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Speaker 1: My older has gone on overlanding Rene.

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Speaker 2: Ninth Planet Audio dot Com.

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Speaker 1: We're overlanding, You're no landing.

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Speaker 3: Over Okay, we're starting to really build a case here.

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Speaker 3: We know why schools are called rebels, we know why

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Speaker 3: it's bad. We know so much about the history of

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Speaker 3: our country of desegregation. We've seen other people try to

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Speaker 3: change the Boone County High School Rebels before and fail,

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Speaker 3: And we know how important a mascot really is, not

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Speaker 3: just for fun, but for a sense of real identity

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Speaker 3: and pride. But now we need to know how to

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Speaker 3: do it. We've gotten so little direction on what to

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Speaker 3: do next because no one at Boone is a champion

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Speaker 3: in this fight yet, so we knew we'd need to

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Speaker 3: talk to a school, a school that used to be

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Speaker 3: one of the over two hundred rebels in America and

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Speaker 3: made the change on purpose for the right reasons.

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Speaker 2: I would love to talk about this process because it

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Speaker 2: was in tech for sure.

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Speaker 3: Meet Bobby Thomas, the principal at South High School in Denver, Colorado.

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Speaker 3: His school successfully changed from the rebels in twenty twenty two.

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Speaker 3: And this happened because Bobby is an example of the

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Speaker 3: right person at the right place, at the right time.

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Speaker 2: I'll never forget like being so happy and thankful and

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Speaker 2: stepping out in the hallways and seeing just it looked like,

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Speaker 2: you know, a world market with students wearing his jobs

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Speaker 2: and you know, you name it, everything you could think of,

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Speaker 2: and it just brought me joy. But then over time,

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Speaker 2: just trying to see the branding and walking in every

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Speaker 2: day and seeing rebels each and every day, it bothered

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Speaker 2: me as a leader of color.

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Speaker 3: Here's what I mean about right person at the right time.

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Speaker 3: Bobby is from Denver, so he's not an outsider. His father,

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Speaker 3: who was black, was a landscaper and janitor, and his mother,

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Speaker 3: who is Hispanic, cleaned houses. He played college football at

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Speaker 3: Las Forest College, so he knows the value of athletics

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Speaker 3: and team building. He transferred to Metropolitan State University and

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Speaker 3: earned a bachelor's degree in history. Okay, so we've got

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Speaker 3: a guy who gets race, athletics, and history. Then he

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Speaker 3: earned his master's degree in special education from the University

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Speaker 3: of Colorado at Denver, so now we can add education

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Speaker 3: to his list of experiences and interests. With all that

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Speaker 3: life experience and education, Bobby walked into South Denver High

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Speaker 3: and was able to look around with fresh eyes, and

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Speaker 3: what he saw wasn't just the current students from all

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Speaker 3: walks of life at Denver South, but the history of

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Speaker 3: the Confederate imagery that used to be at the school

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Speaker 3: as well.

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Speaker 2: And the more and more I started seeing things and

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Speaker 2: looking at the museums and talking to alumni. Your books

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Speaker 2: had the Confederate flag, the mascot was Johnny Red, and

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Speaker 2: the songs they used to play, you know when the

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Speaker 2: football team scored touchdowns was Confederate songs that supported the Confederacy.

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Speaker 3: While all those things were in the past at Denver South,

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Speaker 3: one thing wasn't rebel name sound familiar. When Bobby Thomas

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Speaker 3: proposed a name change at Denver South, he was contending

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Speaker 3: with over one hundred and thirty years of history. South

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Speaker 3: High Schools opened in eighteen ninety three and is one

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Speaker 3: of four original high schools in Denver. The other three

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Speaker 3: are East, North, and West. When Denver Public Schools named

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Speaker 3: its four cardinal direction in the high schools, each took

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Speaker 3: a mascot and imagery associated with that direction. North was

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Speaker 3: the Vikings, East our Angels, and West took the cowboy

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Speaker 3: as its mascot, and South went with the Confederacy. This

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Speaker 3: goes way back further than brownbe Board of Education. This

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Speaker 3: is in the nineteen twenties, back when mascots were actual dogs.

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Speaker 3: That's the kind of entrenched history Bobby tackled.

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Speaker 2: And so I'm like, now's the best time to do this.

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Speaker 2: There's opportunities. Is a leader that you choose hills that

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Speaker 2: you want to die on, And I said, this is

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Speaker 2: going to be the one because I need to make

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Speaker 2: a difference for me showing up every day in my

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Speaker 2: skin and who I am, and for my own kids,

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Speaker 2: but also for all of the students and staff in

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Speaker 2: the community that.

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Speaker 3: We serve a hill to die on. That's leadership. Choosing

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Speaker 3: a policy change, a culture change, not because it is easy,

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Speaker 3: but because it is right. Today. You're going to go

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Speaker 3: step by step to see exactly what it takes to

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Speaker 3: get rebel taken from a historical school, I was a lady.

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Speaker 2: Rebel, Like, what does that even need?

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Speaker 3: The Boone County Rebels will stay the Boone County Rebels

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Speaker 3: with the image of right here in black and white

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Speaker 3: and friends.

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Speaker 4: In bigger than a flag or mascot.

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Speaker 5: Anytime you're trying to mess with tradition, you get to

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Speaker 5: be ready for a serious back crash.

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Speaker 3: From Ninth Planet Audio. I'm Akuila Hughes and this is

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Speaker 3: Rebel Spirit episode seven, Denver South. From Spencer experience with

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Speaker 3: the petition. We know that a one and done approach

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Speaker 3: does not stick for anyone else out there who's listening

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Speaker 3: to this episode For a step by step guide of

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Speaker 3: how to change a mascot, Bobby is going to break

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Speaker 3: it down for us. Step one, coalition build.

