October 29, 2024 • 38 mins
After so much research and work, it is clear that this uphill battle is not coming to a close soon as Akilah finally gets to speak in front of the school. How do you keep fighting for change when endless roadblocks keep getting in the way? How do you stay positive when progress seems to be moving backwards?
If you have a racist mascot at your high school or are an alumni of a high school with a racist mascot and want to share your own experience, please email us at rebelspiritpodcast@gmail.com.
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Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:01):
Of dollars on overlanding I.
Speaker 2 (00:07):
Ninth planet audio cap gone, we're overlanding, You're over landing.
Speaker 3 (00:12):
Over Thank you for joining us tonight for the meeting
of the Boon County Board of Education. I will now
call the meeting to order, and I do see miss Hughes,
our former student board rep from back in the old days,
(00:32):
is first up to uh talk about an item. It's
not on our agenda tonight, but that's okay. And I
do notice that a couple of people have yielded their
time to you.
Speaker 4 (00:43):
So good evening. I'm a cute I promise you're going
to hear the speech in this episode. But let's back
up just a little bit. But I feel like too,
I just wanted to regroup now that we're all here. Yeah,
so you feel like you still need to kind of
write out what you want to say.
Speaker 5 (01:01):
Well, I think I have an.
Speaker 6 (01:03):
Idea, So it's like I would love to workshop it.
Speaker 4 (01:07):
But then also like my producers and I are back
in Florence for three final meetings of the year, a
super fun meeting with BLDG and two high stakes presentations
to the school Board and School Based Decision Making Council,
in which we hope to really make some progress towards
changing the BCHS mascot. I had hoped to show up
(01:27):
with the support of Seawan Alexander, a likely slam dunk
in getting the school's attention, but even without his endorsement,
I feel like we've had a ton of great conversations
and really put together a roadmap that can help the
school administrators see that change is needed.
Speaker 6 (01:42):
The last time we were here was September. It's now December.
It's much colder. We're back in the same area in
Florence near the airport, and you know, not much as
jay for the temperature. Maybe they added a few more
chain restaurants, but yeah, yeah, we have done so many
(02:03):
hours of work and research to this point, and right
now we're heading to Covington to meet up with the
folks at BLDG again just to actually have this kickoff
and talk about what a game plan could look like
for a school. I also am next to a truck
that has a We the People seventeen seventy six rebel
(02:24):
ram with an NRA bulver sticker.
Speaker 4 (02:28):
So yeah, not in La anymore. I was a leady rebel, Like,
what does that even mean?
Speaker 7 (02:35):
The Boone County Rebels will stay the Boone County Rebels,
but the image of.
Speaker 6 (02:39):
It right here in black and white.
Speaker 8 (02:41):
Friends bigger than a flag or mask.
Speaker 9 (02:44):
On anytime you're trying to mess with tradition, you get
to be ready for a serious.
Speaker 4 (02:48):
Backgratch from Ninth Planet Audio. I'm Akhila Hughes and this
is rebel spirit. So disappointing being back in Florence. It's
a reminder of just how far we've come and how
(03:10):
much work we've done since our trip out for homecoming week.
We've made allies with school board members and city council
people and other folks in Florence working to make a
change here.
Speaker 10 (03:21):
Yeah, Carolyn is great.
Speaker 11 (03:23):
She's a great person for you guys to have connected with.
Speaker 10 (03:25):
I'm really glad you have.
Speaker 5 (03:26):
Thank you.
Speaker 4 (03:27):
Yeah, we've talked with students at BCHS and around the
region about what they'd like to see in a mascot
and why they're important.
Speaker 5 (03:33):
It makes me want for like my school in the.
Speaker 4 (03:36):
Yeah, we've dived deep into the history of the area
and have proven that the central story around the rebels
name that it was based on rebel without a Cause
is a lot So it was just funny that like
Olazok was coming to the library. We've spoken with people
who have made mascots people love, and have gotten to
work with BLDG, the design firm that transformed the Frontier
League baseball team right here in Florence, from the Freedom
(03:58):
to the y'alls.
Speaker 9 (03:59):
That's why it's the press bucket and not a press
box marks bucket of chicken.
Speaker 4 (04:03):
And we've spoken with people at other schools who have
made the change away from the rebels, including Bobby Thomas
at Denver South, who gave us his whole game plan.
Speaker 5 (04:11):
Loud voices that people respected. We're standing behind this decision.
Speaker 4 (04:15):
We've done the readings, we understand the assignment, and now
in December twenty twenty three, we were back in Florence
to share it all with the school, but our first
stop was back in Covington, Kentucky to meet with BLDG
for some advice on how to best present our case
in Florence this week to see you.
Speaker 5 (04:31):
Guys in person. I know, I feel very lucky to
be able to be here.
Speaker 12 (04:34):
I think for us, one thing that helped us with
the y'alls is that we had a suggestion of where
to go, and I think what we can do and
what we kind of recommend is always wrapping it up
in that kind of larger story. You don't necessarily have
to say it's X what they're called the biscuits or yeah,
but you've got all.
Speaker 5 (04:50):
The logical stuff in your back pocket. It sounds very
clear because we have that for the y'alls too.
Speaker 12 (04:54):
It was we've got a laundry list of blind responses
of people saying, y'all's y'all st are.
Speaker 5 (05:00):
Yeah, we had on the logical staff. Now we need
the conceptual idea.
Speaker 11 (05:04):
Yeah.
Speaker 8 (05:04):
But we went through the three of us and we
were like, well, what's your high school mascot? And what
we were What we found was, I mean my high school,
the nickname is the Bombers, God is my Witness, and
the logo is.
Speaker 5 (05:16):
The Agent Orange because the logo was.
Speaker 8 (05:19):
The logan, so they're not even. We went Jason, I
went to the same high school, so it's the same thing.
It's a fighter jet. I was at a party and
I mentioned not this, but I mentioned, you know. She
was like, I'd love for you to come in and
do some stuff for sat AX, and I'm like, you know,
I will, but you have to agree to do this,
and she's like, well, why would that be importantly Well,
if we're selling this idea of men for others, well
(05:39):
our logo is a bomber that.
Speaker 5 (05:41):
Kills people men for others. Let's go and kill them
all together exactly.
Speaker 8 (05:46):
Yeah, And she laughed and she was like, well, I
guess you make a great point. So that brought a
deeper conversation.
Speaker 4 (05:53):
So much of the work of ending offensive tropes is
just making people aware of them. My mother said it
in our very first episode. It takes an education and
a willingness to be open minded, open minded even that
whatever comes next for Boone County will be better, not
just less offensive or less historical. We can be more,
more engaged, more creative, even more proud.
Speaker 12 (06:15):
So much of the way we sell ourselves is like
people kind of look at us like, hey, prove it smart.
