EXAM 3

Question 1

Social reformer who became Oklahoma’s first State Commissioner of Charities and Corrections. She attended the joint meeting of the Indiahoma Farmers’ Union and the Twin Territorial Federation of Labor held at Shawnee in 1906. Subsequently, in an address to the Oklahoma Constitutional Convention, she called for an eight hour day for state employees, prohibition of child labor, health and safety legislation for workers, and other measures to aid the working class. Ultimately, she crossed swords with the grafters who misused Indian allotments; funding for her department ended by 1914; she died soon afterward.

Answer 1

Kate Barnard

Question 2

The name given to a region of the western and southwestern Great Plains in the late 1930s as a result of a severe drought. Western Oklahoma was in its center. It, along with such government policies as the Agricultural Adjustment Act, resulted in the “Okie Migration” to the West Coast in the 1930s, immortalized by such works as John Steinbeck’s The Grapes of Wrath

Answer 2

Dust Bowl

Question 3

Oklahoma’s second governor. A Kentuckian who had settled in Ardmore before statehood, represented “Main Street” Democrats, those who fought for policies which would lead to orderly progress and prosperity. He fought for economy in government including the paring down of state institutions, faced considerable opposition from his legislature on his economy measures, reapportionment of congressional districts following the 1910 census, and a number of issues, a barely escaped impeachment by one vote in 1912 (the state auditor, state insurance commissioner, and state printer were all impeached–the first two resigned and the third was convicted and removed from office by the State Senate). He and the legislature did cooperate in the creation of the State Highway Department (funded by a one-dollar vehicle licensing fee)and the creation of new counties. He, a believer in long-range planning, encouraged government surveys of Oklahoma resources (coal, oil, water-power sites, etc.) and the development of a long-range plan for highway development. A man of strong convictions, he was also known for his opposition to capital punishment (no convicted criminal was executed during his administration), his support of Sunday “blue laws,” and his attempts to stop horse races, prize fights, gambling, bootlegging, and a variety of other sins (which in included declarations of martial law).

Answer 3

Lee Cruce

Question 4

Republican who served twice as governor of Oklahoma (1963-67, 1987-91) and, in the interim, as U.S. Senator for two terms (1969-81). He did much to revitalize Oklahoma Republicans in the late 1950s and early 1960s by building a more moderate, grass roots organization and recruiting candidates to run for office.

Answer 4

Henry Bellmon

Question 5

Political “outsider” and Democrat from Tulsa who won the 1958 gubernatorial contest and served as Oklahoma’s governor from 1959 to 1963. Under him, prohibition was repealed, but the young (33-year-old) governor soon ran into difficulty with the Old Guard dominated legislature. Most of the remainder of his program, which included constitutional status for the Highway Commission, a state merit system to reduce patronage, central purchasing to increase efficiency, a shorter ballot, and moderate reapportionment came to naught. At the end of his term he resigned and was appointed to fill Robert S. Kerr’s senate seat. This spelled the end of his political career; he died soon afterward.

Answer 5

J. Howard Edmondson

Question 6

Organization consisting of the Farmer’s Union, a remnant of the Socialist party, and various labor groups was organized at Shawnee in September, 1921. An outgrowth of the Non-Partisan league of North Dakota, it supported many of that organizations programs which included a graduated land tax, a rural credit bank operating at cost, public ownership of utilities, warehouses, flour mills, stockyards, packing plants, cotton gins, and coal mines, and the exemption of farm improvements and tools from taxation. Rather than organize its own party, the League decided to work to control the Democratic Party. To that end, the League proposed a slate of candidates for office, including Jack Walton, the mayor of Oklahoma City, as their gubernatorial choice. Walton won the Democratic primary and general election, but the excesses of his administration, which led to his impeachment and removal from office, also discredited the League and undermined its power.

