Art association lauds African-American Hall of Fame honorees

The event will begin at 5:30 p.m., and the banquet and induction will be at 6:30 p.m. Tickets are $50.

The art association established the Oklahoma African-American Hall of Fame in 1982 to call attention to achievements among blacks who are native Oklahomans or who have lived in Oklahoma for a minimum of 10 years.

Six people are inducted biannually: four living and two posthumously. This year's inductees are Nancy Randolph-Davis, Lilliantyne Williams-Fields, Wallace Owens and Roosevelt Milton. Posthumous honorees are Emma Lee Jones-Freeman and Opio Toure.

Randolph-Davis was the first black enrollee at Oklahoma State University.

Williams-Fields has served more than 23 years as a biological sciences educator, serving on two national committees for the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

Owens, the first artist inducted into the hall of fame, is the founder and director of the Owens Art Place Museum in Guthrie.

Milton has served 44 years with the state Department of Human Services and was the longtime president of the Oklahoma NAACP.

The late Jones-Freeman was a veteran educator who won a lawsuit against the Oklahoma City School Board, which resulted in equal pay for black teachers in Oklahoma.

Toure, who died in 2008, was a five-term state representative for District 99.

For more information, call 209-9818.