If you guys are such harny pants, like what's your
what's what is the answer? So I think you know,
and if we don't have the hey, this is the
name now going forward, it's it's more so just about this,
like theoretical driver of what makes just a name change
in general a great idea which again you've got all
(06:35):
the logical stuff in your back pocket to use. It
can be so much more than just like a picture
on your wall in a school. It can be something
people want to wear on a T shirt. It can
be something that they want to make scarves out of,
or best case scenario, they make their own posters.
Speaker 5 (06:48):
To carry around.
Speaker 4 (06:49):
Like the principle was my fine arts teachure.
Speaker 5 (06:52):
It can spark creativity amongst the student body.
Speaker 12 (06:54):
That they can't even dream of, like right now, because
they don't have anything.
Speaker 4 (06:59):
So out of the meeting with BLDG, I was looking
forward to the school based decision making meeting that night.
In the school board meeting the next day, Bolstering my
optimism was an email we got from Stacy Black, the
principal at BCHS, who wrote us just a few days
before we arrived in Florence, responding to one of my
producers who had written a parent representative to the BHS
(07:20):
decision making Council. In that email, Principal Black dropped a
surprise on us, read by a friend of mine who
is an excellent actress.
Speaker 10 (07:30):
We already have an internal committee that is in the
process of looking at this issue specifically. Internal conversation started
last year during my interim year and have continued this year.
The internal committee has been brainstorming what the process will
look like, and so with this being said, any additional
(07:50):
feedback is always welcome. While I sincerely appreciate your commitment
to this change and the work you've done, Mascot Committee
at BHS will lead the work around this and create
a timeline, slash action plan which will include feedback from
the twelve hundred and eighty five students in our building,
(08:13):
in addition to parents, alumni and teachers, and external BCHS
school community members.
Speaker 4 (08:21):
Up to now, the only communication we to receive from
Stacy Black was no comment, and now she's telling us
she had already formed a super secret committee to bring
storm a process to change the mascot last year. I
was floored, and so I wrote to follow up. Princeville.
Black's response was positive, if noncommittal.
Speaker 10 (08:40):
I don't want you to feel like your opinion as
an alumnus is not important or welcome. It is, but
there is a process for this type of change and
I will be following this process.
Speaker 4 (08:55):
We agree that this is.
Speaker 10 (08:56):
Needed, but the process and timeline set by the formalized
committee will leave the work it is too important, and
I will do this the correct way and follow the
established action plans set forth by the committee. I believe
you and I are aligned in our beliefs pertaining to
this topic. I agree wholeheartedly that a new mascot would
(09:20):
be a positive change, increase positive school culture, and be
a positive representation of BCHS in all that we hope
to accomplish and continue to approve upon here. I'm especially
excited about involving the students in it and how we
can make this a fun and engaging process that will
(09:42):
bring our school community even closer. I understand the impact
this will have and am committed to continued positive change
at BCHS. In that I know we are in full agreement.
BCHS has been my home for twenty seven years, my
entire professional career. I care deeply about this school, the students,
(10:05):
and the staff, and I am extremely excited for this
process to begin and the positive change it will bring.
Speaker 4 (10:14):
None of us were really sure how to process this exchange.
There was a committee or there wasn't. The work had
begun or it hadn't. Was this change coming soon or
was all this just a stalling tactic. Certainly, these are
questions that could be answered at the School Based Decision
Making Council meeting we were attending at the high school
that night, right, I mean, if nothing else, it made
(10:35):
me want to push for more transparency in this process
and press for urgency in making this change. Anyway, these
were questions swirling in my head as we've pulled up
to Boone County High School for the meeting. Hi, Leslie,
how you doing this? Looks way better than there was
in high school. We was joining us at the meeting
(10:57):
was Leslie Chambers, who is on the city Council and
is been super supportive of us throughout this process. The
School Based Decision Making Council meeting is held in a
small multipurpose room off the front entrance of the school
that when I was at BHS was the auditorium. The
council sits at a high top table on one end
of the room, and a ray of couches and chairs
(11:17):
fill the rest of the room. There's a sign up
sheet to speak at the entrance when you walk in,
and tonight I'm the only name on it. Awesome, Bye?
Can we just sit anywhere? It's so quiet in there.
It's the kind of quiet that makes you feel like
(11:37):
you're interrupting something, even though this is obstensibly a public meeting.
We take our place on the couches and things open
with a very muted roll call, whispered approval of the
last meetings minutes. And then, because I'm the only one here,
it's my two minutes right away. There's no microphone or lectern.
You just stand up and go all right, No, it's
(11:59):
all good.
Speaker 6 (12:00):
I can project I used to be in this auditorium.
Speaker 4 (12:02):
All right, let me know when the time has started,
and I'll come great.
Speaker 6 (12:06):
Hi.
Speaker 4 (12:07):
I'm Akila Hughes. I'm a BHS alum from the class
of two thousand and five. I wrote an article in
the Cincinnati Enquirer that got picked up about going to
the high school re union in twenty fifteen and about
the mascot. Obviously, everyone here knows about the controversy surrounding
mister Rebel, and in twenty seventeen you all did away
with him and promised to get a new mascot. It's
six years later and Boone County is still the Rebels.
(12:29):
I'm here to convince you that this needs This is
one of two meetings I'll have to make my case
at so I won't test your patients hearing the same
speech twice. Suffice it to say, I said my piece,
and then we're here and excited to work with you
on this and we will follow up via email encourage
you to start moving this process forward. Thank you. We
(12:50):
did it perfect timing, Yeah, no worries. The council was
friendly and thank me for being there. And that was it.
We were in and out in under ten minutes. Though
I had hoped for more of a discussion with the SBDC,
I wasn't too surprised and knew that we still had
the school board meeting the next evening, so we decided
(13:11):
to enter our night with grilled cheese and pie at
another Northern Kentucky staple, Frish's Big Boy, before heading back
to the hotel to prepare for the next challenge ahead.
When we return, I go in front of the school
board to say my piece.
Speaker 3 (13:27):
Thank you for joining us tonight for the meeting of
the Ben County Board of Education. I will now call
the meeting to order.
Speaker 4 (13:35):
All right, really, y'all, this time, I'm not stopping the tape,
I promise. As opposed to the SBDM council meeting last night,
the school board meeting was packed. Joining us at the
school board meeting was Leslie Chambers again and then Jay
Becker from BLDG, who was planning to speak in support
of our efforts. When we were here in September, you'll
remember that the near overflow crowd was here to speak
(13:58):
against SB one fifty, the anti trans youth bill recently
passed by the Kentucky legislature. This time around, there was
no single issue uniting the crowd, and instead of the
usual order of business where the public comment period follows
a few short presentations, the meeting dragged on.
Speaker 5 (14:17):
We did the same round and creating balloons. And you
have a community based accountability. And he defines two different
kinds of accountability, and I want to make the distinctions
so that you're aware. And on he calls the first
one protectionist accountability.
Speaker 1 (14:30):
And this is.
Speaker 4 (14:31):
What we have three vendors right now who are their
level of encryption. Hand on goes end of life, so
to speak. It was over two hours before finally the
public comment period began.
