The legacy of Dean Julien C. Monnet: Judge Luther Bohanon and the desegregation of Oklahoma City's public schools

PREFACE AND INTRODUCTION Spread over a decade and a half between 1962 and 1977, the court case involving the desegregation of the Oklahoma City Public School System is long and complicated. Instead of a definative discourse on the matter, this work is devoted to an examination of the various court orders issued by Judge Luther Bohanon, their treatment by the Tenth Circuit Court of Appeals, and the final decisions of the United States Supreme Court. While some background information detailing the history of segregation in Oklahoma has been included, likewise this book is not an in depth examination of the statewide desegregation issue. It does how- ever shed light on the existing mores of the time which allowed a segregated school system to be created in Oklahoma City. One thing is absolutely clear: the Supreme Court of the United States and the Tenth Circuit Court of Appeals upheld Judge Bo- hanon's actions in every instance except one minor aspect of the contempt citation issued against Raymond and Yvonne York. This fact is further underscored by the action of Chief Judge Alfred P. Murrah of the Tenth Circuit Court of Appeals, who, after the Supreme Courts action, wrote Judge Bohanon and declared "You were right and we were wrong-may justice always prevail!" Even so it was not a popular cause, and Judge Bohanon was the object of a tremendous amount of verbal abuse, which sometimes took the aspect of direct threats and on one occasion resulted in his being hanged in effigy.