The Oklahoma State Senate unanimously passed a concurrent resolution today to help mark Black History Month as well as denounce the state's racial segregation past.
In the state house, Senate Concurrent Resolution 49 -- authored by Senator Earl Garrison, D-Muskogee, and Rep. Wade Rousselot, D-Okay -- denounces Oklahoma's Jim Crow laws which began with Senate Bill No. 1 in Oklahoma's first State Legislature in 1906.
The law required separate facilities for blacks in public transportation, public education and other public facilities.
"As we begin a second century in Oklahoma, it's important that we as legislators and our fellow Oklahomans recognize and learn from the mistakes from this terribly dark era of our state," Garrison said in a statement. "With February being Black History Month, I think this sends the timely and correct message that prejudice and racial bias won't be tolerated by this legislative body. It's time we disavow any vestiges of the Jim Crow laws."
February is Black History Month. -Gazette staff
