Control of Oklahoma City civil rights landmark in dispute
June 24, 2026
Freedom Center board will seek to take activist’s name off civil rights landmark, With a few pen strokes, activist Michael Washington claims to have taken control of the Freedom Center — Oklahoma City’s only civil rights memorial. But some in the community question Washington’s self-proclaimed role as savior of the historic building.
The property, at 2609 N Martin Luther King, has been owned since 1969 by the nonprofit Freedom Center Inc, founded by Oklahoma City civil rights activist Clara Luper. But Luper and the two other civil rights activists she started the nonprofit with are dead. The organization has been inactive for years.