Answer 6

Farm Labor Reconstruction League

Question 7

A part of the Oklahoma literacy test of 1910 (modeled on similar laws in other southern states) which exempted persons who were lineal descendants of persons eligible to vote on January 1, 1866, from the state literacy test. The effect was to allow “whites” who could not have passed the literacy test to vote while excluding blacks

Answer 7

Grandfather Clause

Question 8

A 1917 uprising of Socialist and IWW radicals centered in Pottawatomie, Hughes, and Seminole Counties in the summer of 1917 in protest of U.S. entry into World War I, which they said was a “rich man’s war and a poor man’s fight.” The rag tag band they inspired preached resistance to the draft and planned a march to Washington during which they would survive by eating “Green Corn” off the land. These demonstrators roamed the countryside, burning bridges and committing general mischief until they were rounded up by posses and their leaders were arrested

Answer 8

Green Corn Rebellion

Question 9

Oklahoma Governor (1943-47) and U.S. Senator (1949-63), is seen as the first of the “modern” Oklahoma governors. As governor, he worked for economic diversification and the establishment of a pro-business climate. During his administration, the state debt was paid off by maintaining taxes and limiting appropriations. Following this, expenditures for education, pensions, and welfare were expanded. A powerful presence in the U.S. Senate (he was referred to as the Uncrowned King of the Senate), used his clout to garner federal contracts and installations

Answer 9

Kerr, Robert

Question 10

An agreement between oil producing states, arrived at in the Treaty of Dallas of February, 1935, to practice petroleum conservation and control production to assure a stable oil price. Oklahoma Governor E. W. Marland was elected the first president of the commission created by the compact to control the agreement. It was approved by both Congress and the President, and, by 1945, had grown to include 18 states (all the oil producing states except California). It did much to stabilize production so that supply more nearly corresponded with demand.

Answer 10

Interstate Oil and Gas Compact

Question 11

Secret anti-foreign, anti-Semitic, and anti-Catholic society which also opposed modern ideas and supported traditional moral standards which attracted large numbers of insecure native, Protestant Americans in the 1920s. The Second Klan was formed in 1915 at Stone Mountain in Georgia and was popularized by the publicity surrounding the release of the 1916 D.W. Griffith feature film, Birth of a Nation. The Klan was especially active in the south central states of Oklahoma, Arkansas, Louisiana, and Texas. In Oklahoma, it came to control the state legislature and ultimately the governor’s office as well as many local offices. In 1923, it was made a target by Governor John C. Walton in an effort to save himself from impeachment, leading ultimately its revitalization. The Second was a phenomena of the late teens and twenties, however, and had practically disappeared nationwide by 1929.

Answer 11

Ku Klux Klan

Question 12

A requirement that citizens pass an examination demonstrating their ability to read, write, and interpret a part of the state constitution in order to register to vote, primarily designed to disenfranchise blacks, which was passed by Oklahoma voters in 1910.

Answer 12

Literacy Test

Question 13

Oilman who founded (Name) Oil Company, based in Ponca City. He lost his fortune during the Great Depression. He subsequently sought political office, serving Oklahoma in the U.S. House of Representatives as a supporter of Franklin D. Roosevelt’s New Deal prior to being elected Oklahoma Governor in 1934. As Governor, he attempted to provide relief for Oklahomans through accelerated spending and through his plan to bring the New Deal to the state. Although generous and able, he proved to be an ineffective governor. He tried to run the state as a corporation and was insensitive to local and legislative jealousies. As a result, much of his program (which included appropriations for relief, the creation of new state agencies to coordinate the relief program, and a block of tax increases to provide funding for his program) failed. Nevertheless, he did succeed in negotiating the Treaty of Dallas, which established the Interstate Oil and Gas Compact to stabilize oil production. In addition, he did bring relief to Oklahomans through the New Deal programs he attracted to the state.

