Tuesday, August 19, 2008; Posted 3.22 pm (CDT)
August 19, 1958 is the day Clara Luper and 13 members of the NAACP Youth Council proceeded to make history. Participants say they can't believe refusing to back down would help bring so much change.
"It means that God has been awful good to me to see all my friends," says Luper.
"I think there are three words that will describe Mrs. Luper, and those words are 'and then some,'" says Donnie Nero, President of Connors State College.
"Mrs. Luper, it is on behalf of a grateful NAACP and a grateful nation that we say thank you. Thank you for being on the front line," says Rev. Charles White, Jr. with NAACP.
"She taught us to sit in the front of the bus because we had been conditioned to sitting in the back, so to this very day I sit in the front, except at meetings!" says activist Gwendolyn Fuller Mukes.
It's been 50 years since history was made at Katz Drug Store, when 13 African-American children--led by Clara Luper--sat down at the lunch counter and refused to leave until they were served.
"We sat down, and they did not serve us. And you could feel the stares from the whites," says Mukes. "I do remember the stares, the looks of hatred, disdain."
Mukes was only 14 during the sit-ins and president of the NAACP Youth Council.
"I'm happy. I'm thrilled to have been a part of history. I'm honored. I'm humbled. I get teary eyed," says Mukes. "We knew that we couldn't continue on that path, we could not. Racism had to be derailed, and we derailed it!"
Tuesday all members of the movement were honored by the lieutenant governor, Oklahoma City mayor, senators, representatives and the NAACP for their courage and ability to change the future.
"When life gives you lemons, you turn it into lemonade, and that's what we did," says Mukes. "And it's really sweet to drink it now."
It took almost six years, but eventually the civil disobedient protests were able to integrate every eating establishment in the city. Luper called it an experience of a lifetime and had two words of encouragement for any struggling to make a societal change: keep trying.
