Thursday, March 8, 2007

67/365


The banner indicates that the OKC chapter of the NAACP was founded in 1913. Years before Rosa Parks even thought about buses.

Oklahoma is on the cusp of north and south. It was not a state during the Civil War, but some of the Native Americans living here did join the Confederate cause – in the naive hope that that government would give them more of a fair deal than the one in Washington. If you follow the news, you're probably aware that some tribes held African-American slaves.

Oklahoma was not free of racial prejudice. It had its pockets of "Dark Towns" - Spencer and Luther among them. The Tulsa Race Riot is legend. Yet, when people boycotted the lunch counters (the first boycott following Rosa Parks), Oklahoma City businesses responded within days, rather than weeks.

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