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Speaker 2: I started one on one meet with them individually, and

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Speaker 2: then next the next meeting would be me with two

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Speaker 2: of them together, then three of them together, and then

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Speaker 2: I would start to build an alliance that way. Because

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Speaker 2: I knew if I could just get a critical mass

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Speaker 2: of individuals that supported this and they understood the true

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Speaker 2: why they could spread the word in the community. I

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Speaker 2: started to reach out to the alumni group, got them

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Speaker 2: on board. They used to have a newsletter that went

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Speaker 2: out that's still in twenty twenty one, was called the Confederacy.

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Speaker 2: I started talking to important alumni, different types of groups

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Speaker 2: in the community, city council just to get on board.

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Speaker 2: So I convened a committee of students of alumni of

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Speaker 2: all these type of individuals to give history of South

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Speaker 2: and then I just I made it about me and

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Speaker 2: my journey in leadership, saying I love this place, I

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Speaker 2: love this community. It's hard to lead knowing the history

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Speaker 2: around us and what it stood for and where we

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Speaker 2: are now, where we're trying to go, I need to

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Speaker 2: really make sure I have district level support. So there

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Speaker 2: were specific board members that were definitely on board. We

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Speaker 2: had to get buy in because, like I said, I

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Speaker 2: had alumni represented and they weren't bought into why are

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Speaker 2: we going to do this? Like this is not what

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Speaker 2: we're about. And so having specific student groups where students

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Speaker 2: spoke their truth change some of the alumni perspective on

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Speaker 2: who they are today.

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Speaker 3: With a coalition behind him, Bobby knew that the next

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Speaker 3: thing was to offer an alternative. If not the rebels,

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Speaker 3: then what when we come back. We're going to dive

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Speaker 3: into Step two design. In our last episode we talked

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Speaker 3: about how nebulous it is to actually pick the next mascot.

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Speaker 3: If South High isn't the rebel they step two design.

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Speaker 2: I brought in a company, a branding and marketing company,

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Speaker 2: where like, if we're going to do this, we need

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Speaker 2: to do this right. We need to have specific logos,

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Speaker 2: we need to have specific branding, we need color schemes,

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Speaker 2: like all of these things. So they kind of led

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Speaker 2: some of the facilitation in the marketing of it. Let's

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Speaker 2: come up with ideas and thoughts and so we have

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Speaker 2: all of these options, from the yeties to I mean,

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Speaker 2: and there's gargoyles outside of the building. We have a

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Speaker 2: lot of geese around and they want to be the

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Speaker 2: fighting geese and like all these different things, but also

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Speaker 2: something that one hundred years, two hundred, five hundred years,

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Speaker 2: it's going to be something that's not going to offend

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Speaker 2: a specific group.

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Speaker 3: Bobby and his team had narrowed their choices down and

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Speaker 3: we're actually heading towards endorsing the Royals, the same name

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Speaker 3: that you'll remember from the last episode Tyris's quartz Hill

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Speaker 3: High changed too. But then at the last second something

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Speaker 3: else flew in.

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Speaker 2: We know we're going to be the Ravens. Actually, yeah,

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Speaker 2: we were going to be the Royals. Yeah, And so

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Speaker 2: it was I mean, the Ravens came about probably the last,

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Speaker 2: the last bid of this because we really were moving

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Speaker 2: forward kind of with the Royals, and so after this

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Speaker 2: whole process we determined the raven We did a lot

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Speaker 2: of research around the Raven. They're highly intelligent. We found

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Speaker 2: videos and research that they could actually speak. They're strong

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Speaker 2: by themselves, but also they take care of one another.

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Speaker 3: There's another thing that the Raven's name had going for

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Speaker 3: it that you wouldn't know unless you were there. At

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Speaker 3: Denver South, our producer Dan found himself staying less than

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Speaker 3: a mile away this spring.

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Speaker 1: I am standing outside Denver South High School right now.

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Speaker 1: It's late March. That was a big snow yesterday, but

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Speaker 1: I'm walking up. It is spring break, so there are

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Speaker 1: no students around.

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Speaker 3: Dan crunched through the icy snow as he made his

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Speaker 3: way around the school's park like campus.

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Speaker 1: The building is beauty.

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Speaker 5: There's just these large towers, gargoyles. Oh, those are the

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Speaker 5: gargoyles that they were gonna name it after. There's a

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Speaker 5: big gargoyle at the kind of apex of this roof.

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Speaker 3: Dan walked across campus, punctuated with Ravens banners and was

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Speaker 3: taken by how beautiful it all was.

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Speaker 1: So Denver South is actually situated at the very end

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Speaker 1: of Washington Park, which is a very large city park.

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Speaker 1: I think there's like science museums and stuff like that

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Speaker 1: in Washington Park. The kind of terminus of Washington Park

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Speaker 1: is actually the high school.

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Speaker 5: So the high school is on this kind of really

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Speaker 5: beautiful grounds.

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Speaker 3: But it wasn't until he made his way back to

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Speaker 3: his car, the only one in the school's vast parking lot,

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Speaker 3: that the real reason behind the school's name became apparent.

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Speaker 1: Like all of Denver, that's a crow behind me, not

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Speaker 1: a raven. Maybe it is a raven. Actually, now that

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Speaker 1: I think about it, there are a raven and Denver

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Speaker 1: not crows. So there you go, there are actually ravens

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Speaker 1: in the parking lot. Go see if I can get

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Speaker 1: a photo.

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Speaker 3: Look around Denver South High School and you see these intelligent, independent,

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Speaker 3: caring birds everywhere. Sometimes the most obvious choice is all

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Speaker 3: around you. It just takes a moment to realize it.

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Speaker 3: Once they did, the rest fell into place.

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Speaker 2: So we thought about all of those things like historical

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Speaker 2: cheers and chants and so should have been a rebel before?

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Speaker 2: And it was easy to say now to switch it

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Speaker 2: and say should have been a raven. Economy of language.

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Speaker 3: With the name said, it was time for step three funding.