Speaker 3 (14:43):
That brings us to our audience of citizens our usual disclaimer.
We welcomed to the opportunity.
Speaker 4 (14:51):
The crowd that had been there at the start of
the meeting had dwindled significantly. Jay Becker from BLDG, who
was planning to speak, had to leave about ninety minutes in.
Finally it was my chance to speak.
Speaker 3 (15:03):
And I do see Ms Hughes, our former student board
rep from back in the old days, is first up
to talk about an item. It's not on our agin tonight,
but that's okay. And I do notice that a couple
of people have yielded their time to you.
Speaker 4 (15:23):
So good evening. I'm Akila Hughes. I'm a Boone County
High School alum from the class of two thousand and five.
I also sat on this very board as the student
representative to the Board of Education for my final school
year in the district. You can see my baby face
and a picture hanging right outside of this room. Zebus
it It's good. I'm here because I'm making a podcast
(15:46):
for iHeartRadio about the mascot at Boone County High School
and about how change is possible. Obviously, everyone here knows
about the controversy surrounding mister Rebel, and in twenty seventeen
BHS did away with him and promised to a new mascot.
Speaker 6 (16:01):
Awesome.
Speaker 4 (16:02):
It's six years later in Boone County is still the Rebels,
still named after the Confederacy, a short lived, failed military
exercise against the will of the United States of America.
Kentucky wasn't even in the Confederacy. Boone County High School
has been the Rebels seventeen times, longer than the Confederacy
even existed seventeen But this isn't about shame or relitigating
(16:25):
the past. This is about moving the school and the
community forward. Last night we attended the site based Decision
Making Council meeting at Boone and explain why this change
needs to happen as soon as possible. And you'll be
happy to know that the principle, Miss Black, claimed in
an email that this is something that the school cares
about and wants to change. I am here to convince
you that this needs a change expeditiously. Next year is
(16:48):
the seventieth anniversary of the school. It's also the seventieth
anniversary of Brown versus the Board of Education and what
better time to make this change than with that celebration.
And I've put in a lot of work to help
facilitate the change. We were here in the fall and
attended homecoming, and in the time since, we've conducted dozens
of interviews, comprising hours of research with students, parents, members
(17:09):
of the Board of Education, members of the site based
Decision Making Council, the city Council, the Alexander family, principles
at other schools who had to make this specific change
from a rebel to a new mascot. We've spoken to
a local historian at the Boone County Public Library. We
spoke with the Florence Yawls and the team at BLDG,
which is a local branding and marketing firm who did
(17:31):
the literal case study on creating a more inclusive mascot
from one that had zero excitement around it. Jay Becker
was here earlier he had to leave. Everyone we've spoken
to has been excited about the change, and we are
offering all of our resources to the school. When I
came to homecoming in the fall, I was really floored
to see how diverse the school community has become, not
just racially, but internationally and with self expression and acceptance.
(17:54):
It's clear that the school community has changed. But the
one thing that hasn't changed in all of this time
is the mascot. During my time at BCHS, Black students,
regardless of their achievements academically or in extracurriculars, were made
to feel othered. We were never represented by the mascot.
We were made to cheer for, and since graduating, when
I speak to people who aren't from here about what
(18:15):
high school was like for me, there's a pause. Everyone
understands intellectually that the mascot is wrong. The fact that
we had to cheer for it is wrong, and it
isn't just wrong today. It was wrong in two thousand
and five, and it was wrong in nineteen fifty four
when the school was founded. It is a blight on
my lived experiences and a shame for this community to overcome.
The students deserve better, and so far they've been offered
(18:38):
racism or nothing. It's time to offer them something better.
This is an opportunity. This region is blossoming, the population
is booming, and the community is better now for the
diversity that has come, it's only going to continue to diversify.
So let's look toward the future. This doesn't have to
be expensive or daunting. This doesn't have to be hard.
(18:58):
It's an opportunity to prepare Boone County into its next
seventy years. And it isn't just an opportunity to change
the mascot from bad to decent. It's an opportunity to
engage the creativity of students, their parents, alumni, and the
greater community to build a new and positive legacy for
the school. I know change is hard, and I know
that there will be pushback. That's where leadership comes in.
(19:21):
When we came here in September, we tried to meet
with you, and instead we were put in touch with
Barbara Brady, who led us to apparent Liaison to the board.
In a text that Liaison said to me, quote, aw,
we both know the school board has already put this
to rest. To reiterate, she does not believe that this
is something that you actually care about, and she felt
(19:44):
comfortable putting that in writing to me. Let's prove her wrong.
I do believe that you care about this. I believe
you care about the students who go to Boone County
High past and present. I believe you understand how good
this change could be for everyone, and I believe that
you can be doing more to help Boone County High
School create a new identity that the entire school community
can be proud of. When we spoke of alumni who
(20:06):
were here in the Shawn Alexander era, there was an
energy there, a pride there. People were engaging with the
school in a way they never had before and had
something worth cheering for. We can have that again. I
would love to see a standing room only football stadium
for homecoming with the crowd of families excited to cheer
on a team with an identity everyone can be proud of.
(20:26):
Students taking pics with the mascot posting them on Instagram.
A mural in the school that doesn't say Rebel Pride,
but instead is created by the student community and represents
all the kids who go there and alumni who actually
returned to the school and experience a new sense of
pride about how far we've come. I promise you that
this change will have a ripple effect throughout the wider community.
(20:47):
It's amazing what happens when people feel included and respected.
This is the opportunity that lies in front of you,
and I'm here and excited to work with you on this.
We will follow up via email to share our resources,
and we encourage you to start moving this process forward.
Thank you. The public comment period now well past the
(21:14):
two and a half hour since the start of the
meeting was sparse. There were two other speakers there to
talk about unrelated items, and then Amber Hoffman, who we
spoke to earlier in this series, spoke as a Boone
County District parent and support of changing the mascot.
Speaker 9 (21:28):
And this is an opportunity for you guys to make
sure that all of the students in Boone County Schools
know that this is not appropriate. Take a stand and
make sure that they understand that we are y'all. This
is what you guys say all the time. You know
that Boone County school is for all of us. All
means that y'all means all. And I would love for
you guys to take a stand on this and you know,
(21:49):
put the mask out to bed. Let the kids know
in this community that you have their backs, because that's
what I expect of you guys, and I hope you
guys expect from yourselves. Thank you.
Speaker 4 (22:01):
We'll be right back with the board's response. After a
short ad break after Amber spoke, President Karen Bird made
it clear that the school board had no influence in
making the change, and also that she had somehow lost
my email.
Speaker 3 (22:14):
That is all that we had signed up to speak tonight.
Normally we use this time as a time just to listen,
but since Tequila and we have a history here, I
will let you know you're in the right place working
with the site based council at Boone County High School.
This Board of Education has nothing to do with that
(22:36):
decision and how they make it in the process that
they use. So my kids went to Boone County High School.
