OKLAHOMA CITY — Vandals have damaged the newly installed bronze sculptures memorializing the nation’s first Civil Rights sit-in, in downtown Oklahoma City. Scratch marks were found on nearly every statue in the Clara Luper Sit-In Plaza installation.
The Clara Luper Sit-In Plaza was dedicated with a ceremony on Nov. 1, attended by hundreds of people – including 11 of the original 13 students who staged the 1958 sit-in under the watchful eye of activist and schoolteacher Clara Luper. The plaza features a bronze depiction of Luper and several other figures alongside a 16-foot, 4-ton bronze reproduction of the Katz Drug Store lunch counter where the students, ages 7 to 17, sat waiting to be served. The sit-in resulted in the desegregation of several eateries in Oklahoma City, and inspired sit-ins staged all across the country during the 1960s.
The Clara Luper Sit-In Plaza is located right across the street from where Katz Drug Store used to be.
A committee has been tasked with repairing the statues.
Oklahoma County District 1 Commissioner Jason Lowe thanked the organizing committee for working to repair the installation and for strengthening security measures. Cameras have since been installed to monitor the plaza.
“Their efforts are essential to preserving this sacred space and preventing future incidents,” said Lowe.
“It is deeply disappointing to see such a meaningful landmark defaced, especially one that stands as a beacon of courage, justice, and inclusion,” said Commissioner Lowe. “An attack on this plaza is not just vandalism; it is an attack on the values we stand for as a community and on the legacy of Clara Luper herself. We will not tolerate it.”
News 4 spoke with Luper’s daughter, Marilyn Luper-Hildreth, who’s eight-year-old likeness is depicted sitting at the lunch counter as one of the original 13 sit-inners.
“The only thing that I can say is that it breaks my heart, to think that in this day and age, that anything that’s historical can be vandalized like that,” Luper-Hildreth told News 4. “I just hate to think that there’s that much bigotry still in our state, in our city, to take it out on these sculptures.”