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Speaker 2: So I did a cost analysis the amount of money

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Speaker 2: that it took to make a change like this. So

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Speaker 2: just for the athletic components, and I said, we have

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Speaker 2: eighteen hundred students at the time, twenty three different programs.

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Speaker 2: It was over one hundred thousand dollars. Just inm We

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Speaker 2: had our floor in the gymnasium was a rebel that

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Speaker 2: had to get switched out. That was another fifty two

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Speaker 2: thousand dollars to be refinished.

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Speaker 3: Yeah.

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Speaker 2: Yeah, redoing all the floors, finding a company that has

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Speaker 2: done this before, but just being very strategic on the

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Speaker 2: things that you have to change because you can't do

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Speaker 2: at all.

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Speaker 3: Like the order of operations.

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Speaker 2: We just can't. Yeah, And this is where Kalais Campbell

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Speaker 2: came in, who is a famous alumni.

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Speaker 3: Famous is an understatement. Kalais Campbell is an NFL All

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Speaker 3: star who graduated from South High School in two thousand

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Speaker 3: and four, and over the last twenty years he has

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Speaker 3: had a phenomenal college and NFL career as a defensive end.

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Speaker 3: After graduating from South, Kalais went to the University of Miami,

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Speaker 3: where he played for three years before being drafted to

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Speaker 3: the Arizona Cardinals in two thousand and eight, where he

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Speaker 3: helped the team reach the Super Bowl for the first

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Speaker 3: time in their history. He remained at the car for

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Speaker 3: another nine years before joining the Jacksonville Jaguars in twenty seventeen.

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Speaker 3: He played three seasons in Jacksonville before joining the Baltimore Ravens,

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Speaker 3: Yes the Ravens in twenty twenty in the Atlanta Falcons

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Speaker 3: in twenty twenty three. This summer, he announced that he

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Speaker 3: was going back to Miami, where he'd gone to college,

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Speaker 3: to play for the Dolphins at thirty eight. But Kalaias

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Speaker 3: isn't just good at football. He's also a good person.

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Speaker 3: Ever since he went pro, Kalaiis has made giving back

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Speaker 3: a priority. When starting out in Arizona, he'd give away

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Speaker 3: hundreds of Thanksgiving meals to families in need. For the

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Speaker 3: last fifteen years, he's held Christmas with Kalais, where he

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Speaker 3: sponsors holiday shopping sprees for local kids. He created an

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Speaker 3: endowed scholarship for defensive linemen with a one point six

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Speaker 3: million dollar gift to the University of Miami. When the

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Speaker 3: pandemic hit while he was in Baltimore, he gave two

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Speaker 3: hundred thousand dollars to help support struggling black owned businesses

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Speaker 3: and twenty grand of families to help cover their bills.

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Speaker 3: There's the one hundred Sack give Back, where he honored

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Speaker 3: his one hundredth professional sack by giving one hundred thousand

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Speaker 3: dollars to teach around the country. The list could go

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Speaker 3: on for a long time. Kalais's giving is extensive and generous,

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Speaker 3: and in twenty nineteen, it earned him the NFL's Walter

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Speaker 3: Payton Man of the Year Award, the league's top honor

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Speaker 3: to a player to recognize their commitment to philanthropy and community.

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Speaker 3: In giving him the award, NFL Commissioner Roger Goodell said,

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Speaker 3: Kalaiis Campbell's impact extends far beyond the field, in the

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Speaker 3: communities throughout Phoenix, Jacksonville, and beyond. One of those places

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Speaker 3: was back home at Denver South.

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Speaker 2: I didn't know him. I'd only started at the school

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Speaker 2: two years prior, putting me in connection with him through

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Speaker 2: somebody else that actually knew him. That's how the conversation started.

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Speaker 2: He was talking to former teachers. Usually at that point

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Speaker 2: it's like talking to agents, talk to my people, like

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Speaker 2: those type of situations, but he actually had personal contacts

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Speaker 2: with people in the South community that were still there.

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Speaker 2: You know, we needed something our current kids and he

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Speaker 2: stepped up to the plate, and.

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Speaker 6: I remember talking to you know, the point of contact

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Speaker 6: I talked to the most was he was my old

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Speaker 6: basketball coach, but he became a.

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Speaker 3: Flight director for South ladies and gentlemen, Kalais Campbell, and I.

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Speaker 6: Remember talking to him about it, you know, probably like

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Speaker 6: my second or third year in the NFL. So this

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Speaker 6: is probably, you know, thirteen and fourteen years ago.

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Speaker 3: You heard that correctly. Kaleis Campbell has been talking with

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Speaker 3: people at Denver South about the Rebel name since just

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Speaker 3: a few years in his long career in the NFL.

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Speaker 3: In fact, he made sure to mention it any chance

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Speaker 3: he could.

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Speaker 6: Usually when I've gone back to the school, you know,

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Speaker 6: you're with the higher ups. You know, you're with the

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Speaker 6: people who can who have the fluence, and so you know,

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Speaker 6: I mean, I've made a point to say something every time,

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Speaker 6: like it's hard to take pride to school that you know,

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Speaker 6: represents something that was like kind of like represents oppression.

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Speaker 3: It's hard to take pride in a school that represents

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Speaker 3: something that represents oppression. That feeling, Kalais is articulating that

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Speaker 3: conflict is something I think that all black kids at

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Speaker 3: Rebel schools feel. It's what I feel, and it's what

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Speaker 3: Kalais felt since he was in high school.

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Speaker 6: I remember being in high school and thinking to myself, like,

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Speaker 6: you know, this isn't really what uh, you know, like

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Speaker 6: something that's ust to be proud of it, you know,

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Speaker 6: like I'd rather.

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Speaker 4: Be a different name.

