By Steve Byas

With the recent controversy concerning whether Governor Kevin Stitt has the authority, under the Oklahoma State Constitution, to set a date for a vote on a Constitutional Convention to consider changes to the Constitution – or even to write an entirely new state Constitution, it is a good time to reflect on the background of the Constitution we do have.

The man who is considered the “father” of our state’s Constitution was William Henry David Murray. He is quite a contrast to the man considered the “father” of our federal Constitution, James Madison.

The state Constitution was adopted in 1907, in the middle of what is known in American history as the “Progressive Era.” So-called progressives were prominent in both political parties (Theodore Roosevelt was a “progressive” Republican, while Woodrow Wilson was a “progressive” Democrat) and there was even a Progressive Party for awhile.

Many of the delegates at the Constitutional Convention were greatly affected by this progressive movement. This is critical to understanding the state Constitution. The progressives largely rejected much of the founding of the country. Whereas the Founding Fathers viewed government cautiously, and believed its role in society should be mostly limited to protecting God-given rights, the progressives had a much more optimistic view of what government should and could do. They contended that government is able to solve many of society’s problems by the passing of laws, and they were not as concerned about that government being limited.

They argued that government can be limited by the ballot box, and were enthralled with “democracy.” It was a cardinal position of the progressives that more people should be able to vote, and they should be able to vote on more things. Limitations on the will of the majority, when it came to individual liberty, was not all that important to them.

The progressives argued that the people can be entrusted to be well-educated on multiple candidates in multiple offices. That is why Oklahoma elects so many statewide public officials that are ordinarily appointed by the governor in other states, positions like auditor, treasurer, school superintendent, and commissioners of labor and insurance. Some progressives even advocated electing private officials, such as bank presidents.

In 1906, Congress passed the Enabling Act, which enabled the Oklahoma and Indian Territories to hold a joint convention to draft a constitution for one state. Murray was backed by the governor (called chief in most other tribes) of the Chickasaw Nation for a delegate position at the convention. He was the uncle of Murray’s wife, and Murray had served as chief lawyer for the tribe.

Murray was elected as president of the Convention by a vote of 97-11, and worked closely with Charles Haskell, the leader of the Democrats at the convention. Much of our state Constitution was Murray’s handiwork, who wanted the document to reflect the progressive spirit of the day.

Murray was also a staunch racist and anti-Semite. He fired all the black clerks, and replaced them with white workers. He relegated the black clerks to working as janitors. He wanted segregated schools included in the Constitution, as well as anti-miscegenation clauses (opposition to intermarriage and sexual relations between persons of different races). He believed that African Americans should be occupationally limited to mechanical and industrial jobs, rather than fields like medicine and law. However, he opposed an effort to include provisions to prevent blacks from voting. Perhaps he understood that such a provision would contradict the 15th Amendment to the U.S. Constitution, and Congress would never accept such a provision in the state’s Constitution.

For purposes of determining race, Indians would be considered “white.”

Since placing segregation laws into the state’s Constitution would almost certainly lead to its rejection by Congress, Murray also reluctantly removed Jim Crow. Instead, as the first Speaker of the Oklahoma House of Representatives, he supported doing the same thing by statute. And because of that, Oklahoma had segregated public schools until Governor Raymond Gary spearheaded an end to segregation in the public schools during is tenure.

Oklahoma’s state Constitution also includes a provision invoking the blessings of Almighty God. When some tried to get that part removed, Murray let off a string of profanity, saying that God could not be left out of the Constitution. Thus, it was said that Murray “cussed God into the Constitution.”