The Oklahoma Bar Journal May 2023

confessions, convicted due to racial prejudice and made a patsy for the homicide of their loved ones. E.O. Colclasure, Marie Rogers’ father, joined the national NAACP and raised money for Lyons’ defense at the appellate levels. Colclasure filed papers to open the Fort Towson chapter of the NAACP, of which he became the president. 46 He would go on to say, “Race prejudice pre vents me from apprehending the murderers of my daughter,” and, “In the two years I have watched this false investigation I have seen no evidence that in any way connects to this defenseless black boy.” 47 In a statement provided to Dunjee during an interview, he said, “Many white men near Fort Towson are afraid to leave their homes at night because they know that the same demons who stole the life of my daughter are running foot-loose in Choctaw County.” 48 The seeds of change for Oklahoma were planted in the Lyons case. Fundraising spiked for incipient civil rights litigation in the region, and minds began to gradually change – particularly among judges and other pub lic servants. Marshall would famously go on to successfully represent a number of other Oklahomans in civil rights cases that have received more attention from legal historians and law reviews, including Ada Lois Sipuel Fisher and George McLaurin. Marshall would take 32 cases to the U.S. Supreme Court, and Lyons v. Oklahoma would turn out to be just one of three where he did not prevail. He would go on to his crowning achievement of Brown v. Board of Education and thereafter would serve on the Supreme Court of the United States as an asso ciate justice. 49 W.D. Lyons would

serve more than 20 years in prison and eventually received a pardon signed by Gov. Henry Bellmon in May 1965. 50

16. Denver Nicks and John Nicks, Conviction: The Murder Trial that Powered Thurgood Marshall’s Fight for Civil Rights 24 (2019); Juan Williams, Thurgood Marshall: American Revolutionary 114 (1998). 17. “Negro Admits Murder of 3,” Hugo Daily News (Jan. 23, 1940) at 1. 18. Id. 19. “Soldiers from Atoka, Durant and Hugo Stand Guard,” Hugo Daily News (Jan. 28, 1940) at 1. 20. Letter from Thurgood Marshall to Walter White (Feb. 2, 1941). 23. John F. Blevins, “ Lyons v. Oklahoma , the NAACP, and Coerced Confessions Under the Hughes, Stone, and Vinson Courts” 417, 15 Va. L. Rev . 387 (2013). 24. Trial Transcript at 112, Oklahoma v. Lyons (Okla. Dist. Ct. 1940) (No. 2712). 25. Brief on Behalf of Petitioner at 5-6, Lyons v. Oklahoma (311 U.S. 596); Trial Transcript at 114, Oklahoma v. Lyons (Okla. Dist. Ct. 1940) (No. 2712). 26. Trial Transcript at 410, Oklahoma v. Lyons (Okla. Dist. Ct. 1940) (No. 2712). 27. Id. at 353. 28. Id. at 364. 29. Letter from Thurgood Marshall to Walter White (Feb. 2, 1941); Trial Transcript at 418, Oklahoma v. Lyons (Okla. Dist. Ct. 1940) (No. 2712). 30. Juan Williams, Thurgood Marshall: American Revolutionary 117 (1998). 31. Id. 32. Id. 33. “Lyons Denies Confession While on Stand,” The Black Dispatch (Feb. 8, 1941) at 5. 34. Juan Williams, Thurgood Marshall: American Revolutionary 117 (1998). 35. Id. 36. Id. ; Letter from Thurgood Marshall to Walter White (Feb. 2, 1941). 37. John F. Blevins, “ Lyons v. Oklahoma , the NAACP, and Coerced Confessions Under the Hughes, Stone, and Vinson Courts” 401, 15 Va. L. Rev . 387 (2013). 38. Lyons v. Oklahoma , 138 P.2d 142, 153 (Okla. Crim. App. 1943). 39. Trial Transcript at 229, Oklahoma v. Lyons (Okla. Dist. Ct. 1940) (No. 2712). 40. Letter from Thurgood Marshall to Walter White (Feb. 2, 1941). 41. Lyons v. Oklahoma , 322 U.S. 596, 605 (1944) (Murphy, J., dissenting). 42. Id. at 606. 43. Letter from Thurgood Marshall to Walter White (Jan. 28, 1941); Letter from Thurgood Marshall to Walter White (Feb. 2, 1941). 44. Letter from Thurgood Marshall to Walter White (Feb. 2, 1941). 45. Id. 46. “White Man Heads Fort Towson NAACP,” The Black Dispatch (Jan. 17, 1942) at 4. 47. Published Interview with E.O. Colclasure, The Black Dispatch (March 14, 1942) at 1. 48. Id. 49. Stanley Belden, co-counsel in the Lyons case would see his law practice out of Cushing lose clients in backlash for his civil rights advocacy. He would later relocate to California and, eventually, Oregon. [Denver Nicks and John Nicks, Conviction: The Murder Trial that Powered Thurgood Marshall’s Fight for Civil Rights 136 (2019).]. 50. Id. at 200. 21. Id. 22. Id.

