New sculpture downtown honors Clara Luper led Civil Rights sit-in

OKLAHOMA CITY (KFOR) - The nation's first civil rights sit-in is now memorialized forever, where it actually happened in downtown Oklahoma City.

You might know the history of OKC teacher Clara Luper leading a sit-in at Katz Drug Store in 1958. It was a pivotal moment in a fight for equal rights. Previously, KFOR showed you the process of creating the sculpture to honor that movement, and now it's officially a city landmark at Robinson Avenue and Main Street.

5 tons of bronze resembling a lunch counter commemorates the pivotal moment in the American Civil Rights movement. It also sits in the very place it all unfolded over 6 decades ago.

"I just wish that my mother could've lived to see this because she would be so happy," Clara Luper's daughter, Marilyn Luper-Hildreth, said.

In 1958, only white patrons could sit at the Katz Drug Store counter at Robinson and Main. That was until Oklahoma City teacher Clara Luper led student members of the NAACP Youth Council in the nation's first sit-in there. Their protest was quiet and nonviolent, only seeking a place at the counter for Black citizens. They were yelled at and spit on.

"Marilyn's idea, with her mom's leadership, they created the sit-in movement in the United States, and it's a remarkable story," co-chair of the soon-to-be-dedicated Clara Luper National Sit-In Plaza, John Kennedy, said.

The efforts of Luper and others forced Katz to desegregate their stores nationwide and sparked other sit-ins across the country. The sculpture was designed by a Brooklyn firm and is the centerpiece of the Clara Luper National Sit-In Plaza that's set to be dedicated on November 1. It's a place where a lesson in courage will teach future generations.

"A kid can show that we can have a better community," Luper-Hildreth said. "You don't have to be old and make a change. You can be young and make all the changes you want to, but you have to have stick-to-itness and determination and faith."