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Fri July 4, 2008

42 years ago today, a march toward equal opportunities

 
 
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By Michael Kimball
LAWTON — Two years and two days after President Johnson signed the Civil Rights Act of 1964, blacks in Lawton still were denied access to a highly popular swimming park.

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The act that outlawed segregation in schools, public places and employment had no effect on Doe Doe Recreation Park, a Lawton destination on a hot summer day. It was a private operation that had the right, legally at least, to deny entrance to anyone the owners chose.

On July 4, 1966, 42 years ago today, about 200 mostly black protestors descended on the park's gates carrying American flags, posters and singing religious and national hymns. Fifty-five were arrested for trespassing.

There was no trespassing ordinance on the city books.

‘It was ugly, and it wasn't right.'

Coree Steel, 79, was an Army wife at Fort Sill that summer. Her husband was fighting for the freedom of others in Vietnam.

But if she wanted to take her young son to swim in Lawton, Steel was out of luck. Much of Doe Doe Park's business came from white soldiers and their families, but blacks were not allowed.

“It was ugly and it wasn't right,” said Steel, a retired teacher.

Picketing at the park and City Hall occurred almost daily during the Summer of 1966.

Betty Owens, a Lawton resident who later filed suit against the park in an unsuccessful integration attempt, said the black community felt it had to march.

“We marched almost every day,” said Owens, 87.

Her late husband was Lawton's only bla