Miss Young's kids would be at Boone County High School
if yeah, yeah, So it's I understand both sides, but
(22:56):
that really is not our decision to make. That's the
school's decision to make. And I think with missus Black
at the helm, sometimes change doesn't come as a fast
as we would want it to. But you know, if
you need resources or if you need information, you know,
let us know. I tried to respond to your email
(23:18):
and I couldn't find it to let you know that
you know, we would look forward to having you back
and having you here, but continue to work with the
council because that's where that change has to happen. Us
to do otherwise would be in violation of the laws.
So okay, we will move on now with our consent
(23:41):
agenda items Items A through h.
Speaker 4 (23:46):
H and that was it. They moved on to more
of their agenda. Seeing as how it was nearly ten
o'clock we left. Waiting in the lobby was a group
of supporters all seeing the same thing. They've never seen
a meeting take that long time get to public comment.
Of course, thank you, I really appreciate. It was crazy,
(24:08):
I mean, coming everyone has the bottom to the top,
and I was like, I think you should be illegal
for any woman you have to formn I PM and
they are pushing it.
Speaker 5 (24:26):
You should take them off on protest.
Speaker 4 (24:27):
You should, you can probably tell from our voices. But
the school board meeting left us all feeling pretty defeated
and frustrated and exhausted and hungry and dreading the early
morning flights we all had to take to get back
home for the holidays. I'm so disappointed in Boone County,
I really am, because you know, as we saw at
(24:52):
the first board meeting we went to, they're willing to
engage on certain things they feel confident talking about. And
to hear Karen Bird, the you know, the head of
the Board of Education basically say I can understand both
sides of this issue. First of all, I don't even
know what the other side of the issue is that
the Confederacy was a part of Kentucky, that we should
(25:13):
have this mascot, like objectively, I plan to follow up
and be like, please explain it, Like I'm ten, what's
the other side of the issue. What is it that
you're a coward? So, I mean, that's really how I feel.
I feel like there's so much cowardice at the heart
of this community and the people who are elected to
represent the community. And so, you know, I'm really proud
(25:36):
of what I said, and I still stand by everything
that I said there, but I am so saddened that,
like this is just something that they clearly don't want
to lead on. And yeah, I also just felt like,
of course, Barbara Brady I had left by that point.
By the time I got to speak, the meeting was
so long, and everybody who's been going to the meeting said,
(25:59):
that's got to be intention Like, why why is it
almost ten pm when I'm speaking? It's crazy. But I'm
glad that we went. I'm glad that we said it,
and I don't think that this is the end of
the conversation. Yeah, and it's nice to Amber and them
were there totally. I mean, like I was really glad
(26:19):
that she was willing to speak and like in support
of this in particular, Like, I know there's plenty of
other issues going on in the school district, and you know,
you know, they have like ten minute presentation on accountability,
and they don't want to be accountable for this. It's
very funny. It was so late when we got back,
(26:43):
and I had a six am flight back to Los
Angeles in the morning. I wish I could say that
I felt anything other than exhausted and disappointed, but I didn't.
A mid December meeting meant that the holidays and winter
break for the schools pushed any chance that we might
hear back from the board or Principal Black while into
the new year. And if you think we heard back
right away, you'd be wrong. Despite our offers of sharing
(27:06):
our research in our contacts, the offer of help from BLDG,
or the ground swell of locals helping to move things forward,
we didn't hear anything from the board or Principle Black.
We wrote them back in the new year, asking the
principle for information on the process she'd promised in the
email before the meeting. No response. We wrote the board
(27:26):
for clarification on the legal question Karen had mentioned in
her response in December. No response, though, we did hear
back from the State Board of Education's legal person who
said that there was no law on the books of
this nature and that while the board may defer to
a school based decision making body, there's nothing making it
against the law for a board to step in. In fact,
(27:47):
that's exactly what happened in twenty twenty in Louisville, Kentucky,
when the Jefferson County Public Schools Board asked all of
its school based councils to reevaluate their mascots based on
a new eight question racial equity analysis protocol. And guess
what one of those Jefferson County Public schools was called?
You guessed it. The Atherton Rebels and now the Ravens
(28:09):
thanks to the intervention of the school board, an intervention
that was absolutely not illegal. Side note this is Jack
Harlowe's High school. The silence from the school and from
the board stretched through January and into February, and then
something wholly unexpected happened. Mister Rebel came back.
Speaker 1 (28:31):
All right, here we are at Walgreens.
Speaker 12 (28:35):
It is Groundhog Day, February second, twenty twenty four.
Speaker 4 (28:42):
We're going to go in here and look for some
offensive spirit wear. Our producer Dan got a text from
Leslie Chambers. It was a picture of a T shirt
for sale at the Walgreens in town. It read Boone
County Rebels in generic collegiate style lettering and topping the
logo was the head of the Air currently not retired
Confederate General, mister Rebel.
Speaker 10 (29:03):
All right, so I'll just go and get these socks,
and then we'll go ahead and check the other Walgreens tomorrow.
Speaker 4 (29:10):
In fact, it was part of a whole line of
mister Rebel clothes for sale at the local Walgreens, including
T shirts, hoodies, sweatpants, and socks. Listener, I now own
a pair of mister Rebel socks because I had to
see it to believe it. But here he is laughing
at me. And then a few weeks later we got
a photograph of a Boone County wrestler on the winters
(29:33):
podium and who's on the warm up shorts? Yep, it's
mister Rebel again. Mister Rebel was retired in twenty seventeen.
There were whole news reports about it and everything.
Speaker 7 (29:44):
Well, call me the Boone County Rebels will stay the
Boone County Rebels, but the image of mister Rebel has
been gone from the jim floor for the long time.
Speaker 4 (29:53):
Mister Rebel will be retired. About thirty students have already
submitted ideas, and yet here in February twenty twenty four,
seven years later, his mustache visage is once again staring
out at me. Six months into our work to get
the team name changed for good, and now we're back
fighting twenty seventeen's battles all over again.
Speaker 10 (30:13):
Now.
Speaker 4 (30:14):
The merch sold at Walgreens based on the tag is
created by a company that supplies school merch to Booster Clubs,
arguably not the school itself, though it clearly reads that
proceeds go to Boone County High School. But how did
the third place finisher at the state wrestling Championships, a
black kid, I should add, end up wearing mister Rebel
on his leg. We reached out to Lance Melching, who
(30:36):
holds the double title of both Boone County High school's
athletic director and journalism teacher to find out. Our previous
emails to him had always gone unresponded, but this time
he wrote back right away again. I've asked a friend
to read his email.
Speaker 1 (30:53):
Our policy has been that we are phasing out any
apparel slash, signage, slash etc. With the depiction of a
rebel character. That process is nearly complete, though some kids
and people still have some items. We have not ordered
anything new with the depiction of the character since that
process started. These shorts were found during a closet cleanout
(31:15):
and evidently offered to some kids as an alternative to
having them thrown out. Going forward, we will be disposing
of these kinds of items. Over the years, the school
has entered into various agreements with third parties who produce
apparel for businesses. I've only found out about these agreements
when I have occasionally received a check from the proceeds
(31:35):
and then inquired as to where it came from and
why the revenue from this particular vendor was not directed
towards the athletic department. So I was unfamiliar with them
until they reached out last week and were directed to me.
