1907

When Oklahoma achieved statehood in 1907, its first legislature passed comprehensive Jim Crow legislation segregating schools, transportation, and public accommodations. Oklahoma's first law as a state segregated telephone booths. The state also moved quickly to disfranchise its Black population — which had enjoyed equal rights in Indian Territory — through a grandfather clause. The speed and comprehensiveness of Oklahoma's Jim Crow legislation demonstrated how completely white supremacy was the default political order in the early 20th century US.

When Oklahoma achieved statehood in 1907, its first legislature passed comprehensive Jim Crow legislation segregating schools, transportation, and public accommodations. Oklahoma's first law as a state segregated telephone booths. The state also quickly disfranchised its Black population through a grandfather clause. The speed and comprehensiveness of Oklahoma's Jim Crow demonstrated how completely white supremacy was the default political order.

Oklahoma's first Jim Crow law, among the first acts of its newly formed legislature in 1907, required separate telephone booths for Black and white users. The law epitomized the totalizing nature of Jim Crow segregation — penetrating even brief impersonal commercial transactions. Such laws served not primarily a practical purpose but a symbolic one: the constant enforcement and performance of racial hierarchy in every aspect of daily life.