Philip D. Hixon A Message from the President 2022-2023 WE HOLD THESE TRUTHS …

Every U.S. president since Gerald R. Ford in 1976 has declared February as Black History Month, also sometimes referred to as National African American History Month, to celebrate the historic achievements of African Americans. The annual commemoration’s history dates to 1915—fifty years following ratification of the Thirteenth Amendment to the Constitution, which formally abolished slavery in the United States:

Neither slavery nor involuntary servitude, except as a punishment for crime whereof the party shall have been duly convicted, shall exist within the United States, or any place subject to their jurisdiction.

February has been home to the commemoration from the beginning because it is the birth month of President Abraham Lincoln (February 12, 1809) and noted former-slave turned abolitionist, orator, author, and statesman, Frederick Douglas (estimated February 1817 or 1818 and observed on February 14).

This month’s issue of the Tulsa Lawyer is dedicated to the achievements of pioneering African American attorneys who were members of the Association and/or practiced in the Tulsa community. I hope you will enjoy their stories.

In the February 2014 edition of this publication, former TCBA president and current OBA past-president, Jim Hicks, authored an encyclopedic article in this space regarding several of these attorneys. With attribution to Jim’s well-researched article, I offer the following synopsis of his work. (I also recommend Robert M. Jarvis, Remembering Isaiah: Attorney I.H. Spears and the 1921 Tulsa Race Massacre, 57 Tulsa L. Rev. 429 (2022), which was also used in preparing this article.)

In February 1921, Buck Colbert “B.C.” Franklin— namesake of the legal clinic at the University of Tulsa College of Law—moved to Tulsa to open a law practice with Isaiah “I.H.” Spears and Peter “P.A.” Chappelle. After destruction of the building during the chaos, terror, and conflagration of May/June 1921, the practice temporarily operated from a tent before relocating to an office on Greenwood Avenue.

In Lockett v. City of Tulsa, the firm defeated a city ordinance that would have required all new construction in Greenwood to be fireproof with the District Court finding the ordinance amounted to a taking without due process. Before dissolving the firm in 1924, the firm achieved two published decisions of the Oklahoma Supreme Court in which the firm was also a named defendant. See Howard v. Southwestern Mortg. Co., 1924 OK 467, 226 P.80; Howard v. Ketcham, 1923 OK 1078, 221 P.25.

Following dissolution of the firm, Mr. Spears eventually moved to California with a detour through Arkansas; the final years of his life are recounted in Professor Jarvis’s Tulsa Law Review article. Closer to home, Mr. Franklin and Mr. Chappelle continued as positive influences on the Tulsa community both directly and indirectly. In 1934, Mr. Franklin seated the first black juror in an Oklahoma criminal case; and of course, he is remembered as the father of celebrated historian, John Hope Franklin, a Harvard graduate and recipient of numerous, prestigious awards, including a Presidential Medal of Freedom. Mr. Chappelle was the grandfather of the Hon. Carlos J. Chappelle, who became the first African American Presiding Judge of the Tulsa County District Court in 2014, and Danny C. Williams, who served as the United States Attorney for the Northern District of Oklahoma from August 2012 until March 2017.

Amos T. Hall and Primus C. Wade, another pair of accomplished attorneys, appear in the Association’s membership photograph for 1946-1947. Mr. Hall was counsel of record in several published opinions of the U.S. Supreme Court, appearing in several of them with co-counsel Thurgood Marshall. See, e.g., McLaurin v. Oklahoma State Regents for Higher Ed., 339 U.S. 637 (1950); Fisher v. Hurst, 333 U.S. 147 (1948); Sipuel v. Board of Regents of Univ. of Okla., 332 U.S. 631 (1948). Notably, the Sipuel case was a precursor of, and cited with approval in, Brown v. Board of Education of Topeka, 347 U.S. 483, (1954). (In remembrance of Mr. Hall’s impressive body of work and at the suggestion of Bench and Bar Chair Kevinn Matthews, the Association is considering institution of an Amos T. Hall Award as part of the annual award ceremonies. Hopefully, we’ll be able to share additional details in coming weeks.)

Mr. Wade appeared as counsel of record in twentyseven published opinions of the Oklahoma Supreme Court and the Court of Criminal appeals between 1937 and 1962, appearing in several of those as co-counsel with Amos Hall, P.A. Chappelle, and B.C. Franklin. See, e.g., Bayouth v. Howard, 1948 OK 34, 190 P.2d 793; Franklin v. World Pub. Co., 1938 OK 501, 83 P.2d 401; Johnson v. Bearden Plumbing & Heating Co., 1937 OK 495, 71 P.2d 715.

As Jim Hicks did in his 2014 article, I will close this one with an oft-quoted portion of the Declaration of Independence:

We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness.

Because of brave people like Abraham Lincoln, Frederick Douglas, B.C. Franklin, I.H. Spears, P.A. Chappelle, Amos Hall, Primus Wade, and numerous others who have come before and after them, we’re able to affirm these truths and celebrate all those who have embodied them.

Please take time to read the other celebrations of pioneering African American attorneys appearing in this issue.

Philip D. Hixon TCBA President, 2022-2023

Cullem Family

Riter Family

Moore Family

Stafford Family

Charney-Brown, LLC

Clement Legal

Franden | Farris | Quillin |

Goodnight & Roberts

TCBF Outreach Committee

Emily Duensing

Coffey Senger & Woodard, PLLC

Hunt Family

Aycock | Aussenberg

GableGotwals

McDaniel Acord, PLLC

Sears Family

Welsh & McGough, PLLC

Univ of Tulsa College of Law

Student Bar Association

Scott Family

TCBA Staff

Barber & Bartz, PC

Taubman Family

Nesser Family

Jones, Gotcher & Bogan, PC

Carl & Kara Vincent

Thank you to all of the Holiday Challenge participants!

The Juvenile Law Section and Children & the Law Committee

Lizzie Riter, Chair