At that time, we sent them a new logo. To
my knowledge, all of our vendors of this type have
our new marks that do not include any depiction of
(31:58):
a character.
Speaker 4 (32:00):
What are the odds that just the week before we
raised the issue, the company that made the Mister Rebel
merch reached out all on their own and they changed
the logos. I hope someone in the email chain bought
a lottery ticket. So here we are. We've been at
this for months and the only movement has been backwards.
Mister Rebel is back, though maybe only temporarily. The Rebel's
(32:23):
name remains, and we've heard nothing from Principal Black about
the process to define a process that she promised us
was well under way in that email back in December.
Believe me, we've asked nine episodes in and we have
basically nothing to show for it. Change is hard and slow,
I know, but it's still frustrating and disappointing. So disappointing.
(32:44):
I knew changing things in Florence would be hard, but
what I didn't expect was that it would feel like
we're fighting against not just local headwinds, but national ones too.
As the country wound its way toward another presidential election,
cycle with Donald Trump at the top of the Republican ticket.
The winds of change, especially the ones that blew in
twenty twenty following the murders of George Floyd and Breonna Taylor,
(33:07):
wins that blew away rebel team names across the country,
brought equity initiatives to the foe and began, albeit slowly,
to dismantle some of the systemic racism that defines the country.
Those winds were blowing the other way.
Speaker 9 (33:19):
All right.
Speaker 2 (33:20):
With a five to one vote, it was the Shenandoah
County School Board voting to restore the names of Mountain
View High and Honey Run Elementary to Stonewall, Jackson High
and Ashby Lee Elementary. Those who voted in favor say
the twenty twenty board took shortcuts and made decisions without
public opinion, arguing they ignored the people they represent. A
(33:40):
concerned resident argued, restoring these names is like going back
to nineteen fifty nine, a year they say rooted in
mass resistance and jim.
Speaker 4 (33:47):
As we were getting nowhere in Boone County, things were
happening a few hundred miles away in Shenandoah County, Virginia,
where after removing the names of Confederate icons on their
schools in twenty twenty. The school board had voted just
four years later to change them back.
Speaker 11 (34:03):
I wanted to look back and find out when exactly
did all of this start, because this appears to be
the first school to be able to go back and
change his names after what happened during the George Floyd
time period, back during the pandemic.
Speaker 4 (34:19):
This is Nathaniel Klein, an award winning journalist who has
written about the Shenandoah County School Board's decision to reverse
the renaming of their schools.
Speaker 11 (34:27):
This could possibly be a blueprint if other school boards
decided to do this down the road and change names
back to it. If you know the story, it'll kind
of talk about this resolution that was passed by the
Board of Supervisors, which is completely different from the school
board in combating racism, and so they said, well, we
need to take it a step further, and so they
(34:47):
took that step back in twenty twenty one, you know,
and working on this story, you know, after the twenty
twenty one decision, it was a slow build up of
that school board changing.
Speaker 4 (34:59):
The board now composed entirely of white members, includes one
member who praised Stonewall Jackson as a gallant commander.
Speaker 11 (35:06):
It wasn't just the changing of the names. There were
other policy decisions being made by school boards across the country, including,
you know, for the rights of transgender.
Speaker 5 (35:14):
Students and.
Speaker 11 (35:17):
Exactly exactly, and so eventually, once that school board kind
of basically overhauled itself, you saw that backlash, backlash.
Speaker 4 (35:25):
So backlash to backlash, reaction to reaction was very.
Speaker 11 (35:29):
Quick to get everything back up. When I went out
there for a visit, I didn't even I didn't You
couldn't tell anything happened at all the last few years.
It was so quick.
Speaker 4 (35:38):
Wow, the struggle for progress is far from over. Every
school with a rebel mascot or a Confederate general's name
defies progress, decency, and the acknowledgment that Black Americans risk
their lives to secure education for their children. We've learned
that Confederacy based violence remains alive and well after Charlottesville.
We explored how the scendants of enslaved people and slave
(36:01):
owners attended Boone County High School. Together. We discussed how
even well meaning white people struggle to enact change due
to community pressure that mascots carry significant weight, capable of
inspiring pride, but also perpetuating oppression and signaling how a
community views black students. Now, at the end of all this,
you're likely beginning to understand why we titled this episode
(36:24):
so disappointing. At this point, given our lack of progress
with the school board in BCHS, combined with the actual
reversal of progress in places around the country, our journey
is truly feeling so, so so disappointing. Every episode of
this podcast, I've tried to end with hope, to leave
you with a sense that change is really possible. But honestly,
(36:47):
after everything that's happened since we were here in Florence
in December, the lack of action from anyone there, and
the sense that things aren't progressing but instead are regressing,
not just in Florence but everyone, I'm not sure I
believe it. Rebel Spirit is a production of Ninth Planet
(37:11):
Audio and association with iHeart Podcasts. Reporting and writing by
me Aquila Hughes. I'm also an executive producer and the host.
Produced by Dan Sinker, edited by Josie A.
Speaker 3 (37:23):
Zahm Our.
Speaker 4 (37:24):
Assistant editor is Jennifer Dean, music composed by Charlie Sun,
Sound design and mixing by Josie A. Zahm Our. Theme
song is All the Things I Couldn't Say, performed by
Bussy and the Bass courtesy of Arts and Crafts Productions, Inc.
Our production coordinator is Kyle Hinton. Our clearance coordinator is
Anna Sunenshine. Production accounting by Dill prit Singh. Additional research
(37:46):
support from Janice Dillard. Emails read by Nicole Thurman and
Frank garcia Hile. Executive producers from Ninth Planet Audio are
Elizabeth Baklett and Jimmy Miller. Special thanks to Jay Becker
and the whole team at BLDG, the Florence y'alls, Amber Hoffmann,
Hillary Delaney, and Leslie Chambers. If you have a racist
mascot at your high school, or are an alumni of
(38:08):
a high school with a racist mascot and want to
share your own experience, please email us at Rebelspirit podcast
at gmail dot com. We would love to hear from you.
Of dollars on overlanding I.
Speaker 2 (00:07):
Ninth planet audio cap gone, we're overlanding, You're over landing.
Speaker 3 (00:12):
Over Thank you for joining us tonight for the meeting
of the Boon County Board of Education. I will now
call the meeting to order, and I do see miss Hughes,
our former student board rep from back in the old days,
(00:32):
is first up to uh talk about an item. It's
not on our agenda tonight, but that's okay. And I
do notice that a couple of people have yielded their
time to you.
