Erna Prather Harris was born on June 29, 1908, in Kingfisher, Oklahoma to Frances A.

"Frankie" (née
Prather) and James E. Harris.[1][2] Her father was a postman and pacifist. An admirer of Mahatma
Gandhi, he influenced his daughter's later activism.[3] Although he did not own a gun, he routinely
opposed the actions of the local Ku Klux Klan.[3][4] She attended segregated schools and graduated
from Douglass High School in Kingfisher in 1926.[4][5][6] As she did not want to continue her
education in a segregated setting, after graduation Harris worked as a domestic to earn enough
money to attend an out-of-state integrated university.[3][4][7] She enrolled at Wichita State
University, majoring in journalism and minoring in religion, sociology, and Spanish.[8] Harris was a
reporter on the college press, The Sunflower, and while a freshman was the first woman to win a
journalism prize. The paper won an award from the Collegiate Press Association while she was an
editor during her senior year.[1][9] She was the only Black student in the journalism department and
its first Black graduate when she earned her bachelor's degree in 1936. Slay