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Speaker 6: But then tell myself, like you, I can't do anything

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Speaker 6: about it, and so just embrace it, like, you know,

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Speaker 6: this is what it is now, so you might as

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Speaker 6: well just try to my best embrace it. But yeah,

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Speaker 6: I was definitely something that like I didn't I didn't

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Speaker 6: take pride in but you know, want to take pride

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Speaker 6: in it.

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Speaker 4: So it was.

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Speaker 3: It was a tough situation, right for most kids. For me,

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Speaker 3: you swallow it and you get out. For Kalais, he

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Speaker 3: found an opportunity to change things in the success that followed.

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Speaker 6: Once I got to like, you know, the NFL, and

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Speaker 6: I was, you know, having a career and stuff. You know,

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Speaker 6: it was just something that I wanted to try to

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Speaker 6: help with.

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Speaker 3: Wal He'd advocated for a name change for most of

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Speaker 3: his NFL career. It wasn't until Bobby Thomas put the

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Speaker 3: change in motion that Kalais could help it into the

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Speaker 3: end zone. His involvement went beyond sizeable financial support endorsement

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Speaker 3: for the name change held significant weight. As a local

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Speaker 3: hero with deep ties to the school's athletic legacy. The

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Speaker 3: decision to adopt the Ravens as the new mascot partly

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Speaker 3: honored his influence, since he had moved from the Cardinals

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Speaker 3: to the Baltimore Ravens around that time.

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Speaker 2: I am forever grateful to kalay As Campbell, but I

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Speaker 2: am also so grateful to the individuals in the community

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Speaker 2: that stepped up to help. But we had a lot

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Speaker 2: of individuals that just donated because the district didn't have

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Speaker 2: that money. In rebranding with the gear, that was the

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Speaker 2: biggest challenge because every sports program, every theater program, everything

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Speaker 2: had to be switched from as I showed the Rebels

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Speaker 2: to the Ravens. For uniforms, it was home and away

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Speaker 2: probably five hundred thousand and so we started presenting all

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Speaker 2: these elements of it, and we had a vote, and

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Speaker 2: that's what we decided to move forward with. Was a

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Speaker 2: phenomenal day an emotional individual. There were a lot of tears,

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Speaker 2: a lot of congratulations, a lot of how dare you Okay?

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Speaker 3: Yeah, I was curious about the backlash for sure, when

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Speaker 3: we return the real aftermath of changing a mascot. They

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Speaker 3: did it. They had the vote, they had the support

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Speaker 3: of key players, they had the funding. So many steps

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Speaker 3: to get to this crucial last one step four dealing

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Speaker 3: with haters.

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Speaker 2: There were threats to my family, There were threats to

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Speaker 2: me personally. We had to take a step away from

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Speaker 2: social media because of alumni. We're we're you know, we're

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Speaker 2: the rebels. We've always been that. How dare you? And

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Speaker 2: they graduated in nineteen sixty.

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Speaker 3: Nineteen fifty, right exactly.

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Speaker 2: Well, now it's twenty twenty one. It doesn't look back

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Speaker 2: it did before. There's not a separate you know, boys

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Speaker 2: Jim and girls Jim. Like when you went here, you

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Speaker 2: know those able to go here now exactly. You know,

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Speaker 2: individuals aren't bus over. We have gender neutral restrooms. And

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Speaker 2: so it just was coming in a lot to a

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Speaker 2: point where I actually had an individual that came to

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Speaker 2: the school wanting to meet me saying that God sent

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Speaker 2: him to talk to me about the mascot switch and

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Speaker 2: how to be escorted off by security of the property.

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Speaker 2: And so it was a point in time where during

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Speaker 2: that process, once we determine it's going to happen. I

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Speaker 2: was concerned on leaving the building, who's following me? I

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Speaker 2: would have to take different routes, stuff like that. But

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Speaker 2: what I did is I just really found influential stakeholders

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Speaker 2: that backed this notion and I asked them to help me.

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Speaker 2: And what they did in their own little groups, they

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Speaker 2: spread the word and the reason in rationale why because

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Speaker 2: I had a common script on why this was important?

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Speaker 3: Why was it important? Bobby Thomas may have been the

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Speaker 3: right person at the right time to finally change Denver

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Speaker 3: South from the rebels, but he was not the first, not.

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Speaker 1: By a lot.

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Speaker 3: In fact, for the last fifty years, Denver South has

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Speaker 3: been undergoing what doctor Caleb Smith in our last episode

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Speaker 3: called a de confederatization, slowly chipping away at the Confederate

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Speaker 3: imagery hateful peace by hateful peace. There were student protests

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Speaker 3: in two thousand and nine that saw South's Confederate mascot,

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Speaker 3: Johnny reb replaced by a short lived gargoyle, a reference

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Speaker 3: to the beautiful stone griffin that overlooks the entrance to

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Speaker 3: the school. It's worth noting that these students wanted to

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Speaker 3: do away with the Rebel name too, but alumni organized

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Speaker 3: against them. There was Harold Scott, the only black principal

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Speaker 3: at South before Bobby Thomas, who in the early nineteen

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Speaker 3: eighties tried and failed to change the team name to

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Speaker 3: the Penguins. But the de confederatization of Denver South stretches

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Speaker 3: all the way back to nineteen seventy, when the basketball

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Speaker 3: state championships between the mostly white Denver South in the

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Speaker 3: mostly black Manual High School ended in a brawl and

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Speaker 3: the school stopped playing Dixie at their games the next year.

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Speaker 3: According to the Denver Post, the fights, coupled with rising

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Speaker 3: racial tensions in Denver at the time, likely led the

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Speaker 3: Colorado High School Activities Association to demand South move away

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Speaker 3: from Confederate imagery. But I don't think it was just

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Speaker 3: a fight at a basketball game that led to this

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Speaker 3: change it South. It was a lot more than that.

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Speaker 7: I was bussed out to Merrill Junior High School and

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Speaker 7: that was traumatic. That's a tough conversation for me to

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Speaker 7: still have. I did a presentation for some folks last October.

