Ripples of Sipuel and McLaurin: The story of Nancy Randolph Davis

Abstract

Until the Supreme Court cases, Sipuel v. Board of Regents (1948) and McLalrin v. Oklahoma State Regents for Higher Education (1950), public postsecondary institutions regularly practiced segregation policies in Oklahoma by state decree. In 1949, Nancy Randolph Davis became the first African-American to attend at Oklahoma A&M (now Oklahoma State University), in an environment that was not conducive to her learning, and at times, unwelcoming. This paper not only examines the challenges that Ms. Davis experienced throughout her years as a graduate student and an African-American pioneer in the state, but contextualizes her story in a comprehensive chronicle of the fight against segregation within the state.