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George McLaurin sits segregated from white students in a 1948 classroom at OU.
OU’s first black student remembered at weekend conference
O
ne in 12,174. That’s what George McLaur in became Oct. 14, 1948, when he began classes at OU: drifting alone, one dark face in a sea of 12,173 white ones. Oct. 14 was a hopeful moment for McLaurin, the first black student at a previously all-white institution. “This is a happy day in my life,” he told Sooner Magazine. “If things continue the way they have gone today, I think everything is going to be all right.” McLaurin fought for admission to OU leading up to that day — when he first applied earlier in 1948, he was denied based on his race. McLaurin went to court with the issue, and in a Sept. 29, 1948, verdict, he was victorious when a federal court ruled that denying him admission was unconstitutional. The Oklahoma State Regents ordered his admission Oct. 11, 1948, but with this victory, McLaurin was still far from an integrated education — his case was still to undergo another appeal that would not grant him that victory until 1950. While McLaurin’s exclusion from OU was deemed unconstitutional, segregation at OU was still lawful. Thus, his education at OU was separate and unequal — he learned in a closet looking out over the room where his white classmates sat; he dined at separate tables and separate times; he used a different table in the library to study. McLaurin, a doctoral student at OU’s College of Education, was not new to the struggles of segregation — at the time he began classes, he was about 61 years old, by the estimates of OU historian David Levy (though Levy said there is contention over McLaurin’s exact age at that point). He had already earned
EMMA KEITH • @SHAKEITHA _97
his master’s in education from the University of Kansas and taught at Langston University, Oklahoma’s historically allblack institution, for 33 years. On OU’s campus, McLaurin’s legacy is being revitalized and uncovered by the very people he fought for. I n 2 0 1 4 , T re y Mo o re a n d D’Andre Fisher set out to make OU a better place for young men of color. Moore, now over Oklahoma recruitment for OU’s diversity and enrichment programs, and Fisher, now special assistant to OU Vice President for the University Community Jabar Shumate, began what they then named the Developing Black Males Conference. “Doing some research, we found out that the statistics for African-American males attending college was very, very low. ... We wanted to put together a program that would assist AfricanAmerican males and would help them attend higher education,” Moore said. “If they attended OU, great — welcome to OU — but we just wanted them to go somewhere.” The conference targets young men facing disadvantages in reaching and transitioning into higher education, and it focuses on recruitment, retention and preparation for entering the professional world, Fisher said. “A lot of our students that attend this conference come from backgrounds that parents may have never went to college, or ... even a rural area of Oklahoma or another small town,” Fisher said. “So them having to really transition from high school to college has been the main focus.” The conference has grown each year, Moore said — its first students are now graduating or transitioning into graduate or law
school, and the conference makes it clear that it welcomes young men from outside the AfricanAmerican community. The conference sparked a companion event for young women, the Sylvia A. Lewis Women’s Leadership Conference, which honors the first African-American to serve on the OU Board of Regents.
“If you don’t understand or know your history, you can’t appreciate how you got to where you are and what the significance of it is.” GEORGE HENDERSON, PROFESSOR EMERITUS
And as of 2016, the conference for men bears a new name: t h e G e o rg e Mc L au r i n Ma l e Leadership Conference. “We talk to them about the importance and the history of people like George McLaurin and Dr. (George) Henderson and Sylvia Lewis and Ms. Fisher,” Moore said. “We talk about the significance that people like that have played in the university and letting them know that they’re standing on the shoulders of giants, and George McLaurin and Sylvia Lewis were just two of those giants that they’re standing on the shoulders of.” McLaurin was not the first to make strides in desegregation at OU. In 1946, a young black student named Ada Lois Sipuel Fisher applied to OU’s all-white law school and was rejected on the basis of race. Sipuel Fisher’s case was taken up by the NAACP in a case headed by Thurgood Marshall (who later became the first
