Sundown on the Prairie: The Extralegal Campaigns and Efforts from 1889 to 1967 to Exclude African Americans from Norman, Oklahoma

Abstract

A sundown town is a descriptive phrase of intentionally excluding African Americans. This practice is also indicative of ethnowhite nationalist and racist ideology of white supremacy and to separate races where the focus is on the supposed inferiority of nonwhites. While not all Normanites supported this policy and some courageously and openly opposed it, this was a dominant practice in Norman for seventy-eight years. It certainly was not opposed during this period by Norman city government. Mainstream versions of Norman history, which focus on the white settlers of Norman and those that came after them, need to incorporate this history. And while many historical accounts of Norman contain inspiring stories and history, it is worth noting that the same is true of Norman’s sundown history. From African American Frank Rogan, as well as J. J. Wallace, who sued the town of Norman in 1889, to the student and interfaith coalition in the late 1930s to 1940, to the remarkable courage of those who struggled for civil rights at the University of Oklahoma, beginning in the mid- to the late 1940s, to George and Barbara Henderson, there are a number of heroes in Norman history who fought for civil rights and human dignity. They, along with the victims of racial cleansing and later different Sundown approaches have an important place in Norman history that needs to be commemorated and memorialized.