Oklahoma City Sit-Ins 60th Anniversary program, Oklahoma History Center

The Oklahoma Historical Society will host one of the many events planned to honor Clara Luper and the sit-ins of the civil rights movement in Oklahoma City. This free event on Thursday, August 16, at 7 pm will celebrate the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP) Youth Council and the many that later joined Luper to protest segregation in public accommodations beginning on August 19, 1958, with a sit-in at Katz Drug Store in downtown Oklahoma City. The doors of the Oklahoma History Center will open at 6:30 pm. The Oklahoma History Center is located at 800 Nazih Zuhdi Drive in Oklahoma City.

The executive director of the Oklahoma Historical Society, Bob Blackburn, will welcome guests to the celebration, which will include a performance by the Ambassadors Concert Choir. There will be a viewing of a new documentary entitled Remembering the Sit-In, which contains several interviews of NAACP Youth Council participants. A screening of excerpts from the documentary Through the Looking Glass Darkly also will be a part of the celebration. When New York Times best-selling author and Today show television journalist Bob Dotson worked in Oklahoma City, he produced Through the Looking Glass Darkly about Oklahoma’s African American history. Afterward, Joyce Jackson will moderate a panel discussion with Dotson and two of the documentary’s other filmmakers, Oliver Murray and George Wesley Sr.

Special guest Bob Dotson has traveled more than four million miles, crisscrossing America almost nonstop for half a century while searching for people who are practically invisible—the ones who change our lives but do not take time to tweet and tell us about it. His long-running series, “The American Story” was a regular feature on the Today show until his retirement on the 40th anniversary of the day he joined NBC. He is the author of three books, including American Story: A Lifetime Search for Ordinary People Doing Extraordinary Things.

This is one of several events recognizing Oklahoma City sit-in participants, which will culminate with the August 19, 2018, anniversary program at Fifth Street Baptist Church. To obtain additional information about any of the programs contact Joyce Jackson at jacksonj@att.net.