User:HungryHighway/History of Oklahoma

Civil Rights Movement in Oklahoma
Main Article: Civil Rights Movement

Pre-Cursor to the Civil Rights Era: A Brief History of Black Activism in Oklahoma Previous to the Civil Rights Era
Because of the prejudice and unfair treatment under segregation that had divided Oklahoma since 1910 with the "grandfather clause" and the national Jim Crow laws, civil rights groups began making movement in Oklahoma even before the technical civil rights era of the 1960's. African Americans experienced many counts of racial violence nationwide and in Oklahoma Specifically, even after gaining their "freedom" after the civil war. The results of the civil war, although it freed African Americans from slavery, did not prevent the inequality and prejudice freed black people would have to face in America. Oklahoma was no stranger to the nationwide inequality and segregation that the grandfather clause and later, Jim Crow Laws, caused. Specifically, the Tulsa Race Massacre of 1921, that saw over 1,500 houses burnt or looted and 35 dead. The NAACP came to Oklahoma in 1913 with the establishment of the Oklahoma City branch, creating quickly expanding areas for African Americans to express their beliefs and work to gain their freedom. Black newspapers advocated for protections in education, legal actions against Jim Crow laws, and community building in Oklahoma.Along with this, mutliple groups of Black Activists spread their information via newspapers. Notable editors of these newspapers include Roscoe Dunjee, who continued to fight for equal rights well into the nationally recognized civil rights era, including fighting for equal pay post WWII and advocating for Ada Louis Sipuel in the Sipuel v. Board of Regents of the University of Oklahoma case (1948), the case that ultimately allowed black students to attend the University of Oklahoma, though segregated.

Because of the efforts of black journalists prior to the civil rights era, black solidarity in Oklahoman communities continued to grow stronger. Clubs such as the Prince Hall Masons and The Oklahoma State Federation of Colored Women's Clubs, that had been around previous to Oklahomas official statehood, continued to fraternize and fight for racial equality in Oklahoma. The women auxiliary group of the Prince Hall Masons, the Eastern Star, additionally worked to provide educational support to black students and created new citizen programs in Oklahoma.

The outcome of the well-known Brown v Board of Education Supreme Court case made waves across the country in dismantling educational segregation along with the social standing of Jim Crow laws. Oklahomans not only accepted the change, being compliant with the new law, but encouraged it with the passing of the provisional constitutional Better Schools Amendment in 1955 under Governor Raymond Gary, which made it strictly illegal for schools to practice any form of segregation in the state of Oklahoma. However, this decision did not ultimately remove Jim Crow laws, nor did it end all segregation, as all other

The decision of Brown v Board of education acted as one of the catalyst for the emergence of the Civil Rights era, the court case was quickly followed by the actions of Rosa Parks inspiring the Montgomery Bus Boycott, nationwide sit-ins to protest public segregation, and the rise of Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. and Malcom X as prominent civil rights leaders with differing civil rights agendas.

The Civil Rights Era in Oklahoma: Activism, Counterculture, and Leaders 1955-1970
With Martin Luther King's nonviolent views at the forefront of civil rights protests, Oklahoma saw multiple forms of peaceful and effective protests from varying members of the state. One of the most prominent members of Oklahoma's civil rights movement was Clara S. Luper, the leader of the NAACP youth council of Oklahoma.

One of Clara Luper's prominent efforts for the fight for civil rights in Oklahoma is the Katz Drug-Store sit-in of 1958, in protest of the segregation of public areas and dining establishments. Super, along with the other youth of the NAACP, sat down in "whites only" areas of the drug store and ordered food and drink as a nonviolent way to display their discontent and lack of toleration towards segregation. Clara Luper's act sparked a wave across the nation, creating a nationwide movement of sit-ins among the NAACP Youth Council. Clara Luper was arrested multiple times for her actions, but nevertheless her action to start the sit-in movement during the civil rights era created a memorable and effective movement of nationwide nonviolent protests.The efforts of Luper and the other members of the Youth Council greatly contributed to the dismantling of segregation in Oklahoma.

Along with the efforts of NAACP and NAACP youth, college students in Oklahoma worked to dismantle segregation in higher education throughout the state. Prior to the desegregation of higher education in Oklahoma, Black students were confined only to attending Langston University, which forced black students to pay out-of-state tuition costs regardless of Oklahoma citizenship. However, with the decision of Spiuel vs. Board of Regents of the University of Oklahoma Case in 1948, black students were allowed admission into the university of Oklahoma, but were "required to segregate [black] students in the University". This injustice sparked action among college students at Oklahoma State University and University of Oklahoma to join the fight for racial equality. Because of their close ties to the community, the struggles of the working class and internal issues, their new form of activism known as "Prairie Power" spread across young adults in the midwestern United States. Because of the previous surge of the Oklahoman socialist party in the early 20th century, along with the Okie draft resisters in WWI, the Oklahoman Prairie Power movement saw similar motives to these movements with the ideas of counterculture and progressivism. This new form of protest encouraged desegregation in higher education, and groups of students who participated in prairie power activism made heavy contributions towards liberalism and leftist ideology in colleges that opened the doors to anti-racist ideas.

