Black Pioneer At Oklahoma Law School Dies

Ada Lois Sipuel Fisher, whose lawsuit in the 1940s opened the University of Oklahoma Law School to black students, has died at age 71.

Fisher died Wednesday night at her home in Oklahoma City.

She was the first black to apply for admission to the university, seeking to enroll in 1946. It took two rulings from the U.S. Supreme Court to open the law school to blacks and to eliminate “colored” seating in class.

She graduated from the law school in 1951 and earned a master’s degree from the university in 1968. She was a professor and educator at Langston University and was named to the Board of Regents for the University of Oklahoma in 1992.