via jbhe.com
The University of Oklahoma has announced that it is recognizing educator and civil rights leader Clara Luper by naming the department of African and African American studies in her honor.
Known as the “Mother of the Oklahoma Civil Rights Movement,” Luper led a sit-in at the segregated lunch counter at the Katz Drug Store in Oklahoma City in 1958. She later led campaigns for equal rights in employment opportunity, banking, open housing, and voting rights.
David L. Boren, president of the University of Oklahoma, said that “we honor Clara Luper as a trailblazer for human rights and as a symbol of the university’s commitment to equal opportunity for all people.”
Clara Luper was born 1923 in rural Okfuskee County, Oklahoma. She graduated from an all-Black high school and then enrolled at historically Black Langston University in Oklahoma. She earned a bachelor’s degree in mathematics in 1944. She later earned a master’s degree in history education at the University of Oklahoma.
Luper taught history in high schools in Spencer, Oklahoma, and Oklahoma City for 41 years. She was the first African American vice president of the Oklahoma City Social Science Teachers Association and the first African American vice president of the Oklahoma County Teachers Association. Luper also hosted her own radio show for 50 years.
A state highway bears her name and the Clara Luper Scholarship Program has been established at Oklahoma City University. More on the life of this civil rights pioneer can be found in her autobiography Behold the Walls (1979).
Clara Luper died in 2011.
Source: https://www.jbhe.com/2018/03/university-of-oklahoma-names-an-academic-department-to-honor-clara-luper/
Posts tagged as “Langston University”
by Jenna Amatulli via huffpost.com
You may think your graduation was lit, but did you and every one you know swag surf? No?Well, sit down and read on. Graduates at Howard University and Langston University decided to dance themselves into post-grad life by celebrating with a group swag surfin’ session. And the videos are truly glorious. Take a look at these from a Howard U ceremony that appears to have gone down on May 12:
👀 A better view of @HowardU School of Communications going up the 🏄🏾🌍 "FLYWAY" at Graduation 2017! #swagsurfin #stillundefeated #FLYeva 🌊🏄🏾🌍 pic.twitter.com/E7Y0csvbRx
— FLY (@WE_R_FLY) May 17, 2017
To read more, go to: These Black Graduates Swag Surfing Are The Epitome Of Black Joy | HuffPost
Langston University was founded in Langston, Oklahoma, on March 12, 1897. It is Oklahoma’s only historically Black college or university. Because African-Americans were not allowed to attend colleges and universities in the state, the Black settlers of Langston raised the money to build an instruction where their children could learn and grow.
Originally founded as the Colored Agricultural and Normal University, the school operated with the mission to instruct both male and female students in the fields of agriculture, mechanics and industrial arts. On September 3, 1898, the school officially opened in a Presbyterian church in with an enrollment of 41 students. Today, Langston University boasts an undergraduate enrollment of 2,379 students.
article by Britt Middleton via bet.com
article by Britt Middleton via bet.com