A recently posted massive photo archive on the Vintage St. Louis & Route 66 page on Facebook revealed an episode at an Albuquerque restaurant that led to the city imposing an anti-discrimination ordinance years before the U.S. civil-rights movement began in the mid-1950s.
One post contained an old postcard of Oklahoma Joe’s Genuine Pit Bar-B-Que along Route 66 in Albuquerque with this information:
September 12, 1947, the editor of the student newspaper, The New Mexico Lobo, sent black student George Long and a reporter to Oklahoma Joe’s, a café near campus. The wait staff at the café refused service to the pair on the basis of Long’s race, and the Lobo published an account of the incident in its September 19 issue. The publicity given to Long’s experience, including a follow-up letter to the editor in the September 23 Lobo initiated events that resulted in the passage of Albuquerque’s anti-discrimination ordinance in 1952.
More about the incident and the rally can be found here in this 22-page document from the University of New Mexico. It reveals Long, a native of Alabama, served in the Army during World War II and probably was less inclined to tolerate discrimination once he got back home.
The refusal of service by Oklahoma Joe’s led to a UNM student referendum, approved by a 3-to-1 margin, to boycott any business that discriminated on the basis of race. It also led to the formation of an NAACP chapter at the university.
Folks who opposed a citywide anti-discrimination ordinance tried to force a vote by a state referendum, but the petition attracted only 1,800 signatures of 15,000 required.
The passage of the ordinance occurred two years before the landmark Brown vs. Board of Education decision by the U.S. Supreme Court, three years before the Montgomery Bus Boycott and more than a decade before the 1964 Civil Rights Act.
The UNM paper partially credits the local Hispanic community for helping facilitate the Albuquerque non-discrimination ordinance.
Looking back at the timing of the 1947 incident at Oklahoma Joe’s, one has to think Jackie Robinson breaking the so-called color barrier in Major League Baseball that year was a significant factor. When Long reported Oklahoma Joe’s refusal in September, Robinson already had proven to have logged a successful first season in the big leagues. In fact, Robinson would win the first Rookie of the Year award less than a week later, before the season even ended.
Oklahoma Joe’s transitioned to a dive bar during the 1960s and early ’70s called Okie Joe’s or Okie’s, where many UNM students hoisted back 10-cent beers in paper cups.
A short 2007 story about Okie’s improbably led to one of the most popular threads in the history of Route 66 News, with more than 250 comments from folks reminiscing about their wild times there.
That led to a follow-up story 10 years later that contained more of the history of Oklahoma Joe’s.
Oklahoma Joe’s or Okie’s is long gone. At last check, it’s now the site of a convenience store.
(Postcard image of Oklahoma Joe’s in Albuquerque courtesy of 66Postcards.com)