Description
Book SynopsisOffers a richly textured picture of the black-and-white world from which Ada Lois Sipuel and her family emerged. Against this Oklahoma background Wattley shows Sipuel (who married Warren Fisher a year before she filed her suit) struggling against a segregated educational system.
Trade ReviewCheryl Wattley has written a carefully researched and very relevant account of the legal and human-relations significance of Ada Lois Sipuel Fisher's trailblazing court case. But her book offers much more, including the many compelling backstories that made Ada Lois a hero to those of us who dared challenge racial segregation and discrimination in Oklahoma and elsewhere. This book should be read by everyone, especially legal scholars, civil rights activists, historians, social scientists, and students."" - George Henderson, author of
Race and the University: A Memoir""Cheryl Wattley's book is vital to understanding the forerunners of
Brown v. Board of Education, the case that ended legal segregation in America. Wattley concentrates on the legal issues of
Sipuel v. Oklahoma State Regents, details not covered, nor meant to be covered, in Dr. Sipuel Fisher's autobiography,
A Matter of Black and White. Ada Lois, the 'chic, charming, and poised' plaintiff, was the second choice for this paradigm-shifting case, but turned out to be, as Wattley shows, 'a natural.' The story ends with poetic justice when Sipuel Fisher becomes a regent of the very university that had once denied her admission. Her own summation relied on the holy writ she knew so well, a quotation from Psalm 118:22: 'The stone which the builders rejected is become the head of the corner.'"" - Robert Henry, President, Oklahoma City University, and former judge, U.S. Court of Appeals for the Tenth Circuit
