An OU department will host a screening of a documentary this weekend about its namesake Clara Luper, an OU alumnus and one of Oklahoma’s first civil rights leaders.
OU’s Department of African and African American Studies will show the documentary “Children of the Civil Rights” by Julia Clifford from 2 to 5 p.m. Aug. 25 at Meacham auditorium in the Oklahoma Memorial Union.
According to the event flyer, the documentary is about an August 19, 1958 Oklahoma City sit-in led by Luper, an OU alumna, in what was one of the first efforts to desegregate restaurants in the state. The Department of African and African American Studies was named in Luper’s honor in March.
After the screening there will be a Q&A with a panel that includes Marilyn Luper Hildreth, Luper's daughter, and Stanley Evans, an assistant dean at OU’s College of Law who was a participant in the 1958 sit-ins.
Karlos Hill, interim director of the department, said he wants the department to be community-oriented and wants to encourage students to be engaged in their communities.
“We wanted to host an event to bring recognition to her,” Hill said, “and her legacy, to students at OU.”
