Celebrating Black History Month: Katz Drug Store sit-in 1958

On August 19, 1958, Clara Luper, a high school teacher, and thirteen of her students entered the Katz Drug Store in Oklahoma City, Oklahoma, and sat down at the lunch counter, refusing to leave until they were served. 

Luper and her students had recently traveled to New York City where they experienced an integrated environment.  Black people in New York City enjoyed freedoms such as integrated restaurants that Luper and her students were not accustomed to.  

Back in Oklahoma City, Luper decided to conduct a non-violent protest by staging a sit-in.  One of the students was Donda West, who would become the mother of Kanye West.  On the first day, the protesters remained at the counter for hours.  They were denied service, and white people kicked them, punched them, spat at them, poured things on them, and cursed at them.

They returned for two more days until the third day when one of the employees served them their food, which ended segregation in the restaurant.  Katz Drug Store ended their segregation policies.  Sit-ins occurred throughout Oklahoma City until 1964, when the city passed an ordinance forbidding restaurants from refusing service to anyone based on race, religion, color, sex, or national origin.

Celebrating Black History Month: Orangeburg Massacre 1968

February 8, 1968 near the campus of South Carolina State College in Orangeburg, law enforcement personnel opened fire on a crowd of unarmed African Americans, killing three and injuring twenty-eight more.

Weeks of unrest centered on a the All-Star Bowling Lane, a whites-only bowling alley, where a number of student protests took place.  On Thursday, February 8, 1968, police set up a command post near the college campus.  At 7pm, fifty State College students gathered to start a bonfire, but police intervened. At 9:30p, more students had joined the protest and a second attempt at building a bonfire was successful.

Police called the fire department to put out the fire.  When the fire truck arrived, the crowd began moving back toward Lowman Hall, throwing rocks and bottles.  A patrolman David Shealy was injured when a banister post struck him in the mouth.  The other patrolmen thought he had been shot. 

A few minutes later, nine policemen opened fire on the retreating students, hitting thirty-one people, although the shooting lasted less than ten seconds.  Samuel Hammond was shot in the back.  Delano Middleton was shot seven times, three to his arm, one to each hip, thigh, and heart.  Henry Smith was shot five times from both times.

None of the students were armed, but the law enforcement insisted they fired in self-defense.

All the nine policemen who fired on the students were prosecuted and none were convicted.  

The only person arrested, convicted, and sent to prison was Cleveland Sellers, who was charged with inciting a riot, and spent about seven months in jail.

Celebrating Pride Month: Dewey's sit-ins, early LGBT demonstration advocating for equal rights 1965

Advocates for LGBT rights organized two sit-ins at the popular Dewey's Restaurant in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. On April 25, 1965, about 150 LGBT demonstrators walked into Dewey's and refused to leave in the name of civil rights.  This was in response to Dewey's recent policy claiming it would not serve homosexuals, masculine women, or feminine men. Nor would they serve persons wearing "nonconformist clothing".   Three people were arrested.

On May 2, 1965, protestors staged a second sit-in at Dewey's. No arrests happened this time and Dewey's reversed their policy.  The incidents helped forge a path toward the gay rights movement.

In October 2018, the Pennsylvania Historical and Museum Commission erected a historical marker to commemorate the sit-in. 

Celebrating Native American Heritage Month: Occupation of Alcatraz begins 1969

On November 20, 1969, eighty-nine Native Americans and their supporters landed on Alcatraz Island and maintained a presence until June 11, 1971. The organizers of the protest, Richard Oakes, LaNada Means, and John Trudell, claimed that under the Treaty of Fort Laramie of 1951 between the US and the Lakota tribe, all retired, abandoned, or federal land no longer in use, was to be returned ot the Indigenous people who once occupied it.  Since the penitentiary had been closed since March 1963 and the land had been declared surplus federal property in 1964, the Red Power activists felt the island belonged to the Native Americans.

They began the occupation late on November 20, and despite a Coast Guard blockade, fourteen managed to land on the island.  At the height of the occupation, four hundred people lived on the island.  They set up a daycare, a health clinic, and a school.  Doctors volunteered their services and Native and non-Natives brought necessary supplies to the island to support the occupiers.

Coast Guard blockades made it increasingly more difficult to reach Alcatraz, but the occupation began receiving a lot of support from around the world.

In January 1970, Oakes' stepdaughter feel to her death, which prompted Richard and his wife to leave the island. A hippie and drug scene moved to the island creating problems until non-Indians were prohibited from staying over night.  The government cut off electrical power, water, and telephone service to the island.  In June 1970, a fire destroyed numerous buildings on the island.  After that, the number of occupiers began to dwindle.  On June 11, 1971, government officers removed the last fifteen people.

The Occupation of Alcatraz established a precedent for Indian activism and spurred such actions as the Trail of Broken Treaties in 1972, the Wounded Knee incident in 1973, and the Longest Walk in 1968. 

Edwin Starr's "War" reaches #1 1970

War was originally recorded by the Temptations but then Motown was pressured to release it as a single.  Songwriter Norman Whitfield (with Barrett Strong) re-recorded it with Edwin Starr and released it in June 1970.  It became a smash hit and reached #1 on the Billboard Hot 100 the week of August 29, 1970 and stayed there for three weeks.

War, an anti-Vietnam War song, is the most successful song of Starr's career and is the best known protest song. 

Billboard ranked it as the No. 5 song for 1970.  Starr received a Grammy nomination for War in 1971 for Best R&B Male Vocal.  His version was inducted into the Grammy Hall of Fame in 1999.

Oklahoma Editorial Board ignores reason for nation-wide high school protests

High school students in Edmond, Oklahoma during Wednesday's walkout

The boneheads on the Oklahoma Editorial Board must be a grumpy lot.  Reading their articles, I get the feeling they are happiest when they have something to complain about.  Saturday, they had a chance to show support for nation-wide walkouts by high school students demanding safer gun controls.  They could have helped send the message across the state.

What did they do?  Complain.  Criticize.  It's what they do best.  They know what the protests are about but they don't care.

The headline is "Student Protestors Muddle Their Message".  Then they cite one isolated case where a brawl ensued with one student getting arrested and another injured.  It occured at Glenpool High School near Tulsa.  Although the overwhelmingly majority of protests occured without incidents, the OEB has to use an obscure event to cast a pall over the entire movement.  Even I had to look up Glenpool to find out where it is.

I suppose they felt they needed additional corroboration to support their argument, so they quoted two teens "whining".  One felt that the football field was the worst place to demonstrate because few adults would see them. 

It worked for many other schools around the nation.  Did it hurt Norman High School's case or were you just mad they didn't do what YOU wanted to do.

The second whine came from an 8th grader who complained she was “not permitted to talk about many of the topics I wanted to talk about.”  What did they talk about?  Gun safety?  Or did they not consult YOU when asked about topics. 

The OEB admits these are minor, so why make them the majority of your op-ed?  Where is your support for students and their call for safer gun controls...oh, right.  It's Oklahoma. 

Even then, they can't resist a jibe from their ivory tower and tell students to study civil rights protests to see what real opposition looks like.  Yes, that is a good point.  Oklahoma was always on the opposite side of the civil rights movement.  So, is their jibe a warning instead?




http://newsok.com/oklahoma-scissortales-student-protesters-muddle-their-message/article/5587391

http://www.tulsaworld.com/news/crimewatch/glenpool-high-school-student-arrested-another-injured-during-dispute-over/article_63ed0754-5f27-5267-bd0a-7b5fa5a5808c.html