORICAL SOCIETY from the NAACP Youth Council. 1987 to 1991. cannot separate the two.”

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