CONTENTS
Fort Sill and the Birth of US Combat Aviation
By Thomas A. Wikle
Fort Sill is known for its Artillery Training Center, but few remember
its legacy in military aviation. The first military aircraft arrived at
Fort Sill in July of 1915. During both World War I and World War II,
the base was home to pilot training programs. It also was a center for
observation balloon training. Thomas A. Wikle explains the importance
of Fort Sill and Henry Post Army Airfield to the early days of military
aviation.                                                    4
Thurgood Marshall's "Broom Closet": The Structure of Segre-
gation in McLaurin v. Oklahoma State Regents
By Eric Lomazoff and Bailie Gregory
George McLaurin was admitted to the University of Oklahoma College
of Education in 1948, but he was required to sit in an anteroom,
segregated from his classmates. Through a close analysis of building
diagrams, Eric Lomazoff and Bailie Gregory show the evolution of
the classroom that would become the focal point of a landmark US
Supreme Court case.                                         26
Marking the Butterfield: Retracing the Indian Territory Seg-
ment of the 1858-61 Butterfield Overland Mail Stagecoach Road
By Susan Penn Dragoo
In 2018 the National Park Service recommended that the Butterfield
Overland Mail Stagecoach Road be designated a National Historic Trail.
Sixty years earlier, OHS staff marked this important trade and transit
route with historical markers. Susan Penn Dragoo retraces this road, de-
scribing the landmarks as they appeared on the 1958 trek as well as their
present conditions.                                         44
Sooner State "Boy Wonder": The Oklahoma Roots of Willmoore
Kendall's Thought
By Christopher H. Owen
In 1909 child prodigy Willmoore Kendall was born in Oklahoma. As an
adult, he worked as an intelligence analyst and a college professor while
honing political thought that would influence the likes of William F.
Buckley Jr., with whom he cofounded National Review. Christopher H.
Owen explores the influence of Kendall's Oklahoma upbringing on his
conservative political theory.                              72