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COPYRIGHT 2003 Dolan Media Newswires
Byline: Journal Record staff
U.S. District Judge Luther Bohanon was remembered this week as a civil rights champion. He died at 100 late last week and services were held earlier this week.
The judge ordered the desegregation of Oklahoma City Public Schools in 1963.
Bohanon's son, U.S. Bankruptcy Judge Richard Bohanon, said in a report from Associated Press that his father received death threats and had his home vandalized after the controversial decision that caused cross-town busing of students.
"It took a lot of guts," Richard Bohanon said. "I admired him so much and his belief in the law."
Bohanon was born in Fort Smith, Ark., and grew up with 13 siblings in Kinta, a small town in Haskell County. He later moved to Muskogee.
He attended the University of Oklahoma law school and started a practice in 1929 with Alfred P. Murrah, who also became a federal judge.
President John F. Kennedy appointed Bohanon to the federal bench. A bust of Bohanon was placed at the Oklahoma City federal courthouse in 2001. U.S. District Judge David Russell presided over the ceremony.
In 1987, he received The Journal Record Award from the Oklahoma...
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