Civil Rights pioneer Davis to be honored Feb. 26 at OSU-OKC
Tuesday, February 24, 2026
Oklahoma State University-Oklahoma City’s annual Nancy Randolph Davis Day celebration is set for 11:30 a.m. Feb. 26 in the Student Center of the OSU-OKC campus.
The observance, held each year on the last Thursday of February, commemorates Davis, the first Black student to enroll at what is now Oklahoma State University. The campuswide and communitywide event will feature performances by dancers, singers and poets, and a keynote speaker.
Steven Collins, OSU-OKC professor and coordinator of the college’s Black History Month programming, said the event has become one of the campus’s largest annual celebrations. OSU-OKC began formally honoring Davis in 2010, and she attended several of the early ceremonies before her death in 2015.
“Having her here in person was incredible,” Collins said. “She spoke so highly of OSU-OKC, and hearing her stories of perseverance gave our students a direct connection to the history they learn about.”
Davis, a longtime educator and activist, traveled the state with Clara Luper and helped guide young Oklahomans in the Civil Rights Movement.
Davis made history in 1949 when she enrolled in graduate courses in home economics at Oklahoma A&M College (now OSU) after completing her bachelor’s degree at Langston University. She became the first African-American admitted to the institution, inspired in part by the U.S. Supreme Court decision that opened the University of Oklahoma School of Law to Ada Lois Sipuel Fisher.
But her admission did not immediately give way to equal treatment. In Stillwater, Davis was barred from sitting with white students in classrooms due to state segregation laws. She was made to sit in hallways, just outside classroom doors, or in nearby offices, where she struggled to hear lectures.
Even so, she excelled, Collins said. After earning the second-highest score on a class exam, her white classmates protested her segregation and insisted she be allowed inside the room, despite potential legal consequences for both students and faculty under Jim Crow–era restrictions.
Collins said Davis always emphasized how much those allies mattered.
“She told us stories of her classmates inviting her to their homes to share notes because mixing in the classroom could get everyone in trouble,” he said. “Her experiences remind us that Black history is American history, and progress has always required people standing together.”
Davis completed her master’s degree in 1952 and went on to teach for 43 years, including decades at Dunjee High School and Star Spencer High School. She also played an active role in civil rights organizing through the Oklahoma City NAACP Youth Council alongside Clara Luper.
Her legacy continues to be recognized across Oklahoma. OSU has named campus buildings and scholarships in her honor, and state leaders have issued official proclamations acknowledging her contributions.
Collins said the Feb. 26 ceremony will again spotlight both her achievements and her example of courage, humility and community impact. The OSU-OKC campus has been hosting an event to commemorate this since 2010.
“She was an icon whose story deserves to be told,” he said. “This day ensures that new generations understand what she faced and what she changed.”
The event is free and open to the public and will be held in Conference Rooms North and South on the third floor of OSU-OKC's Student Center.