After a longwinded nationwide battle for racial justice in the United States, the Civil Rights act of 1964 provided equal protections under the constitution to black Americans, which gave Oklahoman African Americans the opportunity to focus more on legislative change and allow their voices to be heard through black elected officials of Oklahoma

The American Indian Movement/ Red Power Movement in Oklahoma of the Late 1960's-1970's
With the civil rights era underway, Native Americans began to fight for their freedoms as well. After centuries of improper treatment under the United States constitution, the American Indian movement, or AIM was founded originally in Minneapolis to protest and prevent police racially profiling Native Americans. However, this movement quickly expanded across the United States. As Oklahoma was originally a reserved territory marked for Native reservations following the Indian Removal Act, t he state maintained a large population of Native peoples. Although the first few years of the American Indian movement were not marked with any significant events in Oklahoma, the year 1972 saw the movement's first point of significant progress in the state. On September 12th, 1972 forty to fifty Native Americans from the American Indian Movement overtook the office of Indian Education Director Overton James in demand that he resign from his current Indian Education Director position, along with his position of the governor of the Chickasaw nation. Along with the demands of resignation, the American Indian Movement experienced collective outrage in the way that funds based on the Johnson-O'Malley Act of 1934 were ultimately detrimental to the education of Native students.

Carter Camp, the Kansas and Oklahoma American Indian Movement coordinator demanded action from the nation Bureau of Indian Affairs (BIA), and ultimately freeze any funds from the Johnson-O'Malley act until the BIA negotiated and agreed to send representatives to the office under occupation. With the negotiation between American Indian movement leaders and Bureau of Indian Affairs, the AIM deemed themselves fully successful as the BIA froze all funds from the Johnson-O'Malley act for the fiscal year along with allowing for more native input on how finances for Indian Education is spent. This success for the AIM gained them nationwide notoriety, and provided a nationwide success for native input into politics.

Shortly after this AIM success, the movement had another overtaking in Lawton, Oklahoma. After the students of Fort Hill Indian School (FHIS) called for the aid of the American Indian movement due to a lack of consideration or responsiveness from faculty and administrative officials at the school because of an inconsistency in the schools curfew policy. In response to this, the American Indian movement overtook the Fort Hill Indian School Administration building, staying there in protest for the students for over twenty four hours before police officers came to the scene and arrested four individuals for trespassing. Despite the success of their first takeover of Overton James's office, this display at the Fort Hill Indian School unfortunately displayed inconsistencies and a lack of devotion to its own personal cause, but instead acted as a response group for individual instances of prejudice against Native Americans.

A derivative of the American Indian movement, the civil rights era and native activism also saw light to the National Indian Youth Council (NIYC). This youth movement was founded by co-founded Clyde Warrior, a Native American Oklahoman. Warrior's use of rhetoric twas essential to building his cause, which was ultimately successful. The movement held extremely similar values to the American Indian Movement, and was responsible for sparking over two decades of grassroots activism among native Americans in the United States, and ultimately became the second oldest recognized Native organization in the United States. The NIYC aligned itself closely to the The success of the organization is still nationally recognized, as the National Indian Youth Council is a national organization in the present day.

Along with this, an Oklahoman derivative of the National Indian youth council was the Chocktaw Youth Movement. With the realization that the Choctaw tribe was going to be dissolved under the national government, specifically under "Belvin's Law", Charles E. Brown began to organize other urban choctaw youth and began rallying, moving from door to door to raise awareness for this bill and demanding the bills termination. This movement emphasized that members of the Choctaw nation should take pride in their ancestry, and fight to keep their legacy alive. The Chocktaw Youth movement gained quick recognition from the Oklahomans for Indian Opportunity organization, along with the support and recognition from Red Power and the American Indian Movement. The movement focused also on creating newsletters for the "average choctaw", which further raised awareness in their campaign. These news letters, actively criticized and questioned Principal Chief Harry J. W. Belvin, the man who initially proposed the bill to terminate the Choctaw nation in the first place. Along with this the newsletters aimed to create a collective realization between the Choctaw people regarding the lack of control they have over legislation that is pinned against them, along with the control of their native lands. Soon enough, these Choctaw newsletters were not being spread only to Oklahoman Choctaws, but nationwide.The rapid-fire support and spread this movement saw great success for the movement, giving them the ability to effectively lobby congress, write to Oklahoma Legislative officials and the Bureau of Indian Affairs, and spread a nationwide petition expressing the grievances of the Choctaw people against this bill. Despite the collective efforts of the Choctaw youth movement, its is still heavily debated on whether the collective efforts of the group lobbied the success of the bills termination, or it it was the cause of personal fear of attack and removal from office from Belvin.