“She took a community that had little except their voices and their feet, and she used those resources to the best of their ability for change,’’ said state Representative Mike Shelton, a family friend and member of Oklahoma’s Legislative Black Caucus.
“In some way, she has touched every life in the state of Oklahoma, whether they know it or not, because of her contributions, her persistence, her dedication to her fellow man,’’ the Oklahoma City Democrat said. “There aren’t many people you can say that about.’’
On Aug. 19, 1958, Ms. Luper, then 35, led three adult chaperones and 14 members of the youth council in a sit-in at the Katz Drug Store lunch counter in downtown Oklahoma City. The store refused to serve the group, but the protesters refused to leave, and the sit-in lasted for several days.
The store chain eventually agreed to integrate lunch counters at 38 Katz Drug Stores in Oklahoma, Missouri, Kansas, and Iowa. During the next six years, the local NAACP chapter held sit-ins that led to desegregation of virtually all eating establishments in Oklahoma City.
“She brought the times up to her expectations,’’ said Gwendolyn Fuller Mukes, a retired school teacher in Wichita, Kan., who was among the 14 students who participated in the first sit-in.
“I remember her being loving but firm,’’ Mukes said. “She made us secure. She was a great teacher all around. She was ahead of her time.’’
Mukes said she had never seen as much hatred as she did during those sit-ins, but Ms. Luper “taught us how to look white people in the eye.’’
“You knew that you had to go through with it, because you did not want your children to grow up in the same environment,’’ Mukes said. “No one should have been treated the way we were treated.’’
Ms. Luper’s daughter, Marilyn Hildreth, said her mother instilled the same fight in her own family.
