The story
The Hillerman Map Project records a Katz Drug Store at 200 West Main, at Main and Robinson, in a photo from October 1944. Katz was one of the downtown stores whose lunch counters became a civil rights battleground.
On August 19, 1958, Clara Luper, adviser to the Oklahoma City NAACP Youth Council, led a group of Black students into Katz. Wikipedia says thirteen students took part, and names Donda West, Barbara Posey, and Luper's children Marilyn and Calvin. The sit-in ran through August 21, and Katz ended its segregation policy and integrated its counters. It sparked more protests downtown and drew national press. Oklahoma City later passed an ordinance, effective July 4, 1964, barring restaurants from refusing service based on race.
What's There Now
The pages I opened do not say what occupies the corner now.
Everything that was here
- Date unknown
Katz Drug StoreStore
In August 1958 Clara Luper led Black students to its lunch counter, and by the third day the counter served them.
Did you know?
Nearby history
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