Bernard Julius McIntyre (July 17, 1942 – January 12, 2025) was an American politician from

Tulsa Tulsa ( ) is the second-most-populous city in the state of Oklahoma, after Oklahoma City, and the 48th-most-populous city in the United States. The population was 413,066 as of the 2020 census. It is the principal municipality of the Tul ...

who served in both houses of the

Oklahoma Legislature The Legislature of the State of Oklahoma is the state legislative branch of the U.S. state of Oklahoma. The Oklahoma House of Representatives and Oklahoma Senate are the two houses that make up the bicameral state legislature. There are 101 ...

. A member of the Democratic Party, he was elected to the

Oklahoma House of Representatives The Oklahoma House of Representatives is the lower house of the legislature of the U.S. state of Oklahoma. Its members introduce and vote on bills and resolutions, provide legislative oversight for state agencies, and help to craft the state's ...

on 1971 and served until his election to the

Oklahoma Senate The Oklahoma Senate is the upper house of the two houses of the Legislature of Oklahoma, the other being the Oklahoma House of Representatives. The total number of senators is set at 48 by the Oklahoma Constitution.African American African Americans, also known as Black Americans and formerly also called Afro-Americans, are an Race and ethnicity in the United States, American racial and ethnic group that consists of Americans who have total or partial ancestry from an ...

elected to the

Oklahoma Senate The Oklahoma Senate is the upper house of the two houses of the Legislature of Oklahoma, the other being the Oklahoma House of Representatives. The total number of senators is set at 48 by the Oklahoma Constitution.cocaine Cocaine is a tropane alkaloid and central nervous system stimulant, derived primarily from the leaves of two South American coca plants, ''Erythroxylum coca'' and ''Erythroxylum novogranatense, E. novogranatense'', which are cultivated a ...

related federal charges.

Biography

Bernard Julius McIntyre was born on July 17, 1942, in

Muskogee, Oklahoma Muskogee () is the 13th-largest city in Oklahoma and is the county seat of Muskogee County, Oklahoma, Muskogee County. Home to Bacone College, it lies approximately southeast of Tulsa, Oklahoma, Tulsa. The population of the city was 36,878 as of ...

, to Booker T. McIntyre and Bonnie J. McHenry. His family later moved to

and he graduated from Booker T. Washington High School in 1960. He was elected to the

in a special election December 7, 1971, to fill a vacancy created by the death of representative Ben Hill. In 1982, McIntyre was elected to the Senate to a district created by legislative reapportionment in a predominantly black area of Tulsa. He was the second

African American African Americans, also known as Black Americans and formerly also called Afro-Americans, are an Race and ethnicity in the United States, American racial and ethnic group that consists of Americans who have total or partial ancestry from an ...

state senator in Oklahoma and the first elected from Tulsa. He ran and was re-elected to a four-year term in that district in 1984. In 1985, McIntyre and Donald Ross offered a measure which received legislative approval for a Martin Luther King holiday in Oklahoma. The measure was signed into law by Governor

George Nigh George Patterson Nigh (born June 9, 1927) is an American politician and civic leader from the U.S. state of Oklahoma. Nigh served as the 17th and the 22nd governor of Oklahoma and as the eighth and tenth lieutenant governor of Oklahoma. He was t ...

. During his tenure he supported Tulsa eliminating the

city commission City commission government is a form of local government in the United States. In a city commission government, voters elect a small commission, typically of five to seven members, typically on a plurality-at-large voting basis. These commissio ...

elected at-large with the

Tulsa City Council The City of Tulsa has a mayor-council form of government. This form of government has been in place since 1989, at which time Tulsa converted from a city commission form of government. The mayor is elected by the entire population and each of th ...

and district elections and was one of two votes in opposition to legislation passed by the Oklahoma House allowing public schools to discriminate against employees who engaged in "public homosexual conduct" in 1978. McIntyre became the chairman of the Senate Banks and Banking Committee in 1986. Later that year, McIntyre was convicted of six cocaine-related offenses and sentenced to five years imprisonment. U.S. District Judge Ralph Gordon Thompson of Oklahoma City later modified McIntyre's sentence to two years."McIntyre in Tulsa After Prison Term." ''NewsOK''. July 11, 1987.
Accessed August 27, 2018. One of his convictions was overturned on appeal. He admitted to using cocaine and maintained he was targeted for prosecution by Bill Price, the then- United States Attorney for the Western District of Oklahoma, to build a case against other legislators. Price denied the allegation. McIntyre returned to Tulsa on July 10, 1987, after serving more than 10 months in a Fort Worth federal prison. In an interview, he said that he would finish his two-year term by living in a Salvation Army halfway House at night and spending his days as a consultant to minority businesses in Tulsa. McIntyre died on January 12, 2025, at the age of 82.

Notes

References

1942 births 2025 deaths Democratic Party members of the Oklahoma House of Representatives Oklahoma politicians convicted of crimes 20th-century members of the Oklahoma House of Representatives Booker T. Washington High School (Tulsa, Oklahoma) alumni African-American state legislators in Oklahoma Politicians from Muskogee, Oklahoma {{oklahoma-politician-stub