By Margaret Hicks
Eagle Staff Writer
The Oklahoma Eagle was on the scene on Monday, August 20, 2018 at 9:18 a.m. when an employee, a black female, unlocked the door and entered Anna & Jun’s Beauty Supply located at 1605 N. Peoria Avenue in Tulsa, Okla. She locked the door behind her and shortly afterwards she opened the store for business. This is the store where, just nine days earlier, August 12, Changseok Jun, the store’s owner, assaulted and battered April Harding, one of his black female customers.
Since the assault many members of the community have maintained a daily presence at the store, protesting peacefully and urging others to boycott the business. They offered alternate places to customers where they can buy their beauty supplies.
The protestors had signs that expressed their dissatisfaction of the treatment of Harding and their desire to see the store closed permanently.
An Established Pattern Of Brutality
The protestors who assembled and protested peacefully have been confronted by customers who came to shop and were told the store was closed. They were disappointed to learn that the store was closed but were not shocked when they were told why it was closed. Some of the store’s customers confessed that they too had been assaulted, one person said she was locked in the store while her purse was being searched.
State Representative Regina Goodwin (HD-72) who has been on the scene daily since the assault said, “There are several incidents where the owner assaulted women. These people paid and were accused of not paying.” She also said there was an elderly couple who were accused of stealing. They had paid for their merchandise. Two youth’s, ages 13 and 14, said they witnessed the assault on the couple. The elder of the two youths said, “I’m gonna be honest with you, when he knocked the bag out of his hand and the hair fell out the bag, we took it!”
Protesting the Protestors
One of the protestors, Orisabiyi Oyin Williams, had this to say in an August 20, 2018 Facebook post: “I just want to say that today was tough protesting at Jun’s. In the time frame of five hours, I have never been cussed out so many times and had the police called multiple times all in one day.
The saddest part about today was watching a black woman with her 12-year-old son tell us to go F ourselves and that the young lady should have never put her hands on Jun. She said, ‘Where was y’all at protesting when my husband was beating me!’
Then Jun has two black female employees who are acting as his bodyguards. They taunted us as we were protesting as if it was wrong for us to be there. It also saddens me that our elder mothers have been out there from day one, sitting ALL DAY then black women have the audacity to still go in there! They don’t care what he has done to multiple people and including spraying mace at a 7-year-old! As a community we should be there to relieve them and not standing for this! I’m exhausted! It should be way more men out there! What is wrong with us? What is wrong with us?”
Though the store has reopened the protest is still ongoing and the protestors are urging shoppers to boycott that business.
