Present dangers focus of sit-ins anniversary closing night

Last Updated on August 24, 2023, 12:56 PM | Published: August 24, 2023

OKLAHOMA CITY — “Clara Luper was a fighter!” shouted Pastor Byron Coleman during his sermon Sunday night at the church he serves, Fifth Street Baptist Church, that hosted the final night of the honoring of the OKC sit-ins.

The still-vibrant church was Clara Luper’s church home, the site of many meetings and worship services during the hard days of desegregation in the late 1950s and the even harder days of the Oklahoma City Sanitation Strike of 1969.

It was the last night of the 65th anniversary of the Oklahoma City sit-ins that eventually broke down the systems of legal segregation in the city and state.

The three days before had various programs including a heavily sentimentalized re-enactment of the sit-ins at a quaint ice cream shop in midtown.

Before the pastor’s sermon, OKC Ward 7 Councilwoman Nikki Nice had just called to the crowd’s attention that the vote on the City Council that established the current Human Rights Commission had squeaked by with a 5-4 vote.

“A five … four … vote!” said Nice looking sternly at a crowd that audibly shared her bewilderment.

Nice and former 5th District Congresswoman Kendra Horn both spoke seriously about the current need to stand up for our democracy in these turbulent times.

This is now

But, lest anyone think that somehow because of what happened in 1958 the job has been done and all racism is now past, Coleman was out to set them straight.

After three days of sentimentality about gains made during the 1958 sit-ins that ended racial segregation in Oklahoma, the final night stood in sharp contrast.

The language of the service was decidedly in the present and forward-thinking.

“Brothers and sisters, the work is not complete! There is still work to do!” shouted Coleman during his sermon with a number of “amens” from the crowd.

The focus of his sermon was less on Clara Luper as a historical figure who accomplished great things back then.

Instead, he pointed to Luper’s determination to fight for freedom and that the fight goes on today because the problems go on today.

Coleman said that Luper gave him her book “Behold The Walls” when he became the pastor of Fifth Street Church, and Sunday he was thinking about “Behold The Walls – 2.”

Luper’s book was the story of breaking down the walls of segregation in the 1950s and 1960s.

Coleman referred to the new MAPS 4 Freedom Center project, the focus of recent excited talk from city leaders. He said that it is great to memorialize, but the “real legacy ain’t found in cement.”

Instead, he used the example of Luper’s activism and persistence to push those who were there THAT night — in 2023 — to remember that you “have to fight for your freedom.”

“There are those who presume in their privilege that they can treat others any way they see fit,” said Coleman. But, with Clara Luper, that was not going to happen on her watch!”

He went on, “So when she was in a Katz Drugstore, in the classroom, in a public park, wherever she was, she fought!”

“We are not here in 2023 able to occupy these spaces that at one point in time were forbidden for us to be here because we’re just so good,” said Coleman. Black people are able to occupy spaces because those who “went before us fought for us to be here.”

By the end of his sermon, the message was clear: The fight for freedom didn’t just happen “back then” and now it’s no longer a problem. It’s still a problem and still requires the willingness to fight it.

More than just Katz

The spitting and mumbled words by people walking by black people at the Katz sit-in turned out to be among the least perilous for protesters according to Luper’s book. Many of those same people would face far worse as the movement gained momentum, public attention, and hateful opposition.

But, public discourse on each anniversary would lead the casual listener to think all it took was just the Katz sit-in to achieve the change.

Here is a simple list of segregated restaurants, public establishments, and government entities in Oklahoma City that Luper and the movement around her succeeded in pushing to desegregate:

• Adair’s Cafeteria
• Bishop’s Restaurant
• The Bouldin Cafe
• The Civic Center Grill
• The Forum Cafeteria
• Frye’s Restaurant
• S.H. Green’s luncheonette
• The Huckins Hotel
• O’Mealey’s Cafeteria
• The Pink Kitchen
• Ralph’s Drug Store
• The Skirvin Hotel
• The Sooner Inn
• The Spit-T
• The 3300 Restaurant
• Val Gene’s
• The YMCA
• The Oklahoma City Police Department
• The Housing Ordinance

Luper’s national influence spread as the movement began to see success in Oklahoma City.

Her book “Behold the Walls” is still available in the Metropolitan Library System. Visit metrolibrary.org. It is also available in paperback or Kindle edition from Amazon.

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