Hall of Fame Member Biographies

Ada Lois Sipuel Fisher

Ada Lois Sipuel Fisher was named by the Smithsonian Institution in 1981 as one of 150 black women who changed the course of American history. Sipuel attended segregated Oklahoma public schools and graduated from Langston University with a B. A. degree in 1945. The University of Oklahoma Law School denied her admission in1946, and the NAACP filed a lawsuit on her behalf with the U. S. Supreme Court that led to her admission. She earned a law degree and a master’s degree at OU, and taught at Langston University until her retirement. Governor David Walters appointed Fisher to the OU board of regents in 1992. She died on October 18, 1995, and was inducted into the Oklahoma Higher Education Hall of Fame in 2001.