Clara Luper
Encyclopedia
Clara Shepard Luper was a civic leader, retired schoolteacher, and a pioneering leader in the American Civil Rights Movement
. She is best known for her leadership role in the 1958 Oklahoma City
Sit-in Movement, as she, her young son and daughter, and numerous young members of the NAACP Youth Council
successfully conducted nonviolent sit-in protests of downtown drugstore lunch-counters which overturned their policies of segregation
. The Clara Luper Corridor is a streetscape and civic beautification project from the Oklahoma Capitol area east to northeast Oklahoma City and was announced by Governor Brad Henry
.
Luper continued desegregating hundreds of establishments in Oklahoma, and was active on the national level during the 1960s movements.
veteran and laborer. Her mother, Isabell Shepard, worked as a laundress. Young Clara was raised in Hoffman, Oklahoma
. She went to high school in the all-black town of Grayson, Oklahoma
, and attended college at Langston University
where, in 1944, she received a B.A. in mathematics with a minor in history. In 1950, Luper was one of the group of black students who integrated the University of Oklahoma
. She received an M.A. in History Education from the university in 1951.
. At this time she was deeply influenced by the success of Martin Luther King, Jr and the Montgomery Bus Boycott
. With the Youth Council, she wrote and staged a play entitled Brother President about King’s philosophy of nonviolence
. In 1958, she was invited to bring the Oklahoma City Youth Council to perform Brother President for the NAACP in New York City
.
The trip to and from New York was a formative experience for Youth Council members. On their return to Oklahoma the Youth Council voted to initiate a campaign of non-violent civil disobedience to end segregation in Oklahoma City.
From 1958 to 1964 Luper mentored the members of the NAACP
Youth Council during its campaign to end the segregation of public accommodations through sit-in
s, protests, and boycott
s.
desegregated its lunch counters in three states.
This successful August, 1958 sit-in led by Luper, her eight-year old daughter who suggested the action, and the rest of the children in the NAACP Youth Council, at the Katz Drug Store occurred a year and a half before the February 1, 1960 Greensboro, North Carolina sit-ins
.
From 1958 to 1964 Clara Luper was a major leader of the fight to end segregation
in Oklahoma. She led the campaigns to gain equal banking rights, employment opportunities, open housing, and voting rights. Along with the NAACP Youth Council, she personally integrated hundreds of restaurants, cafes, theaters, hotels, and churches, including such notable Oklahoma City establishments as the Split-T drive-in and the Skirvin Hotel. She served on Governor J. Howard Edmondson
’s Committee on Human Relations.
” speech. She also took part in the 1965 Selma to Montgomery marches
where she received a deep cut in her leg on "Bloody Sunday" when 600 civil rights marchers were attacked by state and local police with tear gas and billy clubs.
After 1964 Luper remained an important community figure as an activist, educator, and stalwart NAACP supporter. In these years, she expanded the range of her concerns to include advocacy for educational, economic, and political equality. In 1968, she was one of a handful of African American teachers hired to teach at Oklahoma City's Northwest Classen High School
as part of the highly controversial court ordered school desegregation plan implemented that year. She was later reassigned to John Marshall High School (Oklahoma)
where she continued to teach history and media studies.
. When asked by the press if she, a black woman, could represent white people, she responded: “Of course, I can represent white people, black people, red people, yellow people, brown people, and polka dot people. You see, I have lived long enough to know that people are people.”
The Clara Luper Corridor, a multi-million dollar two mile streetscape project connecting the Oklahoma State Capitol
complex with the historically African-American area of Northeast Oklahoma City, began construction in 2005. It was named to commemorate her civil rights legacy.
Luper received hundreds of awards, and was inducted into the Oklahoma Hall of Fame
, the Oklahoma Women's Hall of Fame
, and the Oklahoma Afro-American Hall of Fame, among others.
The Clara Luper Scholarship, a full scholarship
given by Oklahoma City University
, has been awarded to 30-45 students every year. The scholarship was geared towards students who were minorities, came from underserved high schools, or came from households with lower income.
Civil rights movement
The civil rights movement was a worldwide political movement for equality before the law occurring between approximately 1950 and 1980. In many situations it took the form of campaigns of civil resistance aimed at achieving change by nonviolent forms of resistance. In some situations it was...
