The Oklahoma Bar Journal May 2023

ADA LOIS SIPUEL FISHER leaves a legacy that impacted the legal profession and the Civil Rights Movement. Born in Chickasha, she graduated in 1945 with honors from Langston University, which did not have a law school. Segregation existed, and Black people were prohibited from attending white state universities. Ms. Fisher decided to apply for admission to the OU College of Law to challenge the state’s segregation laws and to accomplish her lifelong goal of becoming a lawyer. State stat utes prohibited the college from accepting her. A lawsuit was filed that resulted in a three-year legal battle. After an unfavorable ruling by the Oklahoma Supreme Court, an appeal was filed with the U.S. Supreme Court. Another barrier was erected with the creation of a separate law school thrown together in five days exclusively for her to attend. She refused to attend on the grounds the new school could not provide a legal education equal to OU’s law

Ada Lois Sipuel Fisher, Photo Credit: Courtesy Western History Collections, University of Oklahoma Libraries, Ada Lois Sipuel Fisher 3

school. A state court ruled against her, and the state Supreme Court upheld the decision. Ms. Fisher’s lawyers planned to again appeal to the U.S. Supreme Court, but Oklahoma’s attorney general declined to return to Washington, D.C., to argue the case. She was admitted to the OU College of Law on June 18, 1949, and graduated in August 1951.

MAY 2023 | 55

THE OKLAHOMA BAR JOURNAL