Her’s is not a household name like that of Rosa Parks and she did not garner the kind of national attention Martin Luther King did. But Oklahoma’s Clara Luper was a pioneering woman in the civil rights movement. Leading one of the first sit-ins at a drugstore in Oklahoma City, Mrs. Luper is credited for forcing local eateries to de-segregate all across Oklahoma, and eventually the nation.
Throughout her life, she worked for equal rights until her death this month at age eighty-eight. In today’s video blog we revisit an interview we did with her in 2005 as part of a black history exhibit at the Oklahoma History Center.
As I have reflected on those days growing up in the barber shop, it has been fun to romanticize the experience; the wide-eyed wonder of being a boy privileged to hang out in the town “man-cave” has taken me to very vivid recollections. Heck, I’ve managed to charm myself. However, I’m not particularly comfortable or proud of some parts.
This day I reflect on barbershop conversations exactly 45 years ago this month.
History note – June 11, 1966 – Police arrest 22 of about 200 protesters picketing Doe Doe Recreation Park, a private, segregated amusement park with a swimming pool in Lawton.
One of the most wonderful places I went to as a boy was Doe Doe Park. The swimming pool was huge. It had swings, and a tower and multiple diving boards. In 1966 this place was pristine, especially in comparison to all the dirty cow ponds, shallow creeks and muddy lakes most of us were accustomed to. There were no swimming pools in Apache.
I remember Doe Doe Park fondly. I remember that it was for white only. Sadly, that didn’t bother me; it was the world as I knew it.
Doe Doe Park Pool, Lawton
In the barber shop men talked about the “Negroes trying to swim with the whites.” I remember one person referring to some “uppity coloreds causing trouble down at Doe Doe Park.” Apparently some “Northerners” were involved, whatever that meant; I pictured arrogant and rude people. It seemed to me that these were not good people. Now where did I get that idea as a ten year old? Continue reading Barber Shop Theology: Integration of the Mind→
Showcasing Red Dirt culture ~ authored and managed by contributors with connections to the great state of Oklahoma.
