“We needed a change in this country,” Marilyn Luper Hildreth said to the crowd gathered in front of 15 life-size bronze statues recreating the historic 1958 Katz Drug Store sit-in led by civil rights activist and Oklahoma City teacher Clara Luper. “Because if we had not sat down here in Oklahoma City, young people throughout this nation would have never stood up.”
On Saturday Nov. 1, nearly 1,000 Oklahomans and visitors stood in the sunny intersection of W. Main St. and N. Robinson Ave. as Hildreth gave the final speech in the ceremony honoring the legacy of her mother. In the hour prior, attendees heard speeches from former Oklahoma Secretary of State John Kennedy, councilmember Rev. Lee Cooper, Studio EIS and Mayor David Holt, among others. Interspersed throughout the program were performances by Spencer Elementary, Dunjee Alumni, and Langston University choirs, as well as a spoken word piece by Tinasha LaRayé and group singing led by Joyce Henderson.
The bronze scene, which took seven years to make, is the first formal recognition of the historic sit-in by the city.
Even though Luper and her students’ refusal to leave the segregated Katz lunch counter happened two years before the famed Greensboro, North Carolina sit-in, Oklahoma City is rarely recognized as the birthplace of the well-known civil rights protest tactic.
“This event was long needed in Oklahoma,” said attendee Reginald Booker. “For years when I was in the military, they did not know Black people even existed in Oklahoma, even though there’s more black townships here than anywhere else in the United States.”
The tone of the event was one of deep joy at finally recognizing Luper’s influence on Oklahoma and the larger civil rights movement. As the dedication ceremony concluded, attendees cheerfully crowded around the plaza to get a better look at the bronze statues. Women adorned in deep blue jackets with Zeta Phi Alpha logos took photos alongside sorority sisters found throughout the crowd, spanning generations and collegiate chapters. “[Clara Luper] was our sorority sister,” one of them said proudly.
Luper was committed to education. She was a successful student at Langston University, where she joined the school’s chapter of Zeta Phi Alpha. Beyond her years in college, she committed her life to educating children, teaching for 41 years at schools throughout Oklahoma City. Her students still feel her positive impact today.
“I was really bashful. When I was in school, I was one of those kids that would cry if people were looking at me,” said Joyce Jackson, wearing a ribbon with “sit-inner” written on it in big vertical letters. At 13 years old, Jackson joined Luper’s sit-in movement, a week after the original Katz sit-in. “Ms. Luper told me, ‘You need to always walk like you know where you are going. Talk like you know what you’re talking about, hold your head up, and you can be and do anything you want.’ I kept that in my head, and every time I would get frightened, I’d think about that.”
Beyond her students, Luper affected people throughout Oklahoma. Michael Korenblit, co-founder of the Respect Diversity Foundation, was six years old when his father, a Holocaust survivor, saw the news of the sit-in on their TV in Ponca City. “He came out to the backyard and said, ‘Mike, come with your mom and I. We want to take you for a ride,’” Korenblit said. His parents took him to their local bus station and showed him the stark difference between the waiting areas labeled ‘white’ and ‘colored.’ “My dad looked at me, and he said, ‘Remember what I’ve shown you here today. That’s the reason you don’t have any grandparents or lots of aunts, uncles and cousins. People looked at them as being different and inferior human beings,’” said Korenblit.
Decades later, Luper became the first speaker to join Korenblit’s Respect Diversity Foundation where she traveled the country telling students about her experience. She also remains the namesake for the foundation’s Clara Luper Civil Rights Presenter designation.
“I didn’t realize what we did and how important it was, until I was grown,” Jackson said. “Somebody asked me, ‘Did you guys celebrate when they passed the civil rights bill? Because of you, doors began to open all across the country.’ I thought, all we did was just what Miss Luper said, ‘We’re going to go out there and sit in, and we’re going to make a difference.’”
And make a difference, they did. 67 years later Oklahomans are still captured by the courage, perseverance, and leadership Clara Luper showed during the Katz Drug Store sit-in and throughout her life.
“A couple of years ago the history center here told me that I was the first African American woman to be on television in the state of Oklahoma,” Jackson continued. “All because of Ms. Luper. ‘Walk like you know where you’re going. Talk like you know what you’re talking about.’”
The Clara Luper Sit-in Plaza, which leaves one chair open at the bronze lunch counter for those who want to sit alongside the heroic figures, will continue Luper’s legacy of inspiring young Oklahomans. The plaza can be visited at West Main St & N. Robinson Ave in downtown Oklahoma City.