Pastor Reed Receives Award
State to Recognize Pastor on December 11
December 8, 2009
Dr. J. A. Reed, Jr., Pastor of Fairview Baptist Church, was recently selected by the Oklahoma Human Rights Commission as one of the 2009 recipients of the Oklahoman Human Rights Award.
Annually, the State of Oklahoma solicits nominees and makes selections for those deserving to be recognized for their human rights contributions to the citizens of Oklahoma, or for national or international human rights accomplishments.
Dr. Reed was recognized and presented with a Human Rights Achievement Award during Oklahoma’s recognition of International Human Rights Day on Friday, December 11, 2009, at 11:00 a.m. in the State House of Representatives Chambers at the State Capitol. The ceremony was open to the public.
Rev. Reed is known as a long-time spiritual leader in Oklahoma but this presentation focuses on his Human Rights accomplishments: His role in ending segregation in Stillwater has gone largely unnoticed. As a teenager, he instituted sit-ins, modeled after Mrs. Clara Luper’s, to force public seating in restaurants for Blacks. As a young pastor, he was jailed during the 1969 OKC sanitation Workers Strike, fighting for better pay and working conditions for sanitary workers. Through his leadership, 5000 local and national people got involved in supporting this successful effort. In 1995, Reverend Reed, in association with the OKC Concerned Clergy, raised and distributed over $200,000 to help victims of the Oklahoma City Bombing. He was also a major spokesman for the Black community when the Oklahoma Legislature was threatening to close Langston University. His message that Langston is essential for Oklahoma was loudly heard and today Langston is thriving and continues to be a leading educational institution.
Also being honored were the Kathryn and Dewey Selmon family and Commissioner Sam Vasquez. The keynote speaker was Professor Cheryl Wattley of the University of Oklahoma.