. She is best known for her leadership role in the 1958 Oklahoma City
Oklahoma city
Oklahoma City is the capital and largest city of the U.S. state of Oklahoma.Oklahoma City may also refer to:*Oklahoma City metropolitan area*Downtown Oklahoma City*Uptown Oklahoma City*Oklahoma City bombing*Oklahoma City National Memorial...
Sit-in Movement, as she, her young son and daughter, and numerous young members of the NAACP Youth Council
NAACP youth council
The NAACP Youth Council is a branch of the NAACP in which youth are actively involved. In past years, council participants organized under the council's name to make major strides in the 1950s and 1960s Civil Rights Movement...
successfully conducted nonviolent sit-in protests of downtown drugstore lunch-counters which overturned their policies of segregation
Racial segregation
Racial segregation is the separation of humans into racial groups in daily life. It may apply to activities such as eating in a restaurant, drinking from a water fountain, using a public toilet, attending school, going to the movies, or in the rental or purchase of a home...
. The Clara Luper Corridor is a streetscape and civic beautification project from the Oklahoma Capitol area east to northeast Oklahoma City and was announced by Governor Brad Henry
Brad Henry
Charles Bradford "Brad" Henry was the 26th Governor of the U.S. state of Oklahoma. A member of the Democratic Party, he was elected governor in 2002...
.
Luper continued desegregating hundreds of establishments in Oklahoma, and was active on the national level during the 1960s movements.
Early years
Clara Shepard Luper was born in 1923 in rural Okfuskee County, Oklahoma. Her father, Ezell Shepard, was a World War IWorld War I
World War I , which was predominantly called the World War or the Great War from its occurrence until 1939, and the First World War or World War I thereafter, was a major war centred in Europe that began on 28 July 1914 and lasted until 11 November 1918...
veteran and laborer. Her mother, Isabell Shepard, worked as a laundress. Young Clara was raised in Hoffman, Oklahoma
Hoffman, Oklahoma
Hoffman is a town in Okmulgee County, Oklahoma, United States. The population was 148 at the 2000 census.-Geography:Hoffman is located at .According to the United States Census Bureau, the town has a total area of , all of it land....
. She went to high school in the all-black town of Grayson, Oklahoma
Grayson, Oklahoma
Grayson is a town in Okmulgee County, Oklahoma, United States. The population was 134 at the 2000 census.-Geography:Grayson is located at .According to the United States Census Bureau, the town has a total area of , all of it land....
, and attended college at Langston University
Langston University
Langston University is an institution of higher learning located in Langston, Oklahoma, USA. It is the only historically black college in the state, and the westernmost historically black college in the United States...
where, in 1944, she received a B.A. in mathematics with a minor in history. In 1950, Luper was one of the group of black students who integrated the University of Oklahoma
University of Oklahoma
The University of Oklahoma is a coeducational public research university located in Norman, Oklahoma. Founded in 1890, it existed in Oklahoma Territory near Indian Territory for 17 years before the two became the state of Oklahoma. the university had 29,931 students enrolled, most located at its...
. She received an M.A. in History Education from the university in 1951.
NAACP Youth Council and the start of the 1958 Oklahoma City Movement
In 1957, as Luper worked as a history teacher at Dunjee High School east of Oklahoma City, she became the advisor for the Oklahoma City NAACP Youth CouncilNAACP youth council
The NAACP Youth Council is a branch of the NAACP in which youth are actively involved. In past years, council participants organized under the council's name to make major strides in the 1950s and 1960s Civil Rights Movement...
. At this time she was deeply influenced by the success of Martin Luther King, Jr and the Montgomery Bus Boycott
Montgomery Bus Boycott
The Montgomery Bus Boycott was a political and social protest campaign that started in 1955 in Montgomery, Alabama, USA, intended to oppose the city's policy of racial segregation on its public transit system. Many important figures in the civil rights movement were involved in the boycott,...
. With the Youth Council, she wrote and staged a play entitled Brother President about King’s philosophy of nonviolence
Nonviolence
Nonviolence has two meanings. It can refer, first, to a general philosophy of abstention from violence because of moral or religious principle It can refer to the behaviour of people using nonviolent action Nonviolence has two (closely related) meanings. (1) It can refer, first, to a general...
. In 1958, she was invited to bring the Oklahoma City Youth Council to perform Brother President for the NAACP in New York City
New York City
New York is the most populous city in the United States and the center of the New York Metropolitan Area, one of the most populous metropolitan areas in the world. New York exerts a significant impact upon global commerce, finance, media, art, fashion, research, technology, education, and...