African-American Supreme Court justice), but it did not successfully make it through the Supreme Court until 1948. Although she would not be admitted to OU’s School of Law until 1949, Sipuel Fisher’s case set the precedent for McLaurin’s admission to OU — she won her court case in January 1948, while his first case and the start of his education at the institution took place in September and October of that year. McLaurin soon followed in Sipuel Fisher’s footsteps when he and the NAACP joined forces to dismantle segregation at OU in 1949. While there were other black students attempting to challenge segregation at OU (more black students joined McLaurin later in the 1948-1949 school year), the NAACP chose McLaurin to represent its cause “because he was old and married and dignified and always in a suit and tie,” Levy said. McLaurin mitigated racist arguments that black men were attempting to access college campuses to prey on white women. With McLaurin’s first attempts to challenge discrimination were denied at the state level by the Oklahoma District Court, Marshall brought McLaurin’s case out of the state system and, eventually, up to the Supreme Court. In McLaurin’s case, the NAACP was attempting a different strategy toward approaching segregation, Levy said. They wanted McLaurin’s case to make clear that although OU might claim to provide “separate but equal” accommodations for black students, education under segregation would never be truly equal — the physical, mental and social restraints of segregation would always hold black students back. “They made the usual argument, that McLaurin was not being treated equally ... but they
decided, for the knockout punch, that they wanted the high court to rule that segregation, even when facilities are substantially equal, was unconstitutional,” Levy said. McLaurin’s case worked in conjunction with another NAACP case at the University of Texas, Sweatt v. Painter, that was attempting to desegregate UT’s law school while proving segregation could never provide equal opportunities for black students. Sweatt’s case, also to be seen before the Supreme Court, would be decided the same day as McLaurin’s. The reality of McLaurin’s initial victory in admittance to OU was not met with complete hostility on campus. Surveys at the time of McLaurin’s entrance to OU found most students favored admittance of black students but not necessarily desegregation, Levy said. “On campus, there was substantial support for integration,” Levy said. “There were some surveys done — none of them terribly scientifically — but in general, the results seemed to be that probably more than half the students favored admitting blacks.” While he certainly faced opposition at OU, McLaurin’s segregation was not necessarily OU’s choice. Administrators caught fostering a desegregated learning environment could be fined up to $100 by the state and charged with a separate crime each day they allowed the situation to continue, Levy said. Teachers and students faced a $50 and a $20 fine, respectively, as well as daily charges for allowing the same situation. OU’s president at the time, George Lynn Cross, most certainly supported desegregation and was known as an ally to the NAACP, Levy said.
see McLAURIN page 4
Fire damages Othello’s on Campus Corner Community to provide support for rebuilding long-standing favorite EMMA KEITH @shakeitha_97
Othello’s Italian Restaurant, a Campus Corner staple since 1977, was badly damaged in a fire this weekend. The Norman Fire Department responded to the fire at around 6 a.m. Saturday to find the restaurant’s roof in flames. Firefighters were able to get the fire under control quickly, and spent a few hours putting out hot spots, Norman Police Department public safety information officer Sarah Jensen said. While the exact cause of the fire is still unconfirmed, a Facebook post from Othello’s said the
restaurant was struck by lightning. According to the post, no one was inside the building at the time. Aisha Ali, Campus Corner Association president and owner of King Kopy, said a passerby originally discovered and reported the fire. Othello’s kitchen was hit hard by fire damage and while some staples like Othello’s piano were not burned, they have suffered immense water damage, Ali said. Othello’s staff was at the restaurant by 6:30 a.m. in response to the fire, Ali said. Ali said Othello’s owner, Jennifer Weiss, has plans to rebuild and will receive community support moving forward. “I know the community’s going to support her, whether it’s the Campus Corner family or our Ward Four family ... all over the city, we’re just hearing supportive thoughts, so I know the city officials and everyone will assist
in ensuring that the family can rebuild, because they own their property,” Ali said. Campus Corner restaurant Volare has security footage of Othello’s from the time of the fire’s outbreak and is still reviewing the footage to determine the fire’s origin, said Volare owner Anthony Compagni. Compagni said all of Campus Corner is saddened by the fire as Othello’s is an area landmark. “Ca m p u s C o r n e r a n d t h e Campus Corner Association, we’re all rolling up our sleeves, seeing what we can do to help,” Compagni said. While the fire is just the latest in a series of struggles for Campus Corner businesses, Othello’s has seen an outpouring of support since the incident, Ali said. “It’s just been a rough couple of years — we’ve had business
SIANDHARA BONNET/THE DAILY
Othello’s Italian Restaurant after a fire was put out by the Norman Fire Department on Saturday morning.
closures and I think the Campus Corner family is ... just tired of dealing with different struggles,” Ali said. “But the beauty of it is, all over social media and just personally on Campus Corner, there’s so many commu-
nity members who are coming to show support for the family.” Dana Branham contributed to this report. Emma Keith
emmakeith97@ou.edu