The Brave Seven-Year-Old Girl Who Stood Up To A City

Ayanna Najuma protesting at Katz Drug Store in Oklahoma City

As a recent transplant from Los Angeles to Oklahoma City I had begun to see a rather haunting photograph of an African-American child sitting at a lunch counter and staring, steely eyed, directly into the lens of the camera. Directly into my soul each time I unexpectedly came across the image. Daring me to find out more about her story.

My local coffee shop has this image printed onto an entire wall. A tall soy macchiato and a dare from that seven-year-old girl. The local ice cream parlor (yes, they still call them that in Middle America) has the image tucked away in a small frame by the service entrance. A malt with whipped cream and a dare from that seven-year-old girl.

I asked the young barristers and servers what they knew about her and the answer was always a derivative of ‘I think it’s from the sit-in,’ but no one knew much more.

As I inquired more about her, a history of American civil rights activism unfolded. A history that I discovered, has been largely unknown by those outside of Oklahoma, and for the next generation of Oklahoma citizens there is only a hazy recollection that it has something to do with African American protests.

It is often said, that a tourist can experience more of a city’s history and offerings than those who were raised in that city. As I made the transition from a tourist to a local in my new home of Oklahoma City, I didn’t want twenty years to go by where the image of this girl became an unknown story in the fabric of my surroundings. So, I began to dig deep. Who was she? Where was this photo taken? And why do some establishments give some form of nod to her on their wall?

As it turns out, this seven-year-old, and twelve of her childhood friends, are the reason why I am now able to sit alongside people of all backgrounds in my coffee shop. They are the reason I can share a milkshake on a hot summer day and talk about the political climate with brothers and sisters of all shades. This girl and her friends, after seven years of sit-ins, managed to desegregate middle America, and many places beyond. And it all happened a full two years before the famed Woolworth department store protests in Greensboro, North Carolina. That protest I did know about. This one I did not.

As I made inquiries around town I struck gold at an event for the DeadCenter Film Festival. A local historian grabbed me by the hand and rushed me over to meet a well dressed African American lady in her sixties. “This is the girl you’ve been looking for” said the historian with a beaming smile.

“Richard Janes, meet Ayanna Najuma”.

Acting on an inner calling, Ms. Najuma had only recently returned to her birth place after working for most of her adult life in Washington D.C. She’d spent many years active in social justice issues in the nation’s capital and desired to see today’s youth embrace their own powerful voice for social justice and reform, just as she had done one hot summers morning on August 19th, 1958 at a drug store in downtown Oklahoma City called Katz.

Ayanna had found her voice after the NAACP (the National American Association of Colored People) asked a friend of Ayanna’s mother, a high school teacher named Mrs. Clara Luper, to come to New York City with members of the local NAACP Youth Council. She was to perform a play Mrs. Luper had written called “Brother President” about Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.

During the trip, her eyes were opened to a new way of living. Coming from the segregation in Oklahoma City, they had never experienced eating at restaurants, hotel stays, or drinking from fountains that weren’t designated by the color of their skin.

In New York City, they understood what equality meant. For all the liberation and excitement that this experience brought, it only cast a bigger spotlight on their repression when they returned to Oklahoma.

For a full year the children, along with the support of Mrs Luper, urged the church leaders and local city council to do something about the inequality they faced. If New York City could be racially integrated, why not Oklahoma City? Ayanna’s friend and Mrs. Luper’s own daughter, Marilyn Luper Hildreth, suggested that they, the children, do something about it.

And so, the sit-in was born.

They planned to enter Katz Drug Store, and sit at the lunch counter reserved for ‘Whites Only.’ They’d order a hamburger and a coke. Katz was a big name in the region and the company had over thirty-eight stores across four states. They enforced a segregation policy that stipulated ‘colored folk’ could purchase food, but they would have to eat it in the ally out back.

The hope was that as children, they would be treated better than the adults. But as Ms. Najuma described to me when we sat down for breakfast the next day, that was not the case. They were spat at, threatened, coffee and soda were thrown at them, and they were spoken to with disrespect. But it worked. Within three days, Katz Drug ended its segregation policy in all of its stores. This was a win, not just for Oklahoma City, but a win for thirty-eight other small American towns that Katz served.

With a sense of triumph, but knowing one drug store was not going to bring the equality of New York City to their own streets, Ayanna, and the others protested until all the cities eating establishments had been desegregated. They had achieved their dream. They had embraced their voice and been heard when others would have continued to debate the issue.

That seven-year-old girl who was following me around the city, together with her fellow students and a high school teacher, changed history. They stood up and faced acceptance and integration, my biggest concerns, when I was contemplating the relocation of my family to Middle America. When we announced our voluntary move to Oklahoma City, many of our Los Angeles friends were in complete shock and somewhat horrified by our decision.

What about the racism? Will our African-American and Muslim friends be able to visit? How will you deal with the far right Trump supporters? What about the Christian extremists? Our friends started to ask “Are you sure you want to do this? You’re going to stick out like a sore thumb!”

But, thanks to people like Ayanna and her friends, much of Middle America is not what the Coasts believe. Only this month my new neighbors elected 36-year-old James Cooper, it’s first openly gay African-American councilman, winning a five-way race in the city’s February 12th primary.

As a country, we still have far to go, and now more than ever, it seems that action needs to be taken. But rather than point fingers to different areas of the country, perhaps we need to focus on our own communities, as these brave children did. They fought for us to be able to sit down with our brothers and sisters, have a burger and a coke, and listen to each other. Only by listening and engaging will we find a path forward. Then, together, we need to take action to guarantee that there is equity and equality for all.

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You can learn more about Ayanna Najuma, the Oklahoma City Sit-in Protest, and her journey to change the world by listening to “Finding Passion & Purpose”, a new Apple Podcast series hosted by Richard Janes where he interviews a new guest each week diving into their inspiring story behind embracing passion and purpose.