The Christian Chronicle (Oklahoma City, Okla.), Vol. 76, No. 3, Ed. 1 Monday, April 1, 2019 Page: 17 of 35
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THE CHRISTIAN CHRONICLE 17
APRIL 2019
1
i
After 50 years, an apology
OKLAHOMA CHRISTIAN UNIVERSITY asks forgiveness of former students, arrested and expelled on racially tinged charges.
BY ERIK TRYGGESTAD | THE CHRISTIAN CHRONICLE
F
Wilson
Jones
ERIK TRYGGESTAD
Seated among his classmates, Ron Wright, reacts to a certificate of recognition presented by Oklahoma Christian University President John deSteiguer.
leaders said, though administrators
have since acknowledged that the
accusations were racially based.
Exactly five decades after the
arrests, the university celebrated
the “Oklahoma Christian 18” in a
Wednesday night “Commemoration
of the Benson Hall Sit-In.” Seven of
the original 18 students attended.
Some had not set foot on the
school’s campus since the incident.
John deSteiguer, the university’s
seventh and current president,
spoke about the institution’s history
in race relations.
Some stories were inspiring. During
the civil rights era the school’s cho-
rale, led by professor Harold Fletcher,
was denied the chance to sing in a
church building because one chorale
member, George Shirley, was black.
So the students gathered in front of
the building and sang, “We are one in
Jr. watched as deSteiguer spoke. Jones,
who facilitates the university’s Black
Student Union, worked for months
to help make the event a reality.
“I looked across the stage and saw
seven people who had been waiting
for 50 years,” Jones
said. At the moment
of the apology, “it
was almost like a
collective exhale.
Everybody’s body
language changed.”
Don Wilson, one
of the seven, has
rarely spoken about
his arrest and expulsion in the past
half-century, he told The Christian
Chronicle. After the incident he
returned home to Hartford, Conn.,
and began working for a bank where
he had worked the summer before.
CONTINUED
the spirit, we are one in the Lord. ”
The song leader: George Shirley.
Other stories were shameful. For
those, deSteiguer made apologies.
“I apologize that this institution did
not allow black students to enroll until
1961,” deSteiguer said.
“That is wrong,” he
added, pausing after
each word. Scattered
voices in the audi-
ence joined him.
Then, stepping
away from the
podium and turning
toward the seven for-
mer students on stage, he said, “And
to you, as president of Oklahoma
Christian University, I apologize for
the way that you all were treated 50
years ago this morning.”
From his seat next to the podium,
assistant dean of students Gary Jones
OKLAHOMA CITY
hey left campus in handcuffs.
Fifty years later, they
returned to a standing ovation.
Seven former students,
expelled and removed by
police from the campus of what is
now Oklahoma Christian University,
were the guests of honor as the
2,000-student school, associated
with Churches of Christ, acknowl-
edged a bleak chapter in its past.
On March 6,1969, in the midst
of civil rights demonstrations and
protests against the Vietnam War, 18
Oklahoma Christian students — the
vast majority of them black — were
arrested for trespassing in Benson
Hall, their college’s administration
building. Demonstrations were not
allowed on campus, the school’s
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Tryggestad, Erik. The Christian Chronicle (Oklahoma City, Okla.), Vol. 76, No. 3, Ed. 1 Monday, April 1, 2019, newspaper, April 1, 2019; Oklahoma City, Oklahoma. (https://texashistory.unt.edu/ark:/67531/metapth1509400/m1/17/: accessed May 30, 2024), University of North Texas Libraries, The Portal to Texas History, https://texashistory.unt.edu; crediting Abilene Christian University Library.