CHAMPAIGN — Between John Street and William Street in Champaign, Kenwood Road is designated Honorary Daniyjah D. Staple Way, recognizing the life of a young woman taken too soon from the community.
Daniyjah Staple graduated in 2024 from Centennial High School, where she was a cheerleader, a model, and most importantly, a friend, said Fineez Muhammad, Daniyjah’s mother.
Muhammad said her daughter was a light in her community.
“She really looked out for people who maybe couldn’t speak for themselves or wouldn’t stand up to people like bullies,” Muhammad said. “She wanted to go to school to become a nurse, where she could really give back to the community.”
A gifted artist, Daniyjah was named the Fine Arts Student of the month in April of 2024. Muhammad said her daughter loved expressing herself creatively, whether it was through cheer, dance or art.
Daniyjah was only 18 years old when she died in July of 2024 from a gunshot wound. She was an innocent bystander during a shooting at a party in Champaign that injured two people and killed two more.
“God protects His righteous people, and you know, maybe she was just too good for this world,” Muhammad said. “When I run into people I’ve never met or seen and they talk about how much she touched them, it makes you feel really good. You know that you had a good kid.”
Sara Sanders, the principal at Centennial High School, said Daniyjah’s violent death went against everything her student stood for.
“While I know that there’s gun violence and evil lurking in certain spaces, she was not around that, she wasn’t a part of it,” Sanders said. “To have her die by the means of gun violence was just very shocking to me, because she just wasn’t about that.”
Daniyjah’s cousin, Dajuan Lane, said that while investigators were still working the case, he decided to do something to honor her. Lane had grown up with Staple not just as a cousin, but as an adopted brother, and wanted to commemorate the life of his sibling. Lane said he saw an honorary street designation in his neighborhood, and the idea formed.
“As I was driving around, I thought to myself… ‘That would be a good idea to have, to honor her,’” Lane said.
Lane kept his plan a secret from Daniyjah’s mom until the day the two of them went to Champaign City Council to present their proposal for her honorary street designation.
“I picked him up from school one day and he’s just like, ‘We’ve gotta go to City Council,’ and I’m like, ‘Well, for what?’” Muhammad said, “And he says, ‘I wasn’t gonna tell you but we have to go talk to the board… I applied for the street sign.’
Muhammad said having Daniyjah’s name on an honorary street sign is bittersweet for her — a painful reminder, but one that keeps her daughter’s spirit alive.
“Even if they didn’t know her and they say ‘Who is Daniyjah?’ they can look her name up and they’ll read her story, and they’ll see one of the good people was taken too soon,” she said.
