Description:
Calvary Baptist Church served as the spiritual and physical base from which Oklahoma City’s first Civil Rights movement was organized. The historic three-story brick building was constructed in 1921 by black architect Russell Benton Bingham and is notable for its twin towers topped by brick parapets.
The church was founded as the Second Street Baptist Church in October of 1890, located on the southwest corner of Second and Hudson streets. The Reverend James Rankins served as its first pastor. By 1923, the church had undergone several name changes and moves and had consolidated with a smaller Baptist church to eventually reside at its present location at 201 NE 2nd. Most graduation ceremonies of Douglass High School were held in Calvary’s sanctuary until a new school building was constructed in 1934 at Fifth and High streets.
Conceived by Clara Luper and supported by the local NAACP, the Oklahoma City sit-ins began on August 19, 1958, when 12 young people walked to a nearby Katz Drug Store and, in a quiet and orderly fashion, asked to buy Cokes. They were refused, but the next day, the manager agreed to serve them. The sit-ins continued, moving on to S.H. Kress and Co., then to John A. Brown’s and other food service spots which had long closed their doors to African-Americans.
The sit-ins grew to include hundreds of young black Americans as well as some white supporters. Those involved would meet at Calvary Baptist Church and set out on foot for different downtown establishments. The movement later expanded into boycotts, another tactic used to force the end of segregation. By 1961, more than 175 restaurants in the city were desegregated, and eventually segregated eating places were eliminated altogether.
Calvary Baptist Church was listed with the National Register of Historic Places in 1978. It was slightly damaged by the bombing of the Alfred P. Murrah Federal Building in 1995; later repaired, it continues to serve the community today.
Resources:
- “Calvary Baptist Church.” We shall overcome: historic places of the Civil Rights Movement, 2007. http://www.cr.nps.gov/nr/travel/civilrights/sitelist1.htm
- “Calvary Baptist Church.” National Register of Historic Places, 2007.
- Luper, Clara. Behold the Walls. Oklahoma City: Jim Wire, c1979.
- Moore, Kendrick. Oklahoma City African-American Discovery Guide. Oklahoma City, OK: Oklahoma African American Trail of Tears Tours, 2000.