Copyright ©2012 The Associated Press. Produced by NewsOK.com All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.
Recordings keeping sit-in's history alive
Rodger Harris wasn't among the white patrons of Katz Drug Store on Aug. 19, 1958, when 13 black youths took a seat at the lunch counter in the first of the sit-ins.
Multimedia
Harold Green
Jun 15Harold Green, son of the late Clara Luper, remembers what...
Clara Luper Day
Aug 23Participants walk through northeast Oklahoma City in the...
Clara Luper
Feb 22The Oklahoman looks at the life of Civil Rights leader...
Related content
NewsOK Related Articles
-
Former students remember lessons from Clara Luper
06/18/2011 Family, former students fondly recall teachings of Oklahoma civil rights leader Clara Luper.
-
Mourners: Clara Luper ‘beyond her time'
06/18/2011 Clara Luper led the way, inspired younger generations, friends, family, admirers say.
-
Mourners celebrate the life of civil rights leader Clara Luper
06/18/2011 President Barack Obama and former President Bill Clinton sent messages that were read as friends and family gathered to say goodbye to civil rights leader...
-
Mourners share impressions of civil rights activist Clara Luper
06/17/2011 The funeral for Oklahoma civil rights activist Clara Luper is Friday morning at the Cox Convention Center in Oklahoma City. A procession will then go to the...
-
Luper given exception
06/17/2011 Luper given exception Clara Luper is only the second person to lie in repose at the state Capitol with no direct ties to an elected state official,...
-
Flags to fly at half-staff in honor of Clara Luper
06/17/2011 Gov. Mary Fallin has ordered all American and Oklahoma flags on state property to be flown at half-staff through 5 p.m. Friday in memory of civil rights...
-
Clara Luper's children share memories of their mother
06/16/2011 Luper considered everything that was good as a reason to celebrate
-
Quotes from Clara Luper
06/11/2011 These are some quotable remarks from Clara Luper through the years.
-
Funeral set for Oklahoma City civil rights leader Clara Luper
06/11/2011 A community funeral service for revered Oklahoma City civil rights leader Clara Luper will be 11 a.m. June 17 at the Cox Convention Center.
-
Remembering Clara Luper
06/10/2011 Oklahoma leaders react to death of prominent civil rights activist Clara Luper
-
Clara Luper remembered as champion of equality
06/10/2011 Oklahoman Clara Luper died Wednesday night after a lengthy illness. She was a leader in the fight for civil rights.
-
Civil rights leader Clara Luper has died
06/09/2011 Clara Luper, a longtime Oklahoma civil rights leader, has died. She was 88.
-
Lunch counter activists honored at Oklahoma History Center
08/20/2008 The Oklahoma History Center celebrated the contributions of well-known educator and civil rights leader Clara Luper and the original 13 Katz Drug Store...
-
Timeline of the 1958 sit-ins
08/20/2008 •Aug. 19: Thirteen black youths seek to be served at a Katz Drug Store counter. •Aug. 20: The youth return to the Katz food counter and are refused...
-
50 years ago, children helped change nation when they sat down
08/19/2008 In their childhood, their world was divided. Separate but equal was custom or law at schools, parks, rest rooms, water fountains and restaurants. As...
-
Integrating one store meant integrating all
08/19/2008 Ike and Mike Katz, the owners of the Katz Drug Store chain, were more than entrepreneurs in their hometown of Kansas City; they were icons. To civil rights...
-
Clara Luper had to face a mysterious enemy
08/19/2008 It was a tumultuous time. Fear was something you worked through. "The scariest thing about facing an anonymous enemy is that it could be anyone,” Clara...
-
Police peacefully upheld the law
08/19/2008 On only a few occasions does Maxine Purser remember her husband coming home and talking about the Katz Drug Store and other civil rights demonstrations of...
-
Celebration of city sit-ins kicks off
08/18/2008 Oklahoma civil rights leaders and community members met Sunday to kick off a week-long celebration dedicated to the 50th anniversary of the historic Oklahoma...
-
Sunday Conversation ... on lunch counter sit-ins
08/17/2008 Tuesday marks the 50th anniversary of the Katz Drug Store sit-in protest in downtown Oklahoma City. It started a four-year campaign that successfully ended...
However, because of the video and audio archives of the Oklahoma Historical Society, Harris can go back to that day. In a way, we can all go back.
Harris, 63, is an oral historian, an audio/video time traveler.
On a January's day in 1997, he miked I.G. Purser, a former chief of the Oklahoma City Police Department, who in 1958 was a lieutenant assigned to overseeing the protests. Two years later, Harris and intern Floyd Freeman, then a recent graduate of Langston University, interviewed civil rights leader Clara Luper with a video camera rolling.
And then days after the interview with Luper, Freeman did another tremendous service to historical preservation when he interviewed adults who were children when they participated in the initial sit-in at Katz.
Yes, in a way, we can all go back.
"I believe that white Oklahomans had never seen us, they'd never thought about us.”
Clara Luper, in a 1999 interview with Harris and Freeman.
The interview with Luper lasted more than two hours.
But it didn't take Harris long to pick up on one underlying motivator.
"She had come to realize that African-American people were just invisible,” he said.
Harris, who grew up in Marlow, said he was oblivious to civil rights issues until he entered college in the early 1960s.
"I knew exactly what she meant because I was on the other side, looking at history from my perspective,” he said, "and I knew she was right.”
But Luper didn't just acknowledge issues, she acted on them.
"She thought if problems were brought to the attention of the general public that positive changes would occur,” he said.
"At that moment my whole life reflected in front of me. I saw my dad who had died in the Veteran's Hospital, 1957, who had dreamed that someday his children would be able to enjoy these things,” Luper said when asked by the children whether they should conduct a sit-in at the Katz Drug Store.
Sometimes an interviewer can hear a quote before it is spoken. Harris has been an oral historian at the Historical Society for 18 years.
News Photo Galleriesview all
Prev
Follow
