African American Women (A-I)
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Hannah Atkins was born in North Carolina in 1923. Atkins was the first African American woman to be elected to the Oklahoma House of Representatives, where she served from 1968-1980. Atkins has served with the Oklahoma Corporation Commission, the Oklahoma Department of Human Services, the General Assembly of the 35th Session of the United Nations, and was the Oklahoma Secretary of State. She has also taught at multiple Oklahoma universities.
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Zelia Breaux, born in 1880, was the musical director for Oklahoma City's black public schools and head of the music department at Douglass High School where was was instrumental in turning Charlie Christian onto music. She organized the Douglass High School band which became known nationwide and performed at Chicago's World Fair. Ms. Breaux also owned the Aldridge Theater on 2nd Street that hosted such big names as Ma Rainey and Bessie Smith. She passed away in October 1956 in Guthrie. |
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Ada Lois Sipuel Fisher, born on February 8, 1924, in Chickasha, took her battle over segregation and OU's refusal to let her attend its law school to the U.S. Supreme Court in 1948 (Sipuel v. Board of Regents of Univ. of Okla.). Ms. Fisher graduated in 1951 with her law degree. In 1992, she was appointed by Governor David Walters to the Board of Regents of the University of Oklahoma, the same entity that had once denied her entrance to its law school.  |
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Born in Tulsa in 1933, Maxine Horner became the first African American woman Senator from Oklahoma. She graduated from Booker T. Washington High School in Tulsa and obtaind her Bachelors from Langston University. Ms. Horner served in the Oklahoma State Legislature for 18 years, serving as Chair of many committees. Maxine Horner is also the founder of the Oklahoma Jazz Hall of Fame. |
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