For nearly a century, February has been a time for Americans to look back on and celebrate Black history.
From abolitionists to civil rights leaders, from artists to entrepreneurs, from inventors to politicians, Black people have left indelible marks on America.
Here are some of the most notable and influential Black Oklahomans you should know about (and if you don't already, Black History Month is the perfect time to learn):
This list in no way encompasses all of the Black Oklahomans who have made a difference for others and paved the way for future generations. Know of someone else we should add to this list? Email us at cderksen@oklahoman.com.
Clara Luper
Clara Luper is hailed as one of Oklahoma City's greatest civil rights movement leaders.
As the advisor for the local NAACP Youth Council, Luper and some of her students staged a sit-in at the downtown lunch counter of Katz Drugstore in a protest against segregated restaurants. This was in 1958, two years before the Greensboro, North Carolina sit-in often cited as the start of the movement.
The success at Katz led to sit-ins across the city, with dozens of Oklahoma City restaurants and businesses desegregated by the time the city made segregated restaurants illegal in 1964. It also inspired sit-ins across the state and throughout the South.
Professionally, Luper was a history teacher at Dunjee High School in Spencer and at John Marshall and Classen High Schools in Oklahoma City. She chronicled her fight for civil rights in her autobiography, "Behold the Walls." Luper died in 2011.
Ada Lois Sipuel Fisher
Born in Chickasha, Oklahoma, Ada Lois Sipuel Fisher was an excellent student from a young age. She graduated as her high school's valedictorian and earned a bachelor's degree with honors from Langston University.
And while Oklahoma had no law schools that allowed Black students, Fisher dreamed of becoming a lawyer. She could have gone out of state for her degree, but at the urging of the NAACP she applied University of Oklahoma's law school in 1946, according to the Oklahoma Historical Society.
OU's president at the time, George Lynn Cross, informed Fisher her application was rejected due to state statutes prohibiting whites and blacks from attending classes together, and to instruct or attend classes comprised of mixed races.
Fisher then filed a lawsuit that led to a three-year legal battle, during which the U.S. Supreme Court ruled the state had to provide Fisher the same opportunity to secure a legal education that other Oklahoma citizens were given. She was eventually admitted to OU's Law School in 1949, and she spent three decades as a faculty member at Langston University.
In 1992, Fisher was appointed to the University of Oklahoma's Board of Regents. After her death in 1995, the university dedicated a garden in her name, where a plaque inscription reads, "In Psalm 118, the psalmist speaks of how the stone that the builders once rejected becomes the cornerstone."
Amos T. Hall
One of Oklahoma's most significant civil rights lawyers, Amos T. Hall represented Ada Lois Sipuel Fisher in her case against the OU Board of Regents, alongside future Supreme Court Justice Thurgood Marshall.
He also led the fight for equal salaries for teachers as the attorney for the Oklahoma Association of Negro Teachers in 1948, according to the Oklahoma Historical Society.
He was appointed special judge of the District Court of Tulsa County in 1969, and in 1970 he was elected associate district judge of Tulsa County and served until his death the next year.
Hall was the first Black person to be elected a judge in Oklahoma, as well as to a countywide office.
Hannah Diggs Atkins
Librarian Hannah Diggs Atkins moved to Oklahoma in 1952, where worked for Oklahoma City Public Libraries and later the Oklahoma State Library. She also taught law and library science courses at the University of Oklahoma.
She was inspired to run for political officer after Martin Luther King Jr. was assassinated, and was elected to the Oklahoma House of Representatives in 1968. Atkins was the first Black woman to be elected to the state legislature.
She served until 1980, fighting for child welfare, health care, tax and mental health reforms, and civil rights. In 1980, she was appointed by President Jimmy Carter as a United States delegate to the 35th Assembly of the United Nations, which she considered the highlight of her career.
Under Republican Gov. Henry Bellmon, she served as secretary of social services, secretary of human resources and secretary of state.
Willa Johnson
The first Black woman elected to Oklahoma City's city council, Willa Johnson dedicated decades to public service.
After a 20-year civilian career at Tinker Air Force Base, Johnson was elected to the city council in 1993and served Ward 7 until 2007. Johnson then spenta decade as an Oklahoma County commissioner for District 1, retiring in 2017.
Shewas involved in the passage of the original MAPS sales taxto fund downtown development and MAPS for Kids, which rebuilt Douglass High Schoolat its original NE 8 and Martin Luther King location.
She helped lead the reopening of the James E. Stewart Golf Course, and for years pushed for a new recreation center at Douglass Park in northeast Oklahoma City. Thatnew center is now open and is named for Johnson.
She successfully secured bond money to rebuild NE 23 between Broadway and Interstate 35, a corridor neglected for decades. The makeover included sidewalks, vintage style lighting and resurfacing.
Many in the Oklahoma City area looked up to her, especially Black women. Johnson died in 2022.
J.C. Watts Jr.
The state's first Black U.S. Congressman, J.C. Watts Jr. served as a Republican in the U.S. House of Representatives for Oklahoma's 4th District, which was overwhelmingly Democratic and white.
He served from 1995 until 2003, during which he chaired the Republican Conference, and served on the Armed Services Committee, the Military Personnel Subcommittee, and the Procurement Subcommittee. Prior to his election to Congress, he was elected to the Oklahoma Corporation Commission and served from 1990 to 1994.
He deviated from his family's Democratic politics when he changed his party registration to Republican in 1989, and later wrote the book "What Color is a Conservative? My Life and My Politics."
Before his political career, Watts Jr. was a quarterback for the University of Oklahoma Sooners and led them to two conference championships and Orange Bowl victories.