Speaker 4 (00:43):
So good evening. I'm a cute I promise you're going
to hear the speech in this episode. But let's back
up just a little bit. But I feel like too,
I just wanted to regroup now that we're all here. Yeah,
so you feel like you still need to kind of
write out what you want to say.
Speaker 5 (01:01):
Well, I think I have an.
Speaker 6 (01:03):
Idea, So it's like I would love to workshop it.
Speaker 4 (01:07):
But then also like my producers and I are back
in Florence for three final meetings of the year, a
super fun meeting with BLDG and two high stakes presentations
to the school Board and School Based Decision Making Council,
in which we hope to really make some progress towards
changing the BCHS mascot. I had hoped to show up
(01:27):
with the support of Seawan Alexander, a likely slam dunk
in getting the school's attention, but even without his endorsement,
I feel like we've had a ton of great conversations
and really put together a roadmap that can help the
school administrators see that change is needed.
Speaker 6 (01:42):
The last time we were here was September. It's now December.
It's much colder. We're back in the same area in
Florence near the airport, and you know, not much as
jay for the temperature. Maybe they added a few more
chain restaurants, but yeah, yeah, we have done so many
(02:03):
hours of work and research to this point, and right
now we're heading to Covington to meet up with the
folks at BLDG again just to actually have this kickoff
and talk about what a game plan could look like
for a school. I also am next to a truck
that has a We the People seventeen seventy six rebel
(02:24):
ram with an NRA bulver sticker.
Speaker 4 (02:28):
So yeah, not in La anymore. I was a leady rebel, Like,
what does that even mean?
Speaker 7 (02:35):
The Boone County Rebels will stay the Boone County Rebels,
but the image of.
Speaker 6 (02:39):
It right here in black and white.
Speaker 8 (02:41):
Friends bigger than a flag or mask.
Speaker 9 (02:44):
On anytime you're trying to mess with tradition, you get
to be ready for a serious.
Speaker 4 (02:48):
Backgratch from Ninth Planet Audio. I'm Akhila Hughes and this
is rebel spirit. So disappointing being back in Florence. It's
a reminder of just how far we've come and how
(03:10):
much work we've done since our trip out for homecoming week.
We've made allies with school board members and city council
people and other folks in Florence working to make a
change here.
Speaker 10 (03:21):
Yeah, Carolyn is great.
Speaker 11 (03:23):
She's a great person for you guys to have connected with.
Speaker 10 (03:25):
I'm really glad you have.
Speaker 5 (03:26):
Thank you.
Speaker 4 (03:27):
Yeah, we've talked with students at BCHS and around the
region about what they'd like to see in a mascot
and why they're important.
Speaker 5 (03:33):
It makes me want for like my school in the.
Speaker 4 (03:36):
Yeah, we've dived deep into the history of the area
and have proven that the central story around the rebels
name that it was based on rebel without a Cause
is a lot So it was just funny that like
Olazok was coming to the library. We've spoken with people
who have made mascots people love, and have gotten to
work with BLDG, the design firm that transformed the Frontier
League baseball team right here in Florence, from the Freedom
(03:58):
to the y'alls.
Speaker 9 (03:59):
That's why it's the press bucket and not a press
box marks bucket of chicken.
Speaker 4 (04:03):
And we've spoken with people at other schools who have
made the change away from the rebels, including Bobby Thomas
at Denver South, who gave us his whole game plan.
Speaker 5 (04:11):
Loud voices that people respected. We're standing behind this decision.
Speaker 4 (04:15):
We've done the readings, we understand the assignment, and now
in December twenty twenty three, we were back in Florence
to share it all with the school, but our first
stop was back in Covington, Kentucky to meet with BLDG
for some advice on how to best present our case
in Florence this week to see you.
Speaker 5 (04:31):
Guys in person. I know, I feel very lucky to
be able to be here.
Speaker 12 (04:34):
I think for us, one thing that helped us with
the y'alls is that we had a suggestion of where
to go, and I think what we can do and
what we kind of recommend is always wrapping it up
in that kind of larger story. You don't necessarily have
to say it's X what they're called the biscuits or yeah,
but you've got all.
Speaker 5 (04:50):
The logical stuff in your back pocket. It sounds very
clear because we have that for the y'alls too.
Speaker 12 (04:54):
It was we've got a laundry list of blind responses
of people saying, y'all's y'all st are.
Speaker 5 (05:00):
Yeah, we had on the logical staff. Now we need
the conceptual idea.
Speaker 11 (05:04):
Yeah.
Speaker 8 (05:04):
But we went through the three of us and we
were like, well, what's your high school mascot? And what
we were What we found was, I mean my high school,
the nickname is the Bombers, God is my Witness, and
the logo is.
Speaker 5 (05:16):
The Agent Orange because the logo was.
Speaker 8 (05:19):
The logan, so they're not even. We went Jason, I
went to the same high school, so it's the same thing.
It's a fighter jet. I was at a party and
I mentioned not this, but I mentioned, you know. She
was like, I'd love for you to come in and
do some stuff for sat AX, and I'm like, you know,
I will, but you have to agree to do this,
and she's like, well, why would that be importantly Well,
if we're selling this idea of men for others, well
(05:39):
our logo is a bomber that.
Speaker 5 (05:41):
Kills people men for others. Let's go and kill them
all together exactly.
Speaker 8 (05:46):
Yeah, And she laughed and she was like, well, I
guess you make a great point. So that brought a
deeper conversation.
Speaker 4 (05:53):
So much of the work of ending offensive tropes is
just making people aware of them. My mother said it
in our very first episode. It takes an education and
a willingness to be open minded, open minded even that
whatever comes next for Boone County will be better, not
just less offensive or less historical. We can be more,
more engaged, more creative, even more proud.
Speaker 12 (06:15):
So much of the way we sell ourselves is like
people kind of look at us like, hey, prove it smart.
If you guys are such harny pants, like what's your
what's what is the answer? So I think you know,
and if we don't have the hey, this is the
name now going forward, it's it's more so just about this,
like theoretical driver of what makes just a name change
in general a great idea which again you've got all
(06:35):
the logical stuff in your back pocket to use. It
can be so much more than just like a picture
on your wall in a school. It can be something
people want to wear on a T shirt. It can
be something that they want to make scarves out of,
or best case scenario, they make their own posters.
Speaker 5 (06:48):
To carry around.
Speaker 4 (06:49):
Like the principle was my fine arts teachure.
Speaker 5 (06:52):
It can spark creativity amongst the student body.
Speaker 12 (06:54):
That they can't even dream of, like right now, because
they don't have anything.
Speaker 4 (06:59):
So out of the meeting with BLDG, I was looking
forward to the school based decision making meeting that night.
In the school board meeting the next day, Bolstering my
optimism was an email we got from Stacy Black, the
principal at BCHS, who wrote us just a few days
before we arrived in Florence, responding to one of my
producers who had written a parent representative to the BHS
(07:20):
decision making Council. In that email, Principal Black dropped a
surprise on us, read by a friend of mine who
is an excellent actress.
