Feb. 7
Fisher, Henderson Roles Depicted

By ROBERT E. BARNES
Special to the Chronicle

Two pioneer roles played in the Oklahoma Civil Rights Movement will be depicted in a dramatization at the Gaylord-Pickens Museum, 1400 Classen Dr.
The event, part of the museum’s Versus Series, will be held from 6 p.m. until 7:30 p.m. on Tuesday, Feb. 7.
“Afro-Americana: Contemporary Black Artists in Oklahoma,” an exhibition, will be on display, and a reception for the artists will be held from 5 p.m. until 6 p.m.
The role of the late Ada Lois Sipuel Fisher will be depicted by Chief Federal District Judge Vicki Miles LaGrange and Dr. George Henderson will depict himself.
Claudia Williamson, a student at the University of Central Oklahoma, will serve as moderator.
Mrs. Fisher became the first Black to enroll as a student at the law school of the University of Oklahoma and became the plaintiff in a celebrated federal lawsuit after she was denied admission.
The U.S. Supreme Court ruled in Sipuel vs. Board of Regents of the University of Oklahoma that the law school must desegregate.
Sipuel vs. University of Oklahoma is considered to have been a precursor to the Brown vs. Board of Education Supreme Court decision, which mandated the desegregation of all public schools.
After graduating from the law school, Mrs. Fisher went on to practice law in Chickasha and to become a professor at Langston University.
After her retirement, she was named a regent of the University of Oklahoma.
Mrs. Fisher died in 1995.
Dr. Henderson, a retired professor at the University of Oklahoma, became a member of the faculty at the school in 1967.
Two years later, he was appointed the Sylvan N. Goldman Professor of Human Relations, becoming the first Black in the state to hold an endowed professorship.
He went on to become dean of the College of Liberal Studies.
Dr. Henderson was inducted into the Oklahoma Hall of Fame in 2003.