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Speaker 7: It took everything I had to walk through that front door.

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Speaker 7: Just the anxiety and everything I experienced in seventh grade

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Speaker 7: just came right back.

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Speaker 3: This is Terry Gentry, History, Colorado's engagement manager for Black communities.

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Speaker 3: She's also a third generation Denver right who personally experienced

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Speaker 3: the challenges of desegregation.

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Speaker 7: On a bus. It didn't feel like it was a

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Speaker 7: few minutes. It was a long journey. It was probably

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Speaker 7: almost forty five minute ride out there into a neighborhood

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Speaker 7: that doesn't really want you there with their bullholme draw

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Speaker 7: on the corner when we were walking out of school,

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Speaker 7: telling us what they thought about us.

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Speaker 3: Terry was bussed to integrate a white school, doing large

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Speaker 3: part to the policies enacted by Denver's first black woman

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Speaker 3: Board of Education member and the first African American woman

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Speaker 3: to hold public office in Colorado, Rachel Noel.

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Speaker 7: She joined the Denver School Board nineteen sixty five and

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Speaker 7: to make some changes, especially recognizing some of the challenges

403
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Speaker 7: her own children were experiencing in the schools, she filed

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Speaker 7: a null resolution.

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Speaker 3: The Nole resolution recommended closing some of the overpopulated schools

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Speaker 3: for minorities and instead integrating students into quality schools across

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Speaker 3: the city. It also called for textbooks to teach black

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Speaker 3: history sound familiar.

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Speaker 7: In the midst of all the work that she was doing.

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Speaker 7: A lot of families got really angry about it, and

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Speaker 7: she received a number of bomb threats.

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Speaker 3: The Nole resolution was passed in January nineteen sixty nine,

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Speaker 3: and then repealed only six months later when a new

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Speaker 3: school board took office. An African American chiropractor, doctor Wilfrid Keys,

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Speaker 3: organized eight families to sue the school district for discrimination.

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Speaker 3: The district court agreed with Keys and ordered Denver to

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Speaker 3: restart their integration plans, which focused on bussing black and

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Speaker 3: brown students like Terry across the city. The response to

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Speaker 3: the court decision was shocking. On the night of February fifth,

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Speaker 3: nineteen seventy, twelve sticks of dynamite went off at the

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Speaker 3: Denver school bus depot, destroying twenty four buses and damaging

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Speaker 3: eighteen more. The acting fire chief at the time was

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Speaker 3: quoted as saying, the whole thing went up at once.

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Speaker 3: In my opinion, it was a strictly professional job. A

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Speaker 3: month later, a pipe bomb went off on Wilfrid Key's porch.

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Speaker 3: No one was ever caught in any of these terror attacks.

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Speaker 7: The extensive damage that the bombing did and the incredib

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Speaker 7: fear that it imposed on our community. We were disproportionately

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Speaker 7: the number of people using those buses, and especially terrifying

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Speaker 7: for our parents to think that somebody would do something

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Speaker 7: so horrific. And thank goodness, it wasn't at the moment

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Speaker 7: that we were climbing aboard the bus. And then you

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Speaker 7: continue to hear the threats against the Knowles, and you

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Speaker 7: hear the threats against the Keys family, and you have

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Speaker 7: to still deal with people and their foul mouths and

436
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Speaker 7: bad behavior when you got to get up and go

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Speaker 7: to school every day and listening to some of that

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Speaker 7: horrific stuff that they spew at you.

439
00:23:47,280 --> 00:23:50,000
Speaker 3: The Keys lawsuit went all the way to the Supreme Court.

440
00:23:50,480 --> 00:23:54,720
Speaker 7: They determined that mandatory bussing was required because there was

441
00:23:54,760 --> 00:23:59,840
Speaker 7: so much disparity in our school system, unequal education, unequal

442
00:24:00,080 --> 00:24:04,360
Speaker 7: access to resources, unequal in every former fashion.

443
00:24:06,080 --> 00:24:08,600
Speaker 3: This case is notable as one of the first instances

444
00:24:08,720 --> 00:24:11,879
Speaker 3: of the court addressing segregation in a northern school. But

445
00:24:12,000 --> 00:24:14,240
Speaker 3: Terry no longer had to endure the long bus rides

446
00:24:14,280 --> 00:24:17,040
Speaker 3: to school. Just before high school, her family moved to

447
00:24:17,080 --> 00:24:19,840
Speaker 3: a new neighborhood in a different school district. They did

448
00:24:19,920 --> 00:24:21,920
Speaker 3: it for her so she wouldn't have to attend in

449
00:24:22,000 --> 00:24:22,440
Speaker 3: ver South.

450
00:24:23,000 --> 00:24:26,040
Speaker 7: We hadn't moved when I was in ninth Before ninth grade,

451
00:24:26,080 --> 00:24:29,280
Speaker 7: that's where I would have attended high school because my

452
00:24:29,359 --> 00:24:34,879
Speaker 7: whole neighborhood attended South High School. So all my classmates

453
00:24:34,880 --> 00:24:39,320
Speaker 7: and neighbors that I grew up with with the bussing

454
00:24:40,800 --> 00:24:43,920
Speaker 7: would go to South. My grandmother and grandfather they were

455
00:24:43,960 --> 00:24:47,560
Speaker 7: close friends with Rachel Noele. So listening to my grandmother

456
00:24:48,400 --> 00:24:51,320
Speaker 7: talk about some of the things that were happening, she

457
00:24:51,400 --> 00:24:54,240
Speaker 7: helped to put perspective on it. Learning all of these

458
00:24:54,280 --> 00:24:56,760
Speaker 7: things about our ancestors and what they had to deal with.

