FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE                                                                        January 30, 2008

BRUCE FISHER HEADLINES BLACK HISTORY MONTH AT NORTHWESTERN

Bruce Fisher from the Oklahoma Historical Society (OHS) will discuss “Heroes and Sheroes of the First 100 Years” during a special lecture arranged for Black History Month at Northwestern Oklahoma State University. At OHS, he is an administrative program officer and curator for the development of a new African American exhibit in the Oklahoma History Center.

            His talk will be from 6:30 to 8 p.m., Tuesday, Feb. 12. It will originate from room 208 on the Enid campus and be broadcast via ITV to Alva, Education Center 131; Woodward, Woodward High School 108; and Ponca City, Studio 245.

There will a performance by the Northwestern jazz ensemble in the J. W. Martin Library on the Alva campus after the lecture.

He plans to use several rare documents, prepared videos and a special guest to highlight some intriguing stories pertaining to the African American experience in Oklahoma.

            Fisher is a native of Chickasha and grew up in Oklahoma City. He holds a bachelor’s degree in history from Langston University and a master’s degree in history from Texas Southern University. He also received a Fulbright-Hays Scholarship to study at the University of Ghana and the University of Nigeria in West Africa.

            He has worked as an oral history researcher on a project at Rice University and served as the director of the A. Phillip Randolph Institute in Houston. Fisher was director of the JFK Project Area Committee in Oklahoma City and worked as a personnel consultant and training specialist for Norwest Bank Systems in Minneapolis. In 1987, he served as assistant secretary of state in Oklahoma. Fisher also was the director of Institutional Advancement at Langston.

            Fisher was the researcher and writer of “A Matter of Black and White: The Autobiography of Ada Lois Sipuel Fisher,” who was the first African-American to attend the University of Oklahoma Law School and has a Supreme Court case named after her. Fisher is her son.

            He worked with the Oklahoma Centennial Commission to add a number of important African American related projects to the master plan.

            Fisher is affiliated with a number of community-based organizations and is a board member of the Black Liberated Arts Council, the Loretta Jackson Historical Society, Oklahoma Department of Mental Health and Substance Abuse, Buffalo Soldier Heritage Corridor Advisory Committee and a designee for both the Tulsa Race Riot Memorial Design Committee and the Oklahoma African-American Centennial Design Committee.

            Also in February, the Ambassadors’ Concert Choir of Oklahoma City will appear at 7:30 p.m., Feb. 23, in Herod Hall Auditorium as part of the Northwest Oklahoma Concert Series. Northwestern alumnus Willie Spears of Kingsland, Ga., will share the message of his first book, “Keisha’s Dilemma,” with students in classes and club meetings on Feb. 14 and 15. Historical displays also will be at all three Northwestern campuses.

-NW-

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