(1)Racial segregation, which was seen as the legal separation of different races of people due only to their specific background, was first instituted by the “Jim Crow laws”. These were instituted and employed from the end of the 1800s until the latter part of the 1900s. These laws set forth that all public areas of interest be racially segregated. Although whites believed this as an obvious effective institution of the belief in the statements of “separate but equal” doctrine, which used to take up residence within United States Constitutional law, all that occurred as a result was more harm than anything else. As a result of the passing of such laws of segregation, individuals were subjected to maltreatment, as well as a plethora of serious disadvantages.
(2)One of his first actions was to order the "whites only" and "colored only" signs removed from the Capitol's restrooms. He also declared his intent to make the state comply with the 1954 Supreme Court decision in Brown v. Board of Education, which declared segregation in the public schools unconstitutional. In a statewide radio address, he said: "I feel sure that defiance of the Supreme Court mandate will not be tolerated. School boards which might entertain such ideas will find themselves on their own. Certainly the State of Oklahoma cannot possibly defend such action."As part of his effort, he won passage of an amendment to the state Constitution that discarded the financing of separate schools for whites and blacks. "He led the state through the initial integration era and successfully integrated our schools without any of the violence and complications that erupted in many of the Southern states," said former Gov. Henry Bellmon.