ABOUT THE AUTHOR

Michael J. Davis is an assistant professor of criminal justice at

Southeastern Oklahoma State University, where he also serves as special assistant to the president for Compliance. Mr. Davis recently completed a three-year term on the OBA Board of Governors (2020-2022) and currently serves on the MCLE Commission. ENDNOTES 1. Lyons v. Oklahoma , 322 U.S. 596 (1944). 2. Letter from Thurgood Marshall to Roscoe Dunjee, editor, The Black Dispatch Publishing Co. (Jan. 18, 1941). 3. Chambers v. Florida , 309 U.S. 227 (1940). Thurgood Marshall had previously aided his mentor, Charles Hamilton Houston, in a number of cases, including Missouri ex rel. Gaines v. Canada , a U.S. Supreme Court case that forced the University of Missouri to permit Black students at an all-white school if it did not provide separate but equal facilities in accordance with Plessy v. Ferguson . 4. Denver Nicks and John Nicks, Conviction: The Murder Trial that Powered Thurgood Marshall’s Fight for Civil Rights 41 (2019). The NAACP legal division was spun off later that year to be the NAACP Legal Defense Fund, a separate entity for taxation purposes. 5. Id. at 7. 6. “Frightened Boy Sticks to Story: ‘Two Men Shot Papa, Mama,’” Hugo Daily News (Feb. 2, 1940). 7. Denver Nicks and John Nicks, Conviction: The Murder Trial that Powered Thurgood Marshall’s Fight for Civil Rights 5-6 (2019). 8. Id. at 52. 9. Lyons v. Oklahoma , 138 P.2d 142, 146 (Okla. Crim. App. 1943). 10. “State Prison Warden Says He Believes Convict Innocent,” Hugo Daily News (Jan. 3, 1940). 11. Gilbert King, “The Awakening of Thurgood Marshall: The Case He Didn’t Expect to Lose. And Why It Mattered that he Did,” The Marshall Project (Nov. 20, 2014), http://bit.ly/3ZxIrJu. 12. “Lambert Says He Saw Killings, Tried to Save Boy from Flames,” Hugo Daily News (Jan. 12, 1940); “Here’s Man Who Confessed to Fort Towson Murders,” The Black Dispatch (Feb. 8, 1941). 13. Matt McWilliams, “Thurgood Marshall Comes to Southeastern Oklahoma,” Wagner and Lynch Law Firm Blog (Feb. 10, 2017). 14. “Lambert Changes Story Five Times, Mystery Unsolved,” Hugo Daily News (Jan. 14, 1940). 15. Id .; Juan Williams, Thurgood Marshall: American Revolutionary 114 (1998).

Statements or opinions expressed in the Oklahoma Bar Journal are those of the authors and do not necessarily reflect those of the Oklahoma Bar Association, its officers, Board of Governors, Board of Editors or staff.

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