.
The trip to and from New York was a formative experience for Youth Council members. On their return to Oklahoma the Youth Council voted to initiate a campaign of non-violent civil disobedience to end segregation in Oklahoma City.
From 1958 to 1964 Luper mentored the members of the NAACP
National Association for the Advancement of Colored People
The National Association for the Advancement of Colored People, usually abbreviated as NAACP, is an African-American civil rights organization in the United States, formed in 1909. Its mission is "to ensure the political, educational, social, and economic equality of rights of all persons and to...
Youth Council during its campaign to end the segregation of public accommodations through sit-in
Sit-in
A sit-in or sit-down is a form of protest that involves occupying seats or sitting down on the floor of an establishment.-Process:In a sit-in, protesters remain until they are evicted, usually by force, or arrested, or until their requests have been met...
s, protests, and boycott
Boycott
A boycott is an act of voluntarily abstaining from using, buying, or dealing with a person, organization, or country as an expression of protest, usually for political reasons...
s.
Oklahoma City Sit-ins and related activism
On Tuesday afternoon, August 19, 1958, Luper and a group of Youth Council members entered the segregated Katz drugstore in downtown Oklahoma City. They took seats, and asked to be served. Two days later, Katz corporate management in Kansas CityKansas City, Missouri
Kansas City, Missouri is the largest city in the U.S. state of Missouri and is the anchor city of the Kansas City Metropolitan Area, the second largest metropolitan area in Missouri. It encompasses in parts of Jackson, Clay, Cass, and Platte counties...
desegregated its lunch counters in three states.
This successful August, 1958 sit-in led by Luper, her eight-year old daughter who suggested the action, and the rest of the children in the NAACP Youth Council, at the Katz Drug Store occurred a year and a half before the February 1, 1960 Greensboro, North Carolina sit-ins
Greensboro sit-ins
The Greensboro sit-ins were a series of nonviolent protests which led to the Woolworth's department store chain reversing its policy of racial segregation in the Southern United States....
.
From 1958 to 1964 Clara Luper was a major leader of the fight to end segregation
Racial segregation
Racial segregation is the separation of humans into racial groups in daily life. It may apply to activities such as eating in a restaurant, drinking from a water fountain, using a public toilet, attending school, going to the movies, or in the rental or purchase of a home...
in Oklahoma. She led the campaigns to gain equal banking rights, employment opportunities, open housing, and voting rights. Along with the NAACP Youth Council, she personally integrated hundreds of restaurants, cafes, theaters, hotels, and churches, including such notable Oklahoma City establishments as the Split-T drive-in and the Skirvin Hotel. She served on Governor J. Howard Edmondson
J. Howard Edmondson
James Howard Edmondson was the 16th Governor of Oklahoma from 1959 to 1963. Elected at the age of 33, Edmondson is the youngest governor in the history of the state.- Biography :...
’s Committee on Human Relations.
National Civil Rights Activism
Luper was a prominent figure in the national civil rights movement. She was active in the NAACP, and attended the association’s annual conference every year with the Oklahoma City Youth Council. She took part in the 1963 March on Washington where Dr. King gave his “I Have a DreamI Have a Dream
"I Have a Dream" is a 17-minute public speech by Martin Luther King, Jr. delivered on August 28, 1963, in which he called for racial equality and an end to discrimination...
” speech. She also took part in the 1965 Selma to Montgomery marches
Selma to Montgomery marches
The Selma to Montgomery marches were three marches in 1965 that marked the political and emotional peak of the American civil rights movement. They grew out of the voting rights movement in Selma, Alabama, launched by local African-Americans who formed the Dallas County Voters League...
where she received a deep cut in her leg on "Bloody Sunday" when 600 civil rights marchers were attacked by state and local police with tear gas and billy clubs.
After 1964 Luper remained an important community figure as an activist, educator, and stalwart NAACP supporter. In these years, she expanded the range of her concerns to include advocacy for educational, economic, and political equality. In 1968, she was one of a handful of African American teachers hired to teach at Oklahoma City's Northwest Classen High School
Northwest Classen High School
Northwest Classen High School is a public high school serving students in grades 9-12 in Oklahoma City, Oklahoma.- History :Northwest Classen High School was built in 1955 to accommodate the growing population in the northwest corridor of Oklahoma City. Along with Classen School of Advanced...
as part of the highly controversial court ordered school desegregation plan implemented that year. She was later reassigned to John Marshall High School (Oklahoma)
John Marshall High School (Oklahoma)
John Marshall High School is a public high school in Oklahoma City, Oklahoma. It educates students from grades 6-12 and had 744 enrolled students in 2007-2008.-Notable alumni:...
where she continued to teach history and media studies.