Speaker 10 (07:30):
We already have an internal committee that is in the
process of looking at this issue specifically. Internal conversation started
last year during my interim year and have continued this year.
The internal committee has been brainstorming what the process will
look like, and so with this being said, any additional
(07:50):
feedback is always welcome. While I sincerely appreciate your commitment
to this change and the work you've done, Mascot Committee
at BHS will lead the work around this and create
a timeline, slash action plan which will include feedback from
the twelve hundred and eighty five students in our building,
(08:13):
in addition to parents, alumni and teachers, and external BCHS
school community members.
Speaker 4 (08:21):
Up to now, the only communication we to receive from
Stacy Black was no comment, and now she's telling us
she had already formed a super secret committee to bring
storm a process to change the mascot last year. I
was floored, and so I wrote to follow up. Princeville.
Black's response was positive, if noncommittal.
Speaker 10 (08:40):
I don't want you to feel like your opinion as
an alumnus is not important or welcome. It is, but
there is a process for this type of change and
I will be following this process.
Speaker 4 (08:55):
We agree that this is.
Speaker 10 (08:56):
Needed, but the process and timeline set by the formalized
committee will leave the work it is too important, and
I will do this the correct way and follow the
established action plans set forth by the committee. I believe
you and I are aligned in our beliefs pertaining to
this topic. I agree wholeheartedly that a new mascot would
(09:20):
be a positive change, increase positive school culture, and be
a positive representation of BCHS in all that we hope
to accomplish and continue to approve upon here. I'm especially
excited about involving the students in it and how we
can make this a fun and engaging process that will
(09:42):
bring our school community even closer. I understand the impact
this will have and am committed to continued positive change
at BCHS. In that I know we are in full agreement.
BCHS has been my home for twenty seven years, my
entire professional career. I care deeply about this school, the students,
(10:05):
and the staff, and I am extremely excited for this
process to begin and the positive change it will bring.
Speaker 4 (10:14):
None of us were really sure how to process this exchange.
There was a committee or there wasn't. The work had
begun or it hadn't. Was this change coming soon or
was all this just a stalling tactic. Certainly, these are
questions that could be answered at the School Based Decision
Making Council meeting we were attending at the high school
that night, right, I mean, if nothing else, it made
(10:35):
me want to push for more transparency in this process
and press for urgency in making this change. Anyway, these
were questions swirling in my head as we've pulled up
to Boone County High School for the meeting. Hi, Leslie,
how you doing this? Looks way better than there was
in high school. We was joining us at the meeting
(10:57):
was Leslie Chambers, who is on the city Council and
is been super supportive of us throughout this process. The
School Based Decision Making Council meeting is held in a
small multipurpose room off the front entrance of the school
that when I was at BHS was the auditorium. The
council sits at a high top table on one end
of the room, and a ray of couches and chairs
(11:17):
fill the rest of the room. There's a sign up
sheet to speak at the entrance when you walk in,
and tonight I'm the only name on it. Awesome, Bye?
Can we just sit anywhere? It's so quiet in there.
It's the kind of quiet that makes you feel like
(11:37):
you're interrupting something, even though this is obstensibly a public meeting.
We take our place on the couches and things open
with a very muted roll call, whispered approval of the
last meetings minutes. And then, because I'm the only one here,
it's my two minutes right away. There's no microphone or lectern.
You just stand up and go all right, No, it's
(11:59):
all good.
Speaker 6 (12:00):
I can project I used to be in this auditorium.
Speaker 4 (12:02):
All right, let me know when the time has started,
and I'll come great.
Speaker 6 (12:06):
Hi.
Speaker 4 (12:07):
I'm Akila Hughes. I'm a BHS alum from the class
of two thousand and five. I wrote an article in
the Cincinnati Enquirer that got picked up about going to
the high school re union in twenty fifteen and about
the mascot. Obviously, everyone here knows about the controversy surrounding
mister Rebel, and in twenty seventeen you all did away
with him and promised to get a new mascot. It's
six years later and Boone County is still the Rebels.
(12:29):
I'm here to convince you that this needs This is
one of two meetings I'll have to make my case
at so I won't test your patients hearing the same
speech twice. Suffice it to say, I said my piece,
and then we're here and excited to work with you
on this and we will follow up via email encourage
you to start moving this process forward. Thank you. We
(12:50):
did it perfect timing, Yeah, no worries. The council was
friendly and thank me for being there. And that was it.
We were in and out in under ten minutes. Though
I had hoped for more of a discussion with the SBDC,
I wasn't too surprised and knew that we still had
the school board meeting the next evening, so we decided
(13:11):
to enter our night with grilled cheese and pie at
another Northern Kentucky staple, Frish's Big Boy, before heading back
to the hotel to prepare for the next challenge ahead.
When we return, I go in front of the school
board to say my piece.
Speaker 3 (13:27):
Thank you for joining us tonight for the meeting of
the Ben County Board of Education. I will now call
the meeting to order.
Speaker 4 (13:35):
All right, really, y'all, this time, I'm not stopping the tape,
I promise. As opposed to the SBDM council meeting last night,
the school board meeting was packed. Joining us at the
school board meeting was Leslie Chambers again and then Jay
Becker from BLDG, who was planning to speak in support
of our efforts. When we were here in September, you'll
remember that the near overflow crowd was here to speak
(13:58):
against SB one fifty, the anti trans youth bill recently
passed by the Kentucky legislature. This time around, there was
no single issue uniting the crowd, and instead of the
usual order of business where the public comment period follows
a few short presentations, the meeting dragged on.
Speaker 5 (14:17):
We did the same round and creating balloons. And you
have a community based accountability. And he defines two different
kinds of accountability, and I want to make the distinctions
so that you're aware. And on he calls the first
one protectionist accountability.
Speaker 1 (14:30):
And this is.
Speaker 4 (14:31):
What we have three vendors right now who are their
level of encryption. Hand on goes end of life, so
to speak. It was over two hours before finally the
public comment period began.
Speaker 3 (14:43):
That brings us to our audience of citizens our usual disclaimer.
We welcomed to the opportunity.
Speaker 4 (14:51):
The crowd that had been there at the start of
the meeting had dwindled significantly. Jay Becker from BLDG, who
was planning to speak, had to leave about ninety minutes in.
Finally it was my chance to speak.
Speaker 3 (15:03):
And I do see Ms Hughes, our former student board
rep from back in the old days, is first up
to talk about an item. It's not on our agin tonight,
but that's okay. And I do notice that a couple
of people have yielded their time to you.
Speaker 4 (15:23):
So good evening. I'm Akila Hughes. I'm a Boone County
High School alum from the class of two thousand and five.
I also sat on this very board as the student
representative to the Board of Education for my final school
year in the district. You can see my baby face
and a picture hanging right outside of this room. Zebus
it It's good. I'm here because I'm making a podcast
(15:46):
for iHeartRadio about the mascot at Boone County High School
and about how change is possible. Obviously, everyone here knows
about the controversy surrounding mister Rebel, and in twenty seventeen
BHS did away with him and promised to a new mascot.
