The Enid News and Eagle, Enid, OK

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February 7, 2010

Black History Month lecture slated Feb. 16

By Robert Barron, Staff Writer Enid News and Eagle

ENID — Oklahoma has one history and it is a shared history that represents the many racial and ethnic contributions of the present population, but Oklahomans have not taken advantage of that history in a number of areas.

Prof. Bruce T. Fisher will discuss those areas during a Black History Month lecture at 6:40 p.m. Feb. 16 at Northwestern Oklahoma State University campuses via ITV. The lecture can be seen in Enid in room 202 on the Northwestern Oklahoma State University-Enid campus.

Fisher said in the area of education, publication, museum interpretation, tourism and economic development, Oklahoma has not yet capitalized on this “rich and colorful” past. Fisher’s lecture will highlight some historical events in the African-American experience that were major at the time but nearly forgotten today.

The lecture also will feature rare video footage of historically black towns in Oklahoma circa 1928.

Fisher is a native of Chickasha and grew up in Oklahoma City. He graduated from Northeast High School and received a bachelor of history degree from Langston University. He then recieved a Fulbright-Hays Scholarship to study at the University of Ghana and the University of Nigeria. Fisher completed his master’s degree in history from Texas Southern University in Houston.

He has worked as an oral history researcher and served as the director of the A. Philip Randolph Institute in Houston. He was director of the JFK Project Area Committee in Oklahoma City and worked as a personnel consultant and training specialist for Northwest Bank Systems in Minneapolis. Fisher also served as Oklahoma’s assistant Secretary of State under the administration of Hannah Atkins and was a director in Institutional Advancement at Langston University. He also was a researcher and author of the book “A Matter of Black and White: The Autobiography of Lois Sipuel Fisher.”

Fisher also worked with the Oklahoma Centennial Com-mission to add a number of African-American projects.

He currently is an administrative program officer at the Oklahoma Historical Society and curator for the development of the new African-American exhibit in the Oklahoma History Center.

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