Luper as Spokesperson for the OKC Sanitation Workers Strike

Luper continued to fight for equality throughout the 1960s. From August 19 to November 7, 1969, she served as spokesman for the Sanitation Workers Strike in Oklahoma City, leading more than 200 black workers demanding better working conditions, fair job opportunities, and pay increases. Offering the Freedom Center to the workers, Luper often brought them food for their meetings.

Like with the sit-ins, Luper employed non-violent, orderly methods. She led picket demonstrations outside city garbage yards and crowded strikers into city council meetings to ensure their demands were addressed. She organized marches around neighborhoods and to police headquarters and helped stage "lie-ins," peaceful tactics at obstructing garbage trucks that resulted in several arrests. The strike wore on for roughly two-and-a-half months, but on November 7, 1969, the city finally agreed to a $100 salary increase, fairer working conditions, and reinstatement of most of the striking workers.

Photo by the Associated Press, of Clara Luper in jail, August 20, 1969. Courtesy Oklahoma Historical Society.

Photo by Jim Argo, of a group marching in support of the Oklahoma City Sanitation Workers Strike, October 31, 1969. Courtesy Oklahoma Historical Society.