Inaugural symposium to mark second Nancy Randolph Davis Day

Wednesday, January 31, 2007

The 2007 “Nancy Randolph Davis Day at OSU” will include another tribute to the civil rights pioneer and longtime Oklahoma City educator with the debut of the Nancy Randolph Davis Symposium on Higher Education. The public event will be held Feb. 1 at 2 p.m. in Click Alumni Hall of the ConocoPhillips OSU Alumni Center.

Themed, “The Black Experience at OSU: Our Past, Present and Future,” the inaugural symposium named for OSU’s first black student will be a panel discussion led by four pioneering black faculty members. Estella Atekwana, Tammy Henderson, Jason Kirksey and Earl Mitchell will comprise the panel, and OSU Vice President for Institutional Diversity Cornell Thomas will serve as moderator.

Atekwana, Clyde Wheeler Sun Chair and professor of geology, in 2006 became the first black woman to hold an endowed professorship at OSU, and Kirksey, Hannah Atkins Chair and associate professor of political science and government information, in 2000 became the first black man. Henderson, associate professor of human development and family sciences, in 2006 was the first black woman hired to direct OSU’s Gerontology Institute. And in 1967, Earl Mitchell, interim head and professor of biochemistry and molecular biology, became OSU’s first black faculty member

“Like Mrs. Davis, the panelists all represent a ‘first’ at OSU,” Thomas said. “Each will share their respective experiences becoming the first black woman or man in the university’s history to serve in their respective positions.”

“The panelists’ tenures at OSU range from 40 years to 9 months so we expect to have an insightful and revealing discussion on the OSU experience for faculty, staff and students, not only in terms history, but also today and in the future,” Thomas said. “With the audience’s participation, we hope to have a constructive forum and talk about some of the issues confronting and opportunities for minority achievement at OSU.”

The result of an effort led by the OSU Student Government Association, Feb. 1 was established as Nancy Randolph Davis Day at OSU as an annual start to Black History Month. A Sapulpa native, Davis broke OSU’s color barrier by becoming the first African American admitted to Oklahoma A&M College in 1949.

Davis graduated from Langston University in 1948 and taught one year at Dunjee High School in Choctaw before pursuing a master’s degree in home economics at Oklahoma A&M. Integration was still illegal, with state law imposing fines on university administrators who admitted black students, instructors who taught mixed classes and even the students who attended mixed classes.

“In 1949, OSU made a monumental decision that resounds loudly in the annals of history,” Davis said. “Without the Supreme Court forcing them, OSU admitted this ambitious young black woman, granddaughter of a slave, daughter of sixth- and eighth-grade graduates, and a Sapulpa, Okla., native into these halls of education.”

Davis’ honors include being appointed the first lay member to the State Board of Nursing and in 1999 receiving the Oklahoma Legislature’s Award for Educational Contributions to the state. She is a 1999 recipient of the OSU Alumni Association’s Distinguished Alumni Award, and, in addition to a residence hall, three scholarships presented to OSU students each year bear her name.

The symposium, a presentation of the OSU Black Faculty and Staff Association, is the university’s newest initiative to honor Davis’ legacy.

“We hope to make the symposium a part of every Nancy Randolph Davis Day at OSU,” Thomas said. “Its establishment as an annual event is an opportunity for the university to present programs and host speakers on education topics at the start of our Black History Month observances for years to come.

“An annual symposium on education in her name certainly befits the lasting impact she has made on the education of all people at OSU and in the state of Oklahoma.”