This post originally ran as an article in the Sept. 4, 2018 edition of the Enid News & Eagle. It is the third article in a three-part series on sit-in protests and restaurant desegregation in Enid, Oklahoma. ENID, Okla. — On Sept. 4, 1958, 60 years ago today, Enid restaurant owners concluded a meeting with … Continue reading ‘A generational fight’ — Protest organizer recalls desegregating Enid restaurants
Segregation
Lunch counter sit-ins: 60 years later, organizers recall desegregating restaurants
This package of two articles originally was published in the Enid News & Eagle, Enid, Okla., on Aug. 26, 2018, on the eve of the 60th anniversary of lunch counter protests that ended segregation in the city's restaurants and helped shape later civil rights protests throughout the South. ENID, Okla., Aug. 27, 2018 — Sixty years … Continue reading Lunch counter sit-ins: 60 years later, organizers recall desegregating restaurants
King’s struggle remains relevant
America paused Wednesday to remember Martin Luther King Jr. on the 50th anniversary of his assassination. It’s good to honor MLK. But, too often, we confine him to sentimental memory. A great man, dead too soon. With our obligatory honor paid, we box up the injustices against which Dr. King fought, and file them away … Continue reading King’s struggle remains relevant
The most segregated hour
ENID, Okla. — More than half a century after Martin Luther King, Jr. called 11 a.m. on Sunday the most segregated hour in America, eighty percent of the nation’s congregations still are made up of predominantly one race. That statistic is slowly shifting toward more diverse congregations — in 2012 all-white congregations made … Continue reading The most segregated hour
60 years after Little Rock
I recently published the article, below, about the history of segregation and desegregation in Enid, Oklahoma. Enid is an interesting case, in that it incorporates the development of segregation in Oklahoma Territory, before statehood. It was particularly interesting that segregation was not uniformly applied prior to statehood, and the implementation of laws that forced school … Continue reading 60 years after Little Rock
Living memories of segregation
This is the first installment of an ongoing series about school segregation and integration in Oklahoma 60 years after the Little Rock Nine. Interviews for this week’s articles began on Aug. 11, one day before the Aug. 12 white supremacist marches in Charlottesville, Va. ENID, Okla. — At the corner of South Fifth and East York, … Continue reading Living memories of segregation
Not much has changed
"Not much has changed." Those were the words yesterday of a 73 year-old museum curator and Black Indian activist I was interviewing when I asked her how much, in her estimation, had race relations changed since her childhood in the 40s and 50s. She grew up in a segregated school system, in a race-zoned … Continue reading Not much has changed
James R. Neal 