Answer 13

Marland, E.W

Question 14

Undoubtedly the most colorful governor in the state’s history, he first emerged in Oklahoma politics at the Sequoyah Convention as a representative of the Chickasaw (he had married into the tribe). Subsequently, he served as president of the state Constitutional Convention (and was every after known as the expert on the Oklahoma Constitution). He then served as the first speaker of the Oklahoma House of Representatives and, following his defeat in the Democratic primary for the 1910 gubernatorial nomination, as a member of the U.S. House of Representatives. Subsequently, he embarked on his “Bolivian Adventure,” an effort to establish a colony in the South American nation. He returned from this escapade in time to run for governor in 1930. The eccentric gov, whose campaign war chest amounted to forty dollars he had borrowed, was victorious. His administration was, in many respects, similar to that of Huey Long of Louisiana. A populist reformer at heart, he also had many of the attributes of a demagogue and made free use of the governor’s patronage, pardoning and parole, and military powers. A foe of Franklin D. Roosevelt (he had sought the 1932 Democratic presidential nomination), he undermined the operation of the New Deal in the state until the federal government ultimately had to take over the management of state New Deal programs. His son, Johnston, also served as governor of Oklahoma, but the son was far from being as effective or as popular as the father

Answer 14

Murray, William H. “Alfalfa Bill”

Question 15

Governor of Oklahoma from 1939 to 1943. He had been Speaker of the House during Governor E. W. Marland’s first legislature and had fought Marland on his efforts to bring the New Deal to Oklahoma and create a Little New Deal in the state. A Democrat, was a fiscal conservative and an opponent of the New Deal, who operated under the banner of “states rights.” Under his Administration, state institutions, public services, and education suffered as he cut appropriations to reduce the state indebtedness. To raise additional revenue, taxes on automobiles, cigarettes, and gasoline were increased. In addition, a Balanced-Budget Amendment to the Constitution was passed. He was a particular foe of the construction of multiple purpose dams in Oklahoma, calling out the national guard to prevent the completion of the Grand River Dam project (he was ultimately thwarted by a court injunction) and attempting to stop construction of Denison Dam on the Red River.

Answer 15

Phillips, Leon C. “Red”

Question 16

Refers to policies which prevent the manufacture, sale, and consumption of alcoholic beverages. The Oklahoma Constitutional Convention was charged with outlawing the use of alcoholic beverages in Indian Territory for a proscribed number of years but went further and outlawed alcohol statewide. In 1919, the 18th Amendment to the Constitution was ratified which instituted it nationally. Although it lasted only until 1933, when it was repealed by the 21st Amendment, Oklahoma continued to outlaw alcohol until the J. Howard Edmondson Administration succeeded in repealing prohibition. Even then, liquor could only be purchased in “packages” at stores and could not be consumed in public (although many “private” clubs existed where liquor was available). Only since the 1980s have Oklahomans been able to purchase liquor by the drink (including something stronger than 3.2 beer). However bootleggers were notoriously active.

Answer 16

Prohibition

Question 17

This controversy over jurisdiction over the south half of the Red River Bed arose as a result of the discovery of oil in the riverbed. Both Texas and Oklahoma executed leases and prepared to collect production taxes, with Texas claiming the south half of the riverbed and Oklahoma claiming the riverbed to the foot of the bluffs on the south side. While Texas rangers faced Oklahoma national guardsman across the river where it abutted Tillman County, the Supreme Court handed down three decisions between 1921 and 1923. According to the Court’s definition of the boundary, the south shore was the cut bank, not the foot of the bluffs as Oklahoma claimed. Texas only had jurisdiction south of the cut-bank (a result of the wording of the Adams-Onis Treaty), while Oklahoma had jurisdiction of the north half of the riverbed. The U.S. government retained jurisdiction of the south half of the riverbed. (The boundary in the Lake Texhoma area is finally being decided at present.)

