OKLAHOMA CITY — Sixty-four years ago today, more than 70 people took to the Anna Maude Cafeteria in Oklahoma City to protest segregation and Jim Crow laws.
The protest was led by history teacher and NAACP Youth Council Advisor Clara Luper and was just part of several sit-in protests at the time.
Luper also led the famous sit-in at the Katz Drug Store in 1958.
Just a few days after the Katz sit-in, Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. was arrested, jailed and kicked by city police during a nonviolent protest in Montgomery, Alabama.
In the Anna Maude Cafeteria sit-in, at least a dozen people were arrested for disorderly conduct after an employee complained that the cafeteria entrance was blocked.
These sit-ins protested the Jim Crow laws passed in Oklahoma in 1907. Here are just some of those laws:
- Separate schools: Black and white children attended separate schools, even though the laws promised "separate but equal"
- Separate restaurants: Black people had to use a back entrance and couldn't eat with white people
- Telephone booths: Telephone companies were required to have separate booths for white and Black people
- Marriage restrictions: Marriage between Black and white people was punishable by fine and imprisonment
Despite this, the sit-ins had a significant impact on civil rights in Oklahoma and led to more businesses, churches, public areas, and schools being desegregated.
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