Oklahoma Changing World Prize dinner honoring Clara Luper and NAACP Youth Council, Oklahoma History Center

The Woody Guthrie Center’s 2018 Oklahoma Changing World Prize will be presented on Thursday, October 11, at the Oklahoma History Center with a special program for the honorees and their families. The event will include a reception at 6 pm and a dinner at 7 pm. This year, the prize will recognize the efforts of Clara Luper and the thirteen youths who participated in the Oklahoma City sit-ins sixty years ago. Their act of resistance in a segregated city would spark a movement that would eventually see the end of state-sanctioned segregation.

Their movement began August 19, 1958, when thirteen students took a seat at the Katz Drug Store in Oklahoma City and asked for a soda and some hamburgers. They weren’t served by the staff and endured taunts, jeers, and threats from the other patrons. They returned the next day and were again refused service, but staff relented on the third day and a large group was served that afternoon. Clara Luper and her young students persisted, campaigning successfully to desegregate dozens of Oklahoma City businesses. The courage of Ms. Luper and her young companions helped spark a movement that changed Oklahoma society and reshaped American culture in the twentieth century. Sixty years later, we celebrate their enduring legacy as a shining example of standing up for what’s right in the face of injustice and bigotry.

This event is cohosted by the Woody Guthrie Center, OKPOP, and the Oklahoma History Center. A limited number of individual tickets are available for $100 each. Table sponsorships for the event are available at the following levels: Woody Guthrie Center Friend Sponsor ($1,000); This Land Table Sponsor ($2,500); and This Machine Table Sponsor ($5,000). For more information or to purchase tickets, please contact the Woody Guthrie Center at 918-574-2710.