Clara Luper Post Office Building

Floor Speech

Mr. Speaker, I rise in support of H.R. 5597, which would name a post office in Oklahoma after Clara Luper.

Luper believed that Oklahoma and the United States should be a place where everyone is treated equally with respect.

In 1958, she and 14 of her NAACP youth council students organized one of the first U.S. sit-ins at a Katz Drug Store in Oklahoma. They tried to order a hamburger and soda knowing that they would be refused solely because of the color of their skin.

Though they were assaulted, they stayed with their cause. And within days, Katz Drug Stores integrated their lunch counters in Oklahoma and three other States.

This sit-in helped inspire the 1961 sit-ins at the Woolworth's lunch counter in Greensboro, which was a critical moment during the civil rights movement.

Mr. Speaker, I urge my colleagues to support this legislation, and I reserve the balance of my time.

Mrs. CAROLYN B. MALONEY of New York. Kendra S. Horn).

Ms. KENDRA S. HORN of Oklahoma. Mr. Speaker, I thank Chairwoman Maloney for taking up this important bill to honor Clara Luper and her sacrifice.

Mr. Speaker, today, I rise to urge passage of H.R. 5597, a bill to rename the downtown Oklahoma City Post Office in honor of Clara Luper.

Clara Luper, known as the mother of Oklahoma's civil rights movement was a teacher, a publisher, and so much more. On August 19, 1958, Luper and 13 NAACP youth council students led the Nation's first lunch counter sit-in at Katz Drug Store in downtown Oklahoma City.

These sit-ins inspired similar action across the south during the civil rights movement, including the Woolworth's lunch counter sit-in in Greensboro, North Carolina.

When Luper and the NAACP students sat down at that lunch counter, they knew they would be refused. They also knew what was on the line. In Ms. Luper's words, ``Within that hamburger, was the whole essence of democracy.''

Each day they returned to the drugstore with more people asking to be served. Though verbally and physically assaulted, they persisted. Sitting in peaceful protest, their fearlessness and determination resulted in Katz Drug Stores integrating lunch counters, not just in Oklahoma City, but also in Missouri, Kansas, and Iowa. And they went on to integrate lunch counters and businesses throughout Oklahoma City.

Oklahoma City was ground zero for America's civil rights movement, and we have a responsibility to share that proud history and make sure that the story of the Oklahoma sit-in movement is never lost. Renaming the downtown post office in honor of Clara Luper is just one small step we can take to honor those who struggled and fought for civil rights in Oklahoma and across the country.

We have come a long way because of the sacrifices of Clara Luper and those who stood with her in the civil rights movement, but there is much more work left to be done. This bill will take a step forward but, to me, the best way we can honor Ms. Luper is to uphold her legacy through a commitment to justice and equity in our laws and policies.

Today, 62 years after Clara Luper and the NAACP youth council students first sat down at Katz Drug Store to stand up for justice, she and the sit-inners are inspiring a new generation of Oklahomans to take action through peaceful protest, to challenge injustice and systemic racism.

Mr. Speaker, I hope the Clara Luper Post Office can stand as a testament to her enduring legacy, her courage, and her historic fight for justice, and I urge passage.

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Mr. CLOUD. Mr. Speaker, I urge my colleagues to support this bill, and I yield back the balance of my time.

Mrs. CAROLYN B. MALONEY of New York. Mr. Speaker, I urge passage of H.R. 5597, and I yield back the balance of my time.

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