Answer 17

Red River Boundary Dispute

Question 18

A former resident of Iowa and Kansas, Oklahoma’s fourth governor settled in Chandler in territorial days, where he taught school, practiced law, and then entered politics. His administration (1919-1923) concentrated on the improvement of Oklahoma’s roads, the promotion of farm marketing coops, and decentralization of the state bureaucracy. In an effort to improve public education, he appointed a special commission of leading national and state educators which was to closely examine the Oklahoma school system. The result was such reforms as improvements in the preparation and certification of teachers, upgrading of the curricula, the beginnings of consolidation of rural schools, a subsidized textbook program, and state aid to poorly financed districts. Plagued with the unrest resulting from the 1919 depression during his second administration, he struggled with the agricultural crisis, labor agitation, the failure of the state’s bank guarantee system, and the Tulsa Race Riot. The end result was tension between the governor and the legislature, which resulted in more investigations and an effort to impeach he which failed by a single vote. (Lt. Governor Martin E. Trapp was impeached, but the Senate failed to convict on a straight party vote.

Answer 18

Robertson, James B

Question 19

A riot which occurred in Tulsa on May 31, 1921, which was the result of tension arising from the arrest of Dick Rowland, a young black man accused of molesting a white girl in a downtown elevator. Egged on by the press, a mob gathered bent on lynching Rowland. Black Tulsans, believing Rowland falsely accused, arrived at the city jail to protect him (although he had previously been secretly moved). Violence flared and spread quickly to the black section of Tulsa, where fire and vandalism resulted in the destruction of two square miles of homes and businesses. An undetermined number (at least 36, although much higher figures are often advanced and, current evidence suggests, are more accurate) died in the riot before order was restored by the national guard under a martial law order.

Answer 19

Tulsa Race Riot

Question 20

The state’s fifth governor and was mayor of Oklahoma City at the time of his selection by the Farmer-Labor Reconstruction League as their candidate in the 1922 gubernatorial primary. Unfortunately his victory in the primaries was not accompanied by victories by most other League candidates, and he found himself in the statehouse with little support in the legislature or even in the executive branch of government. Soon his excesses, including abuse of the patronage power, indiscriminate use of pardons and paroles, and declarations of martial law, led to efforts to convene the state legislature to consider articles of impeachment. After being turned away from the capital by rifle-carrying militiamen, legislators successfully petitioned to place a proposition of self-convening of the legislature on a special election ballot. When the measure passed, they convened and voted twenty-two counts of impeachment against the governor. On November 19, 1923, less than a year after entering office, he was convicted and removed from office.

Answer 20

John Calloway “Jack” Walton

Question 21

A civic leader, schoolteacher, and pioneering leader in the American Civil Rights Movement.[2] She is best known for her leadership role in the 1958 Oklahoma City sit-in movement, as she, her young son and daughter, and numerous young members of the NAACP Youth Council successfully conducted carefully planned nonviolent sit-in protests of downtown drugstore lunch-counters, which overturned their policies of segregation. The Clara Luper Corridor is a streetscape and civic beautification project from the Oklahoma Capitol area east to northeast Oklahoma City. In 1972, Clara Luper was a Oklahoma candidate for election to the United States Senate.

Answer 21

Clara Luper

Question 22

An important case leading up to the U.S. Supreme Court’s 1954 decision in Brown v. Board of Education, struck down the Oklahoma statute that mandated segregation in education. The case began when the University of Oklahoma denied George W. admission to its graduate program in education, citing the segregation statute, which made it a misdemeanor to operate a school in which both blacks and whites were taught. He filed suit in federal court in Oklahoma City. In an opinion marked by balance, even caution, a three-judge panel struck down the law, to the extent that it prohibited him from attending the University of Oklahoma. The U.S. Supreme Court heard his appeal in April 1950 and in June unanimously reversed the lower court. Chief Justice Fred Vinson, writing for the court, held that the differential treatment given to him was itself a violation of the Fourteenth Amendment’s equal protection clause: “Such restrictions impair and inhibit his ability to study, to engage in discussions and exchange views with other students, and, in general, to learn his profession.” This case signaled that the Supreme Court would no longer tolerate any separate treatment of students based on their race.

Answer 22

McLaurin v. Oklahoma

Question 23

This Act of June 18, 1934, or the Wheeler–Howard Act, was U.S. federal legislation that dealt with the status of American Indians in the United States. It was the centerpiece of what has been often called the “Indian New Deal.” The act curtailed the future allotment of tribal communal lands to individuals and provided for the return of surplus lands to the tribes rather than to homesteaders. It also encouraged written constitutions and charters giving Indians the power to manage their internal affairs.

