OKLAHOMA CITY – Survivors, families, and officials came together early Sunday morning to mark 31 years since the most devastating and unforgettable day in Oklahoma City history, paying remembrance to the 168 lives lost in the terrorist bombing of the Alfred P. Murrah Federal Building on April 19, 1995.
It was a short outdoor ceremony, just an hour long, on the grounds of the OKC National Memorial that graces the site of the tragedy, with minimal statements or preamble and no speeches from government officials in attendance, like OKC Mayor David Holt, Oklahoma Governor Kevin Stitt, and Senator James Lankford.
Instead, the ceremony was hosted and led by OKC National Memorial & Museum board of trustees chairman Chris Fleming, who introduced the morning’s invocation, touted the continued resilience of OKC’s community and the ongoing expansion efforts at the museum, and then placed the focus firmly on the annual reading of names of the 168 victims.
“For many of you, this marks more than three decades attending this remembrance ceremony,” Fleming told the gathering, standing among the memorial’s field of empty chairs that honor each of those killed in the attack. “May this ceremony, and what these chairs represent, continue guiding us toward a future defined not by the violence of that day, but rather by the service, honor, and kindness that rose in its aftermath.”
Moving Foreward
With three decades now past since the tragedy, the mission and goals of the National Memorial & Museum have shifted somewhat from solemn personal remembrance of the Bombing to education and understanding for new generations and newcomers to OKC.
Fleming spoke of the importance of presenting the story and the experiences of those involved in a way that can reach and inform the rising numbers moving to the city in recent years and those too young to remember the realities of April 19th , 1995.
To that end, the museum has broken ground on its largest expansion project since its opening, a new introductory area that’s been dubbed “Foreward.”
Located on the museum’s west side, Foreward will incorporate granite tile and artworks recovered from the Murrah Building, as well as a community civics lab and a greatly expanded orientation area to better inform visitors with little or no prior knowledge of the Bombing and the violent, racist, nationalist views that fueled it.
“Remembering is not just about looking back, it’s about teaching, inspiring, and building a world where tragedy is never repeated,” Fleming said. “This landmark addition builds on the chapter of the April 19th, 1995 story. Foreward allows us to invest in preservation, expand educational programming, and harness new technology so that every visitor, no matter their age or where they come from, can understand what was lost, what was learned, and how hope endured.”
‘Hope against violence’
The short, tightly focused ceremony was a marked departure from last year’s wide-reaching 30th annual remembrance event, which saw extended speeches from Holt, Stitt, Lankford, and officials that were in office at the time of the Bombing, including former Oklahoma Governor Frank Keating and former President Bill Clinton.
Clinton spoke frankly and pointedly at the time about the rise in violent political rhetoric and the mainstreaming of the same nationalist views espoused three decades ago by bomber Timothy McVeigh.
Sunday’s remembrance now comes after a yearlong period marked by political violence made explicit in the killing of two citizens by US federal agents in Minneapolis and an ongoing US war effort in Iran that has reportedly seen thousands killed across the region.
In his statements Sunday, Fleming invoked the importance of educating against that kind of violence and against the careless rhetoric that fans its flames as new generations and new visitors to the memorial’s solemn ground continue to learn about the tragic consequences of hatred and division.
“We can choose to remember with compassion,” he said before the reading of names. “We can choose to stand with hope against violence. We can choose to teach this story to the next generations.”
Brett Fieldcamp is the owner and Editor in Chief of Oklahoma City Free Press. He has been covering arts, entertainment, news, housing, and culture in Oklahoma for nearly two decades and served as Arts & Entertainment Editor before purchasing the company from founder Brett Dickerson in 2026.
He is also a musician and songwriter and holds a certification as Specialist of Spirits from The Society of Wine Educators.
