Citizens recall 1964 Civil Rights Act

[Mike Simpson]

Citizens recall 1964 Civil Rights Act

Civic leader: Act changed course of the world

By Cathy SpauldingPhoenix Staff Writer

Avalon Reece recalled the discrimination she and her friends once faced at Muskogee stores and restaurants.

“We weren’t allowed to go to different things,” the retired Muskogee teacher said. “You couldn’t go to the shows together, or the drug stores and get what you want. You just had to get it and get on out. You never sat at the seat or up at the bar — you accepted it.”

With the Civil Rights Act of 1964 such discrimination was no longer acceptable. The act, signed 50 years ago today, outlawed discrimination in stores, restaurants, transportation and other public places, and encouraged desegregation of public schools.

“In the 1950s, you still had white and colored drinking fountains in Muskogee,” said Cedric Johnson, who taught at Sadler Junior High School during those years. “Nathan Sams was a flight instructor at the Tuskegee Institute and later became manager at Hatbox Field. He could teach white guys to fly, but he could not eat at a restaurant with whites.”

Johnson said Muskogee civil rights leaders such as Jake Simmons encouraged restaurants to open to whites.

Reece recalled one time early in her career she refused to accept discrimination.

“I finished Langston in ‘48, and I became the band director at Manual in ‘49,” she said. “We used to meet at the corner of Seventh and Broadway for downtown parades. First year I had the band there, we were supposed to start at 10 in the morning. We were on the southwest corner. They had 150 to 200 horses between Seventh and Ninth streets. When the time came — they always say blacks are always late — some boy came and said, ‘Well, you’re going to march behind all those horses.”

Reece recalled how meticulous she was about keeping the band shoes white.

“I looked at all those horses — and our uniforms were purple and white — I said, ‘uh uh.’ I told the students, ‘Okay you all, we’re going to go north,’ which meant we were going back. We were heading home.”

The introduction of Sadler Junior High’s 1959 yearbook reflected such determination: “We dare to be different in that we take the banner and hold it high, regardless of whether duty is questioned, or our rights are challenged. We are being dared to do this every day in every way.”

Things began to change in the 1960s, Johnson said.

“Celestine Johnson became the first black store clerk. Robert Perkins and Johnnie Morrison went from being custodians at Sadler to working at ONG,” Johnson said.

Perkins said Civil Rights leader Martin Luther King Jr. was instrumental in desegregating utility companies.

“The utility companies began to employ black people,” Perkins said. “A friend of mine and I were the first blacks in Muskogee to work at ONG. We had never thought to get jobs there.”

Perkins said the Civil Rights Act of 1964 “empowered every movement forward.”

“It changed the course of the world,” he said. “It enabled men and women to get jobs equally, as well as blacks.”

Perkins served 25 years as an ONG customer service representative. He also served 20 years on the Muskogee City Council.

Public involvement has long been important to Perkins.

“When I turned 16, I would drive people to go vote,” he said.

Reach Cathy Spaulding at [phone] or [e-mail].

http://www.muskogeephoenix.com/local/x1736694013/Citizens-recall-19...