459
00:24:56,960 --> 00:24:58,720
Speaker 7: We know, you got to get up and go take

460
00:24:58,760 --> 00:25:00,479
Speaker 7: care of it. You have to get up and go

461
00:25:00,560 --> 00:25:03,800
Speaker 7: do it. You know what the sad part is people

462
00:25:03,960 --> 00:25:07,640
Speaker 7: assume that some of the stuff we had to experience,

463
00:25:08,200 --> 00:25:10,840
Speaker 7: only it happens in the South. And we have some

464
00:25:11,920 --> 00:25:17,119
Speaker 7: incredible history here in Colorado with the amount of stuff

465
00:25:17,119 --> 00:25:20,719
Speaker 7: that we've had to deal with, and we are working

466
00:25:20,760 --> 00:25:26,880
Speaker 7: so hard to continue to change our experiences and continue

467
00:25:26,920 --> 00:25:31,960
Speaker 7: to fight for our human rights and everyone to have

468
00:25:32,000 --> 00:25:32,760
Speaker 7: a better life.

469
00:25:33,760 --> 00:25:37,359
Speaker 3: History is hard to hear sometimes, and talking to Terry

470
00:25:37,400 --> 00:25:41,280
Speaker 3: Gentry is a reminder things that feel long ago are

471
00:25:41,359 --> 00:25:44,320
Speaker 3: still right here with us, and so it's important to

472
00:25:44,359 --> 00:25:57,359
Speaker 3: make change, real change to help move us forward. Bobby

473
00:25:57,400 --> 00:26:00,600
Speaker 3: Thomas did it at Denver South High School. Asked him

474
00:26:00,680 --> 00:26:02,679
Speaker 3: what advice he would have for me to make the

475
00:26:02,760 --> 00:26:06,520
Speaker 3: same change to start healing the same wounds at Boone County.

476
00:26:06,760 --> 00:26:11,080
Speaker 2: From learning from individuals before that had tried this, I

477
00:26:11,119 --> 00:26:16,200
Speaker 2: think they tried to get too much stakeholder voice and involvement.

478
00:26:16,760 --> 00:26:19,959
Speaker 2: I think what got me to this point is I

479
00:26:20,000 --> 00:26:25,320
Speaker 2: had to identify critical stakeholders that had a strong voice, because,

480
00:26:25,359 --> 00:26:28,240
Speaker 2: like I said, there's still things on you know, social

481
00:26:28,280 --> 00:26:32,080
Speaker 2: media platforms that individuals say. There were still you know,

482
00:26:33,160 --> 00:26:35,920
Speaker 2: the chants and things you know those first like year

483
00:26:36,040 --> 00:26:39,840
Speaker 2: or so. But again, once you had your first full

484
00:26:39,880 --> 00:26:42,920
Speaker 2: group of freshmen that came in, they only knew the Ravens.

485
00:26:43,359 --> 00:26:45,840
Speaker 2: It helped with athletics and our teams, and we made

486
00:26:45,840 --> 00:26:46,600
Speaker 2: it affordable.

487
00:26:46,720 --> 00:26:49,480
Speaker 3: He didn't just make it affordable in those early days

488
00:26:49,480 --> 00:26:52,400
Speaker 3: of the transition. He made the Ravens gear free.

489
00:26:52,560 --> 00:26:56,960
Speaker 2: I didn't ban like South gear, like rebel stuff, nothing

490
00:26:57,000 --> 00:27:00,720
Speaker 2: like that at all. We flooded the market. I was

491
00:27:00,760 --> 00:27:02,719
Speaker 2: able to get every student at that point in time,

492
00:27:02,800 --> 00:27:06,159
Speaker 2: eighteen hundred students at the school, you know, two to

493
00:27:06,240 --> 00:27:10,760
Speaker 2: four different items of gear, so they had multiple things

494
00:27:11,080 --> 00:27:15,920
Speaker 2: wag left and right. Some of the older students were like, Ah,

495
00:27:16,000 --> 00:27:18,919
Speaker 2: we're gonna wear our Rebels stuff and okay, that's fine.

496
00:27:19,480 --> 00:27:22,280
Speaker 2: But over time they were like, wow, look at that

497
00:27:22,400 --> 00:27:25,760
Speaker 2: new updated logo. That's pretty cool. And you know, they

498
00:27:25,920 --> 00:27:29,400
Speaker 2: wanted the new merch and so we made it very modern,

499
00:27:31,040 --> 00:27:33,960
Speaker 2: partnered with under arm or Nike like different companies like that,

500
00:27:35,080 --> 00:27:37,880
Speaker 2: and before you know it, they're like, that's that's cool.

501
00:27:37,920 --> 00:27:39,280
Speaker 2: I want to I want to wear that, and we

502
00:27:39,320 --> 00:27:40,200
Speaker 2: made it affordable.

503
00:27:40,320 --> 00:27:42,480
Speaker 3: Kalais Campbell would have been one of those kids who

504
00:27:42,520 --> 00:27:44,040
Speaker 3: needed subsidized Ravens gear.

505
00:27:44,640 --> 00:27:46,560
Speaker 6: Like my growing up, we grew up kind of tough,

506
00:27:46,640 --> 00:27:48,000
Speaker 6: like you know, we didn't have a lot of money

507
00:27:48,000 --> 00:27:51,560
Speaker 6: and resources, but we were always like involved in the community,

508
00:27:51,680 --> 00:27:54,480
Speaker 6: you know, my dad, my mom. You know, like during

509
00:27:54,480 --> 00:27:58,679
Speaker 6: the holidays, we're you know, getting free meals. But we

510
00:27:58,720 --> 00:28:02,040
Speaker 6: all saw taking those mails like whoever's people are giving

511
00:28:02,080 --> 00:28:04,120
Speaker 6: away the charity is getting away for meals and we're

512
00:28:04,160 --> 00:28:06,480
Speaker 6: helping the distributors in the community to people who need.

