Oklahoma Journeys
Week of January 12, 2008
Ada Sipuel Case Decided January 9, 1948
Breaking down the barriers this week on Oklahoma Journeys. It wasn’t a complicated plan, Ada Sipuel wanted to attend law school in Oklahoma. She was an intelligent, competent student. She had a Bachelors degree, graduating from Langston University with honors. Ms. Sipuel’s desire to attend law school at the University of Oklahoma, however, caused great changes not only in Oklahoma but the nation as well, and that’s the focus of this week’s Oklahoma Journeys from the Oklahoma Historical Society.
From the Oklahoma Historical Society, this is Oklahoma Journeys. I’m Michael Dean.
Racial segregation was a part of Oklahoma culture well before statehood, and laws legalizing segregation by race were among the first bills passed during the first meeting of the legislature in 1907. Forty-one years later, a lone woman stood up to challenge these laws, and by doing so changed the course not only of Oklahoma’s future but that of the nation as well.
Ada Sipuel graduated from Langston University with honors in 1945 and wanted to continue on to law school. In Oklahoma the only law school available was at the University of Oklahoma, and that institution did not allow blacks to attend. Rather than acquiescing and attend law school out of the state as her brother had, Ms. Sipuel decided to fight for her right to attend school in Oklahoma. Along with support of the NAACP and a legal team including none other than Thurgood Marshall as well as others, Sipuel took her case all the way to the U.S. Supreme Court.
It was in this week of January 1948 that in the case of Sipuel vs. the Board of Regents of the University of Oklahoma, the Supreme Court of the United States decided in favor of Ms. Sipuel. This monumental court case, while not ending or even making illegal school segregation, began the movement towards racial equality in Oklahoma. The case ruled that the state of Oklahoma had to provide for equal education for all students regardless of race. There were still legal battles ahead for Ada Sipuel, though, as the state-appointed law school for blacks was found to be extremely lacking and not equal to that at OU. Ms. Sipuel eventually attended the OU law school, under extremely segregated conditions, graduated and passed the state bar exam in 1951.
Following her graduation Ms. Sipuel went on to work for the law offices of Bruce and Rowann, one of the most prestigious law firms in the state, earn a Masters degree in history, and eventually be named as the head of the Social Sciences Department at Langston University. As one of the last and possibly most satisfying achievements of her life, Ms. Sipuel, in April of 1992, was appointed to the Board of Regents for the University of Oklahoma, the very institution that forty-seven years earlier had tried to prevent her entry into the law school at OU.
Ada Sipuel winning her first fight for equality in this week in 1945. The story of Ada Sipuel is a part of an exhibit on civil rights in Oklahoma at the Oklahoma History Center (NE 23rd street just east of the state capitol). You’ll see artifacts from her life and struggle. You can also hear the adventures of Ms. Sipuel in her own words as part of the oral history collection held at the Society. Oklahoma Journeys is a production of the Oklahoma Historical Society, dedicated to the collection, preservation and sharing of our State’s past. I’m Michael Dean.