The Millwood High School pep squad warms up. (Doug Hill)
[dropcap]I[/dropcap]’m old enough to remember segregation. My family lived in Sedalia, Missouri, in the early 1960s. It was well after Brown v. Board of Education, but Horace Mann Elementary School, which I attended, was all-white in a town with a large African-American population.
Segregation wasn’t just limited to the schools. Housing, public swimming pools and movie theaters were segregated, as well. Even a child could recognize this was wrong.
It wasn’t until age 19, when I went to work for a multi-national corporation in Kansas City, Missouri, that I had any significant contact with African-American folks. I learned I had an affinity for their rich culture, and that has only grown deeper with time.
Later, I would serve on the board of directors of Oklahoma City’s Opportunities Industrialization Center and become a member of the Urban League and the NAACP. Every year, I attend OKC’s Martin Luther King Jr. Day parade as a reminder of the American hero’s contribution to making us a better and more inclusive nation.
A Millwood High School marching band saxophonist performs. (Doug Hill)
The Oklahoma Natural Gas employee group poses for a photo. (Doug Hill)
A participant rides a Black Lives Matter parade float. (Doug Hill)
Jonathan Still, executive for the New Horizons district, Last Frontier Council of the Boy Scouts of America, wrangles a flag. (Doug Hill)
The 2018 parade’s theme was “The Power of One.” (Doug Hill)
A child rides a hoverboard near the parade route. (Doug hill)
A woman poses near an OKC Thunder-themed Cadillac. (Doug hill)
A Shriner poses in distinctive red fez and regalia. (Doug Hill)
Oklahoma City ROTC members pose for a photo. (Doug Hill)
The Pride of Oklahoma marching band prepares for the parade. (Doug Hill)
Doug Hill earned a double-major undergraduate degree in English and East Asian Studies from the University of Kansas and a master's in human relations from the University of Oklahoma. He's been a freelance journalist and photographer in central Oklahoma since 1997.
