Participants in an Oklahoma City sit-in that helped propel the nation's civil rights movement are being honored on the 50th anniversary of the event.

Oklahoma civil rights leader Clara Luper and others who participated in the nonviolent sit-in gathered Tuesday at the Oklahoma History Center.

Luper led three adult chaperons and 13 members of the NAACP (web|news) 's Youth Council in a sit in at the Katz Drug Store lunch counter in downtown Oklahoma City on Aug. 19, 1958. They attempted to order some soft drinks.

The store's refusal launched weeks of peaceful sit-ins at eating establishments across the city that became models for other acts of civil disobedience across the nation.

The sit-in eventually desegregated lunch counters at 38 Katz Drug Stores in Oklahoma, Missouri, Kansas and Iowa.

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