513
00:28:06,880 --> 00:28:09,280
Speaker 6: Even before I was born, you know, my dad had

514
00:28:09,440 --> 00:28:11,760
Speaker 6: like a place where kids could come after school and

515
00:28:11,840 --> 00:28:15,760
Speaker 6: hang out and avoid trouble. He always felt like that,

516
00:28:15,920 --> 00:28:18,480
Speaker 6: you know, if you were involved in the community, you're involved.

517
00:28:18,160 --> 00:28:19,840
Speaker 4: In extra correct activities that.

518
00:28:20,200 --> 00:28:23,000
Speaker 6: You know, you wouldn't be at risk with just you know,

519
00:28:23,080 --> 00:28:25,520
Speaker 6: being black in America and you know, all the negative

520
00:28:25,520 --> 00:28:27,840
Speaker 6: stuff that comes with like you know, uh, you know,

521
00:28:27,920 --> 00:28:29,600
Speaker 6: gang violence or you know.

522
00:28:30,000 --> 00:28:32,440
Speaker 4: The police brutality or all that stuff, and just you're.

523
00:28:32,400 --> 00:28:35,920
Speaker 6: Somewhere, you're active, you're you know, you're you're busy, too

524
00:28:35,920 --> 00:28:39,040
Speaker 6: busy to get in trouble. And so, you know, so

525
00:28:39,120 --> 00:28:41,040
Speaker 6: he had a place where people come to their homework

526
00:28:41,120 --> 00:28:42,400
Speaker 6: and play video.

527
00:28:42,200 --> 00:28:43,560
Speaker 4: Games and just hang out.

528
00:28:43,840 --> 00:28:47,160
Speaker 6: It is this cool to see that people care and

529
00:28:47,200 --> 00:28:49,680
Speaker 6: hopefully this inspiration to help other people want to do

530
00:28:49,720 --> 00:28:50,200
Speaker 6: something help.

531
00:28:50,720 --> 00:28:52,920
Speaker 3: Kalais had been hoping for this change since he was

532
00:28:52,920 --> 00:28:55,960
Speaker 3: a student back in two thousand and four. Bobby wanted

533
00:28:55,960 --> 00:28:59,120
Speaker 3: it from the moment he became principal. It didn't happen quickly,

534
00:28:59,480 --> 00:29:01,760
Speaker 3: but eventually the change did come.

535
00:29:02,080 --> 00:29:05,440
Speaker 2: So the start of twenty nineteen, I started this process,

536
00:29:05,880 --> 00:29:10,760
Speaker 2: even though technically it was twenty twenty one. Still like

537
00:29:10,800 --> 00:29:15,400
Speaker 2: the Big Switch over the Big Projects weren't done until

538
00:29:15,400 --> 00:29:19,200
Speaker 2: twenty twenty two. Wow, so it was about three years,

539
00:29:19,320 --> 00:29:23,720
Speaker 2: I would say, but at least loud voices that people

540
00:29:23,800 --> 00:29:29,360
Speaker 2: respected were standing behind his decision. And that's the advice

541
00:29:29,520 --> 00:29:31,960
Speaker 2: that I would give. This is not a me thing,

542
00:29:32,040 --> 00:29:35,040
Speaker 2: This is an US thing because when I first started this,

543
00:29:35,080 --> 00:29:37,760
Speaker 2: trying to get as many people involved and let's do

544
00:29:37,800 --> 00:29:41,000
Speaker 2: a big survey of what like, it was too daunting

545
00:29:41,200 --> 00:29:47,040
Speaker 2: in so many different competing thoughts and perspectives. And once

546
00:29:47,080 --> 00:29:51,600
Speaker 2: I just got a respected, you know, committee together, they

547
00:29:51,680 --> 00:29:55,760
Speaker 2: made the decisions. They made the final based on some feedback,

548
00:29:55,760 --> 00:29:58,760
Speaker 2: but it wasn't like a whole big process involving everyone.

549
00:30:00,640 --> 00:30:03,680
Speaker 2: It just fills my cup to speak about this over

550
00:30:03,720 --> 00:30:06,400
Speaker 2: and over and remember kind of the whole process. And

551
00:30:06,720 --> 00:30:11,160
Speaker 2: please feel free to reach out throughout this process or

552
00:30:11,160 --> 00:30:13,360
Speaker 2: if there's anybody else I could put you in contact with,

553
00:30:13,720 --> 00:30:14,840
Speaker 2: I'm more than willing.

554
00:30:14,560 --> 00:30:15,160
Speaker 4: To help you out.

555
00:30:15,280 --> 00:30:19,680
Speaker 3: Thank you so much for really so change is possible.

556
00:30:20,160 --> 00:30:23,200
Speaker 3: It takes community support that doesn't need to be unanimous.

557
00:30:23,480 --> 00:30:25,479
Speaker 3: It just needs to come from people who take their

558
00:30:25,560 --> 00:30:30,000
Speaker 3: leadership positions seriously. It takes having great ideas about what

559
00:30:30,080 --> 00:30:32,840
Speaker 3: makes your community awesome and unique. And we learned to

560
00:30:32,840 --> 00:30:36,120
Speaker 3: take some serious cash. And with figures like Kaleis Campbell

561
00:30:36,120 --> 00:30:39,280
Speaker 3: in their corner, anything's possible, you know, Like.

562
00:30:39,320 --> 00:30:42,320
Speaker 6: I represent the school, I represent you know who they are,

563
00:30:42,440 --> 00:30:44,880
Speaker 6: and so like, you know, I want you to know

564
00:30:45,040 --> 00:30:46,760
Speaker 6: have pride in me too, and I want to represent

565
00:30:46,880 --> 00:30:47,640
Speaker 6: the kind of person.

566
00:30:47,480 --> 00:30:48,320
Speaker 4: That you can to fight it in.

567
00:30:48,800 --> 00:30:50,640
Speaker 6: But it has to go before this, and so that

568
00:30:50,760 --> 00:30:52,640
Speaker 6: was definitely part of the motivation to get a change.