Answer 23

Indian Reorganization Act

Question 24

Case in which the U.S. Supreme Court on January 12, 1948, ruled unanimously (9–0) to force the University of Oklahoma law school to admit Ada Lois, the school’s first African American student. She became the first African American woman to attend an all-white law school in the South, earning a master’s degree from the University of Oklahoma in 1951.

Answer 24

Sipuel v. Oklahoma

Question 25

An American politician and civic leader from the U.S. state of Oklahoma. He served as the 17th and the 22nd governor of Oklahoma and as the 8th and 10th lieutenant governor of Oklahoma. He was the first Oklahoma governor to be re-elected and the first to win all 77 counties in the state

Answer 25

George Nigh

Former Governor of Oklahoma

Question 26

An American politician from Oklahoma. He was a member of the Democratic Party. Oklahoma State Senator In office, 1957–2003.
He resigned from the Oklahoma State Senate in March 2003, was succeeded in the State Senate by Richard Lerblance. A month later, he pleaded guilty to federal charges of perjury, conspiracy to obstruct a Federal Election Commission investigation, and conspiracy to violate the Federal Election Campaign Act, relating to his alleged role in funneling illegal contributions to the failed 1998 congressional campaign of Walt Roberts in Oklahoma’s 3rd Congressional District.

In January, 2004, he was sentenced to five years’ probation, six months’ home detention, 1,000 hours of community service, and fined $735,567. Furthermore, he also agreed to forfeit both his license to practice law and his legislative pension following his guilty plea.

Answer 26

Gene Stipe

Former Member of the Oklahoma Senate

Question 27

An American realist novel written by John Steinbeck and published in 1939. The book won the National Book Award and Pulitzer Prize for fiction, and it was cited prominently when Steinbeck was awarded the Nobel Prize in 1962.
Set during the Great Depression, the novel focuses on the Joads, a poor family of tenant farmers driven from their Oklahoma home by drought, economic hardship, agricultural industry changes, and bank foreclosures forcing tenant farmers out of work. Due to their nearly hopeless situation, and in part because they are trapped in the Dust Bowl, the Joads set out for California along with thousands of other “Okies” seeking jobs, land, dignity, and a future.

Answer 27

Grapes of Wrath

Question 28

The Miller Brothers ranch was a 110,000-acre cattle ranch in the Indian Territory of Oklahoma before statehood. Located near modern-day Ponca City, it was founded by Colonel George Washington Miller, a veteran of the Confederate Army, in 1893.
It experimented with crops, creating improved strains of corn and walnut, apple, and pecan trees. Promoted as the “greatest diversified farm on earth,” the ranch continued to prosper in the early twentieth century.
In 1908 the Millers entered into a leasing arrangement with E. W. Marland, who formed the 101 Ranch Oil Company. Oil was struck in 1911 at the “Willie-Cries-for-War” well. Marland would become a millionaire and later a U.S congressman. He was eventually elected the governor of Oklahoma.[9] The company’s 1911 oil discovery led to the founding of the Marland Oil Company, later renamed the Continental Oil Company, and then ConocoPhillips.

On October 21, 1927 a neighbor found Joe Miller dead in the 101 Ranch garage with his car running. The family physician ruled his death accidental. In 1929, George Miller, Jr., died in a car accident.

Zack Miller tried to carry on alone, but in 1932, during the Great Depression, he filed for bankruptcy. The US government seized the show’s remaining assets and bought 8,000 acres (3,200 ha) of the 101 Ranch. Completely broke, the 101 Ranch show closed after the New York World’s Fair in 1939. Zack Miller died of cancer in 1952.

Answer 28

101 Ranch

Question 29

A type of farming in which families rent small plots of land from a landowner in return for a portion of their crop, to be given to the landowner at the end of each yea

Answer 29

Sharecroppers