Protest and Reform: the Desegre Gation of Oklahoma City
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I This dilsetlalion hss been 69-18,464 SAXE, Allan A., 1939- PROTEST AND REFORM: THE DESEGRE GATION OF OKLAHOMA CITY. The University of Oklahoma, Ph.D., 1969 Political Science, general Univeisity Microfilms, Inc., Ann Arbor, Michigan THE UNIVERSITY OF OKLAHOMA GRADUATE COLLEGE PROTEST AND REFORM: THE DESEGREGATION OF OKLAHOMA CITY A DISSERTATION SUBMITTED TO THE GRADUATE FACULTY in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of DOCTOR OF PHILOSOPHY BY B- ALLAN SAXE Norman, Oklahoma 1969 PROTEST AND REFORM: THE DESEGREGATION OF OKLAHOMA CITY APPROVED BY CSSERTATION COMMITTEE PLEASE HOTE: This is original copy. Several pages have broken and indistinct print. Filmed as received. UNIVERSITY MICROFILMS, ACKNOWLEDGMENTS This dissertation, a study of the desegregation pro cess in Oklahoma City, was inspired by Jimmy Stewart and Clara Luper Clark. Both of these Negro leaders were prominezt in the desegregation struggle and believed that this period should be recorded and analyzed. Their records and impres sions were invaluable. ~ — This paper was written under the supervision of Professor Harry Holloway, a scholar of great patience and skill. His knowledge of the Negro and southern politics was of great value. But the greatest value derived from his supervision was his attempt to teach the author to write clearly and coherently about a detailed and complex subject. His supervision of this study is greatly appreciated. For encouraging comments and suggestions for the improvement of this dissertation I am indebted to many teachers. Especially helpful in this connection were Professors Oliver Benson, Joseph Pray, Walter Scheffer and John Wood. These teacher-scholars have had a great influ ence on my professional career. Their patience and assis tance will always be appreciated. iii TABLE OF CONTENTS Page LIST OF t a b l b s ................................... vi': LIST OF FIGURES................................... vil Chapter I. INTRODUCTION.................. 1 Objective and Purpose Sources II. PROFILE OF A CASTE COMMUNITY............. 14 Oklahoma— A Southern State Processes and Techniques of Control: The State— Its Impact Upon the City Processes and Techniques of Control: The Community— A Caste Society Community Politics Mass Communications Negro Community and Its Response Population Daily Living Conditions Residential Patterns Public Accommodations Employment Educational Facilities The Negro Response III. READINESS FOR DESEGREGATION— THE ROOTS OF CONFLICT.................... 5 8 ^ ForC3S Serving the Ends of the Negro Protest Economic and Social Ideological Forces: T>«o Impact of Church Doctrine Increase in Political and Social Activity The Impact of Legal Decisions Vehicles for Political Participation; Social and Civic Organizations Mass Media Negro Political Response IV. THE POLITICS OF DESEGREGATION..............117 Public School Desegref ion: The Initial Thrust iv TABLE OF CONTENTS— Con tinued Page Chapter IV. Continued The Desegregation Movement Gains Momentum The Politics of Confrontation Non-Violent Direct Action Evaluation of Technique Political Developments Affecting the Negro Protest Reappor tionmen t ARG: A Local Political Organization Emerges Oklahoma Republicanism V. THE POLITICS OF ACCOMMODATION............ 190 InC^cators of Change \ Altered Political Climate ‘ State Political Developments Affecting the Oklahoma City Negro Political changes in the City Demonstrations of Political Strength School Desegregation Employment Desegregated Housing Public Accommodations Law Enforcement Adaptation and Protest VI. CONCLUSION.............................. 252 BIBLIOGRAPHY.................................... 261 LIST OF TABLES Table Page 1# Population by Race: Oklahoma's Standard Metropolitan Statistical Area •••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••*••••••••• 2# Sit-In Demonstrations In Southern Cities •••••••*••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••• 166 3. Desegregation of Oklahoma City Eating Establishments 168 k* First Bond Issue Vote Tabulations 207 3# Second Bond Issue Vote Tabulations ••••••••••••• 210 Vi LIST OF FIGURES Figure Page 1. Percent Distribution by Race •••••••••••••••••• 44 2* Percent Who Say White and Negro Students Should Go to the Same Schools *....#*..,.##......$.,,...*#*,...#...147 3. Percent Who Approved Residential Integration .... ....148 4. Percent Who Approved Public Transportation Integration ..................149 5. Participation of Negro Protest Groups and Leaders in Oklahoma C i t y ............. 133 vii LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS Illustration Page 1« Letter from U. Simpson Tate ••••••*••••••••••• 122 2. Letter from Thurgood Marshall •••••••••••••••• 123 3. Civil Rights Leaflet 132 4. Civil Rights Leaflet ....................... 