NewsOK
The Oklahoman Editorial
Published: October 19, 2011
A vote this week by state House Republicans put T.W. Shannon in line to become Oklahoma's first black House speaker. Our guess is he'll wear it well. He's certainly accustomed to breaking new ground.
When he won the District 62 race in November 2006, at age 28, Shannon beat a well-known local Democrat and became the first Republican to claim the Lawton-based seat. He also became only the second black Republican ever elected to the Legislature (the first, Rep. A.C. Hamlin of Guthrie, was elected in 1908).
Democratic Rep. Jabar Shumate of Tulsa called Shannon's victory in '06 “a turning point” because it showed blacks could win outside of Oklahoma City and Tulsa. “In the future, people will be saying, ‘If T.W. Shannon can do it, I can do it too,'” Shumate said... FULL ARTICLE
Posted on
Wed, October 19, 2011
by John Cox