In 1958, Carol Parks Hahn and Ron Walters, two Wichita NAACP youth leaders, decided to protest segregation of local lunch counters, starting with the largest drugstore chain in Kansas, Dockum Drug Store, Hahn and Walters began the peaceful protest along with twenty other members from the local NAACP. The plan was to occupy all of the lunch counter seats and ask to be served. This continued every Thursday and Saturday from July 19—August 11, when the owner of the Dockum Drug Stores visited the locations and said, "Serve them. I'm losing too much money." As a result of this statement, all Dockum Drug Stores in Wichita and eventually in the state of Kansas were desegregated. This sit-in occurred almost two years before the nationally recognized sit-in in Greensboro, NC.
This poster was originally screenprinted as part of the Kansas People's History poster project.
This CPH edition printed at the worker-owned Stumptown Printers, Portland, OR.
This is #109 in the Celebrate People’s History Poster Series.
Cheyenne Garrison is a freelance graphic designer based in Kansas City, MO.
