Uncrowned Community Builders

Ada Lois Sipuel Fisher was born in Chickasha, Oklahoma in 1924. She attended the segregated school of her time, Lincoln School. Following graduation, she attended Langston University where she graduated with top honors in 1945. Ms. Sipuel married Warren Fisher and two children were born to this union, Bruce and Charlene. Later, she planned to attend law school out of state because Oklahoma did not have a law school for Afiican Americans. She never dreamed that her path would become aligned with the purposes of Roscoe Dunjee, Thurgood Marshall and the NAACP.

At the urging of the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People and Oklahoma's Black leaders, in 1946 she applied for admission to the University of Oklahoma Law School. Denied admission, she sued. This resulted in the Sipuel vs. Oklahoma, 332 U. S. 631-landmark case that ultimately was settled in the United States Supreme Court.

Due to her suit, the University of Oklahoma admitted its first Black student, George McLaurin, into the Graduate Education Program in 1948. In June of 1949, the University changed its admission policy and allowed Fisher to enroll. She went on to earn her degree and join a law practice in Chickasha and later the law firm of Bruce and Rowan in Oklahoma City. She, later, joined the faculty of Langston University where she served as Public Relations Director and then Professor. She retired in 1987.

Following her retirement, she worked as Corporate Counsel for Automation Research System, Ltd., Alexandria, Virginia, the second largest Afiican American owned computer corporation in the nation.

In 1981, the Smithsonian Institution designated her as one of the 150 outstanding Black Women Who Have Had the Most Impact on The Course of American History. In 1991, OU honored her with an Honorary Doctorate, and in 1992, she was appointed to the
University of Oklahoma Board of Regents.

She received the National NAACP Youth Award in 1949, the Oklahoma City Urban League Race Relations Award, was named an Outstanding Alumnus and presented the Black Heritage Award by Langston University, the Oklahoma City Retrospective Civil Rights Award, the A.C. Hamlin Award by the Oklahoma Legislative Black Caucus and received a Concurrent Resolution of Appreciation from the 41st Session of the Oklahoma State Legislature. In 1996 she was inducted into the Oklahoma Women's Hall of Fame and in 2002, the Oklahoma Higher Education Hall of Fame.

Dr. Fisher was the author of the book A Matter of Black and White.

Prior to her death in 1995, she was a member of Followers of Christ Baptist Church, Alpha Kappa Alpha Sorority, the Oklahoma Education Association, Oklahoma Bar Association, NAACP and the Oklahoma Higher Education Alumni Council. Her hometown, Chickasha, has honored her by naming a street after her.