Charles L. Owens became Oklahoma's first African-American judge in 1968. A native Tulsan, he attended Booker T. Washington High School, graduated with honors from Lincoln University in MO, served on the Tulsa police force while attending law school at TU, and served as an assistant attorney general when Governor Dewey Bartlett appointed him to the Oklahoma County Court. 

Source:  Oklahoma Journal 20 Nov 1968 accessed from Tulsa City-County Library