Oklahoma City Sanitation Workers Strike
In August 1969, Luper was the spokesperson for striking sanitation workers in Oklahoma City. The sanitation workers sought a shorter work week, pay raises, and new grievance procedures. The Oklahoma City sanitation strike began on August 19 and ended on November 7, 1969.Later years
In 1972 Clara Luper ran unsuccessfully for election to the United States SenateUnited States Senate
The United States Senate is the upper house of the bicameral legislature of the United States, and together with the United States House of Representatives comprises the United States Congress. The composition and powers of the Senate are established in Article One of the U.S. Constitution. Each...
. When asked by the press if she, a black woman, could represent white people, she responded: “Of course, I can represent white people, black people, red people, yellow people, brown people, and polka dot people. You see, I have lived long enough to know that people are people.”
The Clara Luper Corridor, a multi-million dollar two mile streetscape project connecting the Oklahoma State Capitol
Oklahoma State Capitol
The Oklahoma State Capitol is the house of government of the U.S. state of Oklahoma. It is the building that houses the Oklahoma Legislature, and the meeting place of the Oklahoma Supreme Court. It is located along Lincoln Boulevard in Oklahoma City. The present structure includes a dome that was...
complex with the historically African-American area of Northeast Oklahoma City, began construction in 2005. It was named to commemorate her civil rights legacy.
Luper received hundreds of awards, and was inducted into the Oklahoma Hall of Fame
Oklahoma Hall of Fame
The Oklahoma Hall of Fame was established in 1927 by Anna B. Korn. To be eligible for induction, an individual must satisfy the following criteria:* Reside in Oklahoma or be a former resident of the state....
, the Oklahoma Women's Hall of Fame
Oklahoma Women's Hall of Fame
Oklahoma Women's Hall of Fame was established in 1982 by Oklahoma Governor George Nigh "to honor Oklahoma women who are pioneers in their field or in a project that benefits Oklahoma; who have made a significant contribution to the State of Oklahoma; who serve or have served as role models to other...
, and the Oklahoma Afro-American Hall of Fame, among others.
The Clara Luper Scholarship, a full scholarship
Scholarship
A scholarship is an award of financial aid for a student to further education. Scholarships are awarded on various criteria usually reflecting the values and purposes of the donor or founder of the award.-Types:...
given by Oklahoma City University
Oklahoma City University
Oklahoma City University, often referred to as OCU, is a coeducational, urban, private university historically affiliated with the United Methodist Church...
, has been awarded to 30-45 students every year. The scholarship was geared towards students who were minorities, came from underserved high schools, or came from households with lower income.
Writings
Clara Luper’s book Behold The Walls (1979) is an acclaimed first-hand account of the campaign for civil rights in Oklahoma City during the 1960s.See also
- List of civil rights leaders
- Timeline of the African-American Civil Rights Movement
Sources
- Carl R. Graves, "The Right to be Served," Chronicles of Oklahoma, 59:2 (1981), 163-168.
- Clara Luper, Behold the Walls (Oklahoma City: Jim Wire, 1979).
- Jimmie Lewis Franklin, The Blacks in Oklahoma (Norman: University of Oklahoma Press, 1980).
- Jimmie Lewis Franklin, Journey Toward Hope: A History of Blacks in Oklahoma (Norman: University of Oklahoma Press, 1982).
- Davis D. Joyce, ed., An Oklahoma I Had Never Seen Before: Alternative Views of Oklahoma History (Norman: University of Oklahoma Press, 1994).
- Linda Williams Reese, “Clara Luper and the Civil Rights Movement in Oklahoma City, 1958-1964” in African American Women Confront the West, 1600-2000 (Norman: University of Oklahoma Press, 2003).
- Stories in America--Oklahoma Sit-ins Conversation with Clara Luper
- Clara Shepard Luper--Oklahoma Historical Society's Encyclopedia of Oklahoma History and Culture
- Uncrowned Queen Clara Luper