569
00:30:52,680 --> 00:30:55,560
Speaker 4: So it was a process. It wasn't like a quick process.

570
00:30:55,600 --> 00:30:58,480
Speaker 6: It took a little while, a lot of small conversations

571
00:30:58,520 --> 00:31:01,680
Speaker 6: over time that land to pick up steam and then

572
00:31:01,880 --> 00:31:04,200
Speaker 6: you know, like wow, you know, now I feel a

573
00:31:04,240 --> 00:31:07,640
Speaker 6: lot more pride in my school, you know, because you know,

574
00:31:07,760 --> 00:31:11,160
Speaker 6: no matter what where you come from, there's such an attachment,

575
00:31:11,200 --> 00:31:13,760
Speaker 6: there's no such a pride. But you know, I would like,

576
00:31:14,160 --> 00:31:14,440
Speaker 6: you know.

577
00:31:14,960 --> 00:31:16,880
Speaker 4: For a moment there it was like, you know, it's

578
00:31:16,960 --> 00:31:18,480
Speaker 4: pride but has like a little bit of a.

579
00:31:20,160 --> 00:31:25,080
Speaker 3: Right like an asterisk. Yeah, that's how I feel. That's

580
00:31:25,240 --> 00:31:26,320
Speaker 3: exactly how I feel.

581
00:31:28,400 --> 00:31:31,800
Speaker 6: Yes, So now I feel pride with that she's just gone,

582
00:31:31,800 --> 00:31:32,760
Speaker 6: and I feel.

583
00:31:32,720 --> 00:31:35,680
Speaker 3: A lot of pride in my feeling school pride without

584
00:31:35,720 --> 00:31:40,600
Speaker 3: an asterisk, without apology, real pride like Kalais Campbell feels. Now,

585
00:31:41,160 --> 00:31:44,120
Speaker 3: that's what I want for Boone County High School. And

586
00:31:44,200 --> 00:31:46,760
Speaker 3: you know what Boone County High School sits on, Sean

587
00:31:46,840 --> 00:31:50,800
Speaker 3: Alexander Way, our very own Kalais Campbell. If there was

588
00:31:50,840 --> 00:31:53,080
Speaker 3: a way to get in touch with Sean, someone who

589
00:31:53,120 --> 00:31:55,760
Speaker 3: also has a history of philanthropy, would there be a

590
00:31:55,800 --> 00:31:59,000
Speaker 3: path to change. I mean, as much as I'd like

591
00:31:59,040 --> 00:32:01,840
Speaker 3: to pitch the Boone County Seahawks, we know that Kalay

592
00:32:01,840 --> 00:32:03,680
Speaker 3: has helped, not because they were going to name it

593
00:32:03,720 --> 00:32:06,000
Speaker 3: after one of the teams he played for. He helped

594
00:32:06,000 --> 00:32:08,400
Speaker 3: because he felt the awkwardness of rooting for the Rebels

595
00:32:08,400 --> 00:32:11,320
Speaker 3: as a young black man. If we could find out

596
00:32:11,320 --> 00:32:13,920
Speaker 3: how Sean feels about the rebels, if he wanted to

597
00:32:13,960 --> 00:32:19,040
Speaker 3: partner with some very eager change agents, if if next

598
00:32:19,040 --> 00:32:29,760
Speaker 3: episode we're going to try to find out. Rebel Spirit

599
00:32:29,840 --> 00:32:32,600
Speaker 3: is a production of Ninth Planet Audio and association with

600
00:32:32,680 --> 00:32:36,800
Speaker 3: iHeart Podcasts. Reporting and writing by me Akuila Hughes. I'm

601
00:32:36,840 --> 00:32:40,840
Speaker 3: also an executive producer and the host. Produced by Dan Sinker,

602
00:32:41,440 --> 00:32:45,160
Speaker 3: edited by Josie zahm Our. Assistant editor is Jennifer Dean.

603
00:32:45,840 --> 00:32:49,640
Speaker 3: Music composed by Charlie Sun. Sound design and mixing by

604
00:32:49,680 --> 00:32:50,080
Speaker 3: Josie A.

605
00:32:50,160 --> 00:32:51,080
Speaker 1: Zahm Our.

606
00:32:51,120 --> 00:32:53,680
Speaker 3: Theme song is All the Things I Couldn't Say, performed

607
00:32:53,680 --> 00:32:56,960
Speaker 3: by Bussy and the Bass courtesy of Arts and Crafts Productions, Inc.

608
00:32:57,560 --> 00:33:01,520
Speaker 3: Our production coordinator is Kyle Hinton, Our clearance coordinator is

609
00:33:01,560 --> 00:33:06,080
Speaker 3: Anna Sun Andshine. Production accounting by Dilfrid Singh. Additional research

610
00:33:06,120 --> 00:33:09,920
Speaker 3: support from Janice Dillard. Executive producers for Ninth Planet Audio

611
00:33:10,040 --> 00:33:13,760
Speaker 3: are Elizabeth Bakfoot and Jimmy Miller. Special thanks to Jay

612
00:33:13,800 --> 00:33:17,040
Speaker 3: Becker and the whole team at BLDG, the Florence y'alls,

613
00:33:17,200 --> 00:33:20,920
Speaker 3: Amber Hoffmann, Hillary Delaney, and Leslie Chambers. If you have

614
00:33:20,960 --> 00:33:23,320
Speaker 3: a racist mascot at your high school, or are an

615
00:33:23,320 --> 00:33:26,040
Speaker 3: alumni of a high school with a racist mascot and

616
00:33:26,120 --> 00:33:28,840
Speaker 3: want to share your own experience, please email us at

617
00:33:28,840 --> 00:33:32,120
Speaker 3: Rebel Spirit Podcast at gmail dot com. We would love

618
00:33:32,200 --> 00:33:32,800
Speaker 3: to hear from you