A sculpture that depicts the start of the historic Oklahoma City sit-in movement was lifted by crane and installed at a downtown site on Monday.
The 8,000 pound bronze sculpture traveled from California to be installed at the Clara Luper National Sit-in Plaza at Robinson and Main avenues in downtown Oklahoma City. The plaza site is the former location of Katz Drug Store, where 13 Black youths, as members of the NAACP Youth Council, ordered soft drinks at the whites-only lunch counter at Katz.
The $3.6 million bronze monument commemorates the Aug. 19, 1958, sit-in at the Katz lunch counter,
The young people’s nonviolent sit-in demonstration and others that followed were led by civil rights leader Clara Luper and sparked the successful integration of restaurants, department stores and other Oklahoma City establishments in the Jim Crow era.
The Clara Luper National Sit-in Plaza will officially be dedicated at 11 a.m. Nov. 1.
More: Crews begin work on much-anticipated sit-in memorial in downtown Oklahoma City
Marilyn Luper Hildreth, Clara Luper’s daughter, was on hand for the installation. Hildreth and her brother Calvin Luper are among the figures sitting at the lunch counter depicted in the sculpture. Standing figures, including one of Clara Luper, will be added soon.
Hildreth said her mother would have been excited about the sculpture and the plaza that will pay tribute to the courage and determination of Clara Luper and the NAACP Youth Council. Clara Luper, who was a longtime educator as well as civil rights leader, died in 2011 at age 88.
“She would always say that one of these days, somebody is going to write about us, somebody is going to talk about it,” Hildreth said.
“I just wish that my mother could have lived to see this day.”
Joyce Henderson motions to the sky in honor of Clara Luper with Marilyn Luper Hildreth and John Kennedy on Sept. 22 at Robinson and Main avenues in downtown Oklahoma City.
She also praised the project’s detail, calling the sculpture “immaculate.”
Hildreth was part of the committee that Oklahoma City Mayor David Holt tasked with coming up with a way to honor and memorialize Luper and the sit-inners who started the movement that successfully challenged the laws that discriminated on Black people based on their race.
Elliot Schwartz, founder of StudioEIS in Brooklyn, New York, said the bronze sculpture was created in Brooklyn and the bronze foundry was in Berkeley. He said it took about three days for the sculpture to get to Oklahoma City via truck.
Schwartz said it marked the first time his studio had ever made anything as large as the sit-in sculpture. The internationally acclaimed sculpture and design firm spent about four years creating the lunch counter and life-sized depictions of the people who participated in the sit-in that made history.
A sculpture depicting Oklahoma City’s historic sit-in movement at Katz Drug Store was installed Sept. 22 at Robinson and Main avenues in downtown Oklahoma City.
Schwartz said he felt the sit-in sculpture project was remarkable because there were numerous people still living who participated in the demonstration depicted by the scultpure.
John Kennedy served as co-chairman of the committee, along with Rev. Lee Cooper Jr. Kennedy said 10 of the original sit-inners, including Hildreth, are still alive to share in the coming dedication ceremony and celebration for the plaza. He also said he was happy that three members of the Luper family, including Hildreth, Clara Luper and Calvin Luper, will be immortalized in the commemorative plaza.
Kennedy said he is pleased that the sculpture is “authentic.”
A sculpture depicting Oklahoma City’s historic sit-in movement at Katz Drug Store was installed on Sept. 22 at Robinson and Main avenues in downtown Oklahoma City.
“We worked on it for seven years and one of the things that makes me the happiest is just knowing that Marilyn (Hildreth) approved every one of those sculptures,” he said.
“It’s amazing when you’re dealing with history to have figures that really made that history still engaged. It’s amazing that 10 of the young people depicted in this plaza are still alive.”
This article originally appeared on Oklahoman: Sculpture honoring historic Katz sit-in is installed at downtown site