Beardless President Truman Gets Shaving Permit During Muskogee Visit

[Mike Simpson]

Beardless President Truman Gets Shaving Permit During Muskogee Visit

"Chief Injustice" Bob Hurst pins a shaving permit on President Harry S. Truman

Muskogee was busy celebrating the Indian Centennial when the nation's 33rd President Harry S. Truman rode into town during his whistle stop presidential campaign on September 29, 1948.

Truman's special eighteen car presidential campaign train arrived at the KATY Depot about 12:35 p.m. and Mayor J. Ollie Lee officially greeted the President, who then shook hands with members of a reception committee.

The Secret Service set the estimated number in the crowd gathered at the depot, along East Okmulgee Street, and in Spaulding Park at 50,000 strong, swarming into Muskogee to see the "warhorse whose favorite rhetorical pastime was to "give 'em hell.' "  "Just how many persons saw or heard the President during his 45 minute visit couldn't be accurately judged, but indications were that local Democrats hadn't been overly optimistic in predicting a crowd of 25,000" reported the local newspaper.

In keeping with the spirit of the Indian Centennial celebration, beardless men and women wearing cosmetics were considered to be "villains." At the depot, Truman was confronted by a group of bearded men, members of the "Court of the Brush," which was organized for the celebration. But, Bob Hurst, the "Chief Injustice," allowed the nation's commander-in-chief to "escape from justice" while in Muskogee by http://3riversmuseum.blogspot.com/2012/02/beardless-president-truma...