138 viii PROTEST AND REFORM: THE DESEGREGATION OF OKLAHOMA CITY CHAPTER I OBJECTIVE AND PHRPOSE This study will be an attempt to define, analyze, and evaluate a significant period in the political life of a border state community, Oklahoma City, Oklahoma, pivoting on a political analysis of desegregation practices* It will focus on how a community was able to meet the demands of a potent desegregation movement and resolve much of the con flict that emanated from this confrontation# The central problem of concern is the elimination of segregation prac tices^ and the subsequent enlargement of traditional poli tical consensus# This allowed for meaningful participation for the Negro in the broader society# The transformation of a caste society into a relatively modern community based on considerable consensus will constitute the major thrust of Racial integration, although apparent in some instances, is not the major concern of this study, but only the formal act of desegregation# 2 this study* An attempt will be made to explain why this community behaved politically as it did and to trace the functioning of the political processes that emanated from this behavior* No attempt is made here to write a history of the segregation practices of this community* Rather, the purpose is to relate the succession of ideas and techniques utilized to bring about the transition from segregation to desegregation and the dynamics of this transition* The research has been conducted and the findings examined within a functional analytical framework* The time span covered will be frcmi the early 1920s, when Oklahoma City exhibited its most blatant segregationist practices, to a more modern and integrationist posture which it assumed by 1968* In its earliest stages, Oklahoma City evidenced a pattern of segregation practices and attitudes heavily re inforced legally* The early 1920s witnessed the Ku Klux Elan parading through downtown Oklahoma City* Posters in windows of public restaurants welcomed the Klan and encour aged their patronage* Public school students were actively recruited to join the Klan organization*^ Race riots plagued her sister city, Tulsa* There was constant, and ^Interview with George Fagin, District Director, Anti-Defamation League of B'nai B*rith (1947-1958), Septem ber 10, 1967* often Intense, friction between local law enforcement agen cies and the Negro population.^ Negroes were strictly segregated in housing, employment, and education. They were thoroughly separated from the main currents of Oklahoma City life. A rigidly enforced ghetto atmosphere was maintained. Indeed, the Negro position in the community resembled a caste system. By the early 1960s this community had eliminated its stringent segregationist practices and attitudes and had peacefully desegregated. In the 1920s, the State of Oklahoma and its capital city seemed to be very much a part of southern life, but by the 1960s this was not so valid an assessment. Between 1922 and 1968, the years covered in this paper, the state as a whole was moving away fï^om trad itional southern attitudes and into mainstream politics **in accord with the national ideas of constitutional morality." Indeed, Oklahoma City during t&s time transformed itself from a caste system to one more generally based on consensus* The proposition is offered and supported by research ^Interview with John Dunjee, Editor of The Black Disnatch. September 9* 1967. — %,0, Key, Jr., Southern Politics In State and Nation (New York: Vintage Books,"Random Ëôûse, l94^) , p. béit* Key states that the race question and one party rule were some of the main characteristics of southern life. Other characteristics derived from economic and demographic traits which were all common to Oklahoma in varying degrees. k that desegregation in Oklahoma City was accomplished by non- ideological politics which turned upon "practical" political mechanisms rather than ideological strife* This seems to be consistent with broad American political tradition. Con crete, specific gains, rather than the conquest of political power with a view to reorganizing society was the principal aim* However, before the concrete, specific gains could be attained or even bargained for, a changed perspective became imperative* In this sense, an ideological struggle was at least initially present* The ideological struggle was simply an attempt to bring one or another class of problems into focus* Therefore, once the change in the political ideology became apparent in this community a whole new set of problems came into view and were system atically acted upon in pragmatic fashion* Furthermore, as the political ideology altered so did the attitudes of the white community. This is reflect ed in the problem solving struggle itself* By itself neither the alteration in political ideology nor