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For 100 years, the student voice of the University of Oklahoma PROVIDED BY THE OKLAHOMA HALL OF FAME
OU’s College of Law 1951 senior class photo from the 1951 Sooner Yearbook. Ada Lois Sipuel Fisher, the college’s first black student, is second from the left on the second row.
PAVING THE WAY How Ada Lois Sipuel Fisher battled to become OU College of Law’s first black student ANNA BAUMAN • @ANNABAUMAN2
Editor’s note: This is the first article in a three-part series that tells the stories of significant black women in OU’s history.
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young woman sits at a desk with one of the country’s most powerful attorneys stationed over her right shoulder. In her early 20s, she is the picture of elegance — dark skin contrasted against a turquoise dress, eyebrows raised and chin rested on the back of her hand. Her side gaze holds all the hope and defiance of someone intent on righting a wrong. Behind her, the Oklahoma and American flags fade in the background, a reminder of the institutions Ada Lois Sipuel Fisher radically improved amid the nation’s struggle for racial equality and inclusion that still exists today. Now, more than 72 years later, the scene is frozen in the rectangle of a copper frame hanging in OU’s College of Law. It’s a painting that always grabbed the attention of Cheryl Wattley as she walked down the brick hallway past it after arriving at OU Law in 2006 as the only black faculty member. When the now-former OU professor began to unravel the story behind that moment, she dug up answers to many questions: How
OU’s law school was desegregated, what legal games the state played to prevent change, what those three years of aloneness were like for the first black person who paved the way for Wattley to walk those same halls. She was left with one question, though, and the answer still eludes her. Could I have done what she did? LAW OF THE LAND Sipuel Fisher, accompanied by two representatives from the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People, or NAACP, pulled into the North Oval of the University of Oklahoma on Jan. 15, 1946, and strode up the steps of Evans Hall to apply for admission to the law school. Sh e w a s a n x i o u s a n d a p prehensive, but felt slightly relieved knowing her presence would make those sitting in the wood-paneled office feel even more so. They handed then-OU President George Lynn Cross her college transcript from Langston University. It met every demand of the law school and university admissions process, but, still, the 21-year-old knew what the administration’s decision would be
before she even set foot on campus that day. Rejected — on the basis of race. Still, the NAACP left campus with the only victory it needed: a letter stating that Sipuel Fisher was denied admission to the law school not due to a lack of scholastic qualifications, but because the Board of Regents explicitly instructed the OU president to refuse admission to AfricanAmericans on the basis of state law. Thus began the three-year legal battle that would wind its way through county, state and federal courts until it reached the Supreme Court of the United States, ultimately paving the way for the landmark Brown v. Board of Education decision that desegregated all public schools six years later. “Her decision became the beginning of the voluntary desegregation of graduate programs and then ultimately institutions of higher education,” said Wattley, whose interest in the painting compelled her to write “A Step Toward Brown v. Board of Education: Ada Lois Sipuel Fisher and Her Fight to End Segregation.” But long before she set foot on an all-white campus, before her name dominated headlines
across state papers, before she made histor y, Sipuel Fisher described herself as a sassy, smart-mouthing girl who grew up 30 miles south of Norman in the small town of Chickasha. Her parents knew firsthand the hatred of racism. They fled Greenwood, Tulsa, in 1921 after a young black boy was accused of assaulting a white woman in a downtown elevator, sparking a bloody race massacre that left 300 dead and the town, then known as Black Wall Street due to its prosperity, in smoking ruins. In the fall of 1945, Sipuel Fisher’s mother received a call from a prominent Chickasha doctor and a close family friend who wished to drop by for a visit on important business with Sipuel Fisher’s brother, Lemuel Sipuel, three years her elder. Bob Bullock, director of Chickasha’s NAACP chapter, sat chatting for a short time in the Sipuels’ home — large for the community’s standards, with a telephone and console radio and large potbellied cast-iron stove that warmed the living room. But he was really there on official business. The law of the land at the time was “separate but equal,” meaning white people and black
people were educated separately in supposedly equal manners. Bullock laid out the issue the NAACP was gearing up to tackle. The University of Oklahoma had a law school for white students, but it did not allow black people to attend. The state did not meet the separate but equal standard, he said, because a law school for black people was nonexistent. The request was straightforward: The NAACP needed a plaintiff. Representatives like Bullock were scouring the state to find the right individual, and Lemuel’s impressive scholastic records, interest in law and status as the son of a politically active mother and prominent pastor made him a prime candidate for recommendation. It had to be an individual who not only had the brains but also had the fortitude to withstand a long and probably bitter controversy. Bullock asked Lemuel if he was ready for the task at hand. But Lemuel, who had recently returned from three years of military service, was in a hurry to begin law school. He appreciated the offer, but declined. Another option was sitting in the room, though. Ada Lois had See HIDDEN page 2
Four critical plays keep playoff hopes alive Sooners still in College Football Playoff talks after win on Saturday GEORGE STOIA @GeorgeStoia
MORGANTOWN — A fumble recovery for a touchdown. A third-down completion. A second fumble recovery for a touchdown. And a fourth-down conversion. Four season-defining plays made by four different players in one game that will be remembered for the ages. And now, after a thrilling 59-56 win over then-No. 13 West Virginia, now-No. 5 Oklahoma has exactly what it wants : a
second shot at No. 9 Texas and a chance at its fourth straight Big 12 title. “The vibe was different all week,” redshirt junior quarterback Kyler Murray said, after totaling for 478 yards and four touchdowns against the Mountaineers. “At practice, locker room, pregame, halftime, just the whole nine yards was just different. You could just kind of feel the juice around the locker room.” These are the type of games Oklahoma always wins. Somehow, the Sooners find a way. And Friday night, they made four “gutsy” plays that could springboard them into the College Football Playoff. “Just guts,” coach Lincoln Riley said. “It’s what we do. It’s guts. It’s
not listening to people’s opinions on the outside. It’s believing in yourself. It’s continuing to fight for the guys in the locker room with you.” SECOND QUARTER (3:14) Junior linebacker Caleb Kelly lined up outside, face-up with West Virginia’s right tackle. The Mountaineers faced a second-and-11 with the game tied at 21. Kelly swiftly beat his man, grabbed a rolling Will Grier, stripped the ball, scooped it up and scored 10 yards later. “My job was to hit the tackle, and I went through him instead,” Kelly said. “Grier was right there. We made eye contact … (I) made the tackle, looked up, saw the ball and scored.”
Kelly’s play was both game- and season-altering. All week (and all season) the Sooner defense was asked how they planned on creating turnovers and generating stops. Coming into the game, Oklahoma was tied 125th (second to last) in the country in turnovers gained (eight). They had two Friday night. “It was as hard, as physical as we’ve played all year,” Riley said. “We knew that was what it was going to take.” Following Oklahoma’s 55-40 win over Kansas last week, sophomore safety Robert Barnes said wins were starting to feel like losses for the defense. Friday night offered a new feeling — a better feeling. “It definitely was a different
feeling,” Barnes said. “If you take away a few big plays, it was a great game. I think we definitely tuned in our tackling, things that we needed to fix … In a game like this, with everything on the line, I can’t be mad about this one.” THIRD QUARTER (1:00) Facing a third-and-10 and trailing 42-38 late in the third quarter, junior wide receiver Marquise Brown stood slot right. He shot out of his stance veering right and breaking open down the numbers. Murray found him in stride for a 30-yard gain and a first down. One play later, Brown scored on a 45-yard touchdown pass. “We had a look that I liked,” See PLAYOFF page 6