Speaker 6 (16:01):
Awesome.
Speaker 4 (16:02):
It's six years later in Boone County is still the Rebels,
still named after the Confederacy, a short lived, failed military
exercise against the will of the United States of America.
Kentucky wasn't even in the Confederacy. Boone County High School
has been the Rebels seventeen times, longer than the Confederacy
even existed seventeen But this isn't about shame or relitigating
(16:25):
the past. This is about moving the school and the
community forward. Last night we attended the site based Decision
Making Council meeting at Boone and explain why this change
needs to happen as soon as possible. And you'll be
happy to know that the principle, Miss Black, claimed in
an email that this is something that the school cares
about and wants to change. I am here to convince
you that this needs a change expeditiously. Next year is
(16:48):
the seventieth anniversary of the school. It's also the seventieth
anniversary of Brown versus the Board of Education and what
better time to make this change than with that celebration.
And I've put in a lot of work to help
facilitate the change. We were here in the fall and
attended homecoming, and in the time since, we've conducted dozens
of interviews, comprising hours of research with students, parents, members
(17:09):
of the Board of Education, members of the site based
Decision Making Council, the city Council, the Alexander family, principles
at other schools who had to make this specific change
from a rebel to a new mascot. We've spoken to
a local historian at the Boone County Public Library. We
spoke with the Florence Yawls and the team at BLDG,
which is a local branding and marketing firm who did
(17:31):
the literal case study on creating a more inclusive mascot
from one that had zero excitement around it. Jay Becker
was here earlier he had to leave. Everyone we've spoken
to has been excited about the change, and we are
offering all of our resources to the school. When I
came to homecoming in the fall, I was really floored
to see how diverse the school community has become, not
just racially, but internationally and with self expression and acceptance.
(17:54):
It's clear that the school community has changed. But the
one thing that hasn't changed in all of this time
is the mascot. During my time at BCHS, Black students,
regardless of their achievements academically or in extracurriculars, were made
to feel othered. We were never represented by the mascot.
We were made to cheer for, and since graduating, when
I speak to people who aren't from here about what
(18:15):
high school was like for me, there's a pause. Everyone
understands intellectually that the mascot is wrong. The fact that
we had to cheer for it is wrong, and it
isn't just wrong today. It was wrong in two thousand
and five, and it was wrong in nineteen fifty four
when the school was founded. It is a blight on
my lived experiences and a shame for this community to overcome.
The students deserve better, and so far they've been offered
(18:38):
racism or nothing. It's time to offer them something better.
This is an opportunity. This region is blossoming, the population
is booming, and the community is better now for the
diversity that has come, it's only going to continue to diversify.
So let's look toward the future. This doesn't have to
be expensive or daunting. This doesn't have to be hard.
(18:58):
It's an opportunity to prepare Boone County into its next
seventy years. And it isn't just an opportunity to change
the mascot from bad to decent. It's an opportunity to
engage the creativity of students, their parents, alumni, and the
greater community to build a new and positive legacy for
the school. I know change is hard, and I know
that there will be pushback. That's where leadership comes in.
(19:21):
When we came here in September, we tried to meet
with you, and instead we were put in touch with
Barbara Brady, who led us to apparent Liaison to the board.
In a text that Liaison said to me, quote, aw,
we both know the school board has already put this
to rest. To reiterate, she does not believe that this
is something that you actually care about, and she felt
(19:44):
comfortable putting that in writing to me. Let's prove her wrong.
I do believe that you care about this. I believe
you care about the students who go to Boone County
High past and present. I believe you understand how good
this change could be for everyone, and I believe that
you can be doing more to help Boone County High
School create a new identity that the entire school community
can be proud of. When we spoke of alumni who
(20:06):
were here in the Shawn Alexander era, there was an
energy there, a pride there. People were engaging with the
school in a way they never had before and had
something worth cheering for. We can have that again. I
would love to see a standing room only football stadium
for homecoming with the crowd of families excited to cheer
on a team with an identity everyone can be proud of.
(20:26):
Students taking pics with the mascot posting them on Instagram.
A mural in the school that doesn't say Rebel Pride,
but instead is created by the student community and represents
all the kids who go there and alumni who actually
returned to the school and experience a new sense of
pride about how far we've come. I promise you that
this change will have a ripple effect throughout the wider community.
(20:47):
It's amazing what happens when people feel included and respected.
This is the opportunity that lies in front of you,
and I'm here and excited to work with you on this.
We will follow up via email to share our resources,
and we encourage you to start moving this process forward.
Thank you. The public comment period now well past the
(21:14):
two and a half hour since the start of the
meeting was sparse. There were two other speakers there to
talk about unrelated items, and then Amber Hoffman, who we
spoke to earlier in this series, spoke as a Boone
County District parent and support of changing the mascot.
Speaker 9 (21:28):
And this is an opportunity for you guys to make
sure that all of the students in Boone County Schools
know that this is not appropriate. Take a stand and
make sure that they understand that we are y'all. This
is what you guys say all the time. You know
that Boone County school is for all of us. All
means that y'all means all. And I would love for
you guys to take a stand on this and you know,
(21:49):
put the mask out to bed. Let the kids know
in this community that you have their backs, because that's
what I expect of you guys, and I hope you
guys expect from yourselves. Thank you.
Speaker 4 (22:01):
We'll be right back with the board's response. After a
short ad break after Amber spoke, President Karen Bird made
it clear that the school board had no influence in
making the change, and also that she had somehow lost
my email.
Speaker 3 (22:14):
That is all that we had signed up to speak tonight.
Normally we use this time as a time just to listen,
but since Tequila and we have a history here, I
will let you know you're in the right place working
with the site based council at Boone County High School.
This Board of Education has nothing to do with that
(22:36):
decision and how they make it in the process that
they use. So my kids went to Boone County High School.
Miss Young's kids would be at Boone County High School
if yeah, yeah, So it's I understand both sides, but
(22:56):
that really is not our decision to make. That's the
school's decision to make. And I think with missus Black
at the helm, sometimes change doesn't come as a fast
as we would want it to. But you know, if
you need resources or if you need information, you know,
let us know. I tried to respond to your email
(23:18):
and I couldn't find it to let you know that
you know, we would look forward to having you back
and having you here, but continue to work with the
council because that's where that change has to happen. Us
to do otherwise would be in violation of the laws.
So okay, we will move on now with our consent
(23:41):
agenda items Items A through h.
Speaker 4 (23:46):
H and that was it. They moved on to more
of their agenda. Seeing as how it was nearly ten
o'clock we left. Waiting in the lobby was a group
of supporters all seeing the same thing. They've never seen
a meeting take that long time get to public comment.
Of course, thank you, I really appreciate. It was crazy,
(24:08):
I mean, coming everyone has the bottom to the top,
and I was like, I think you should be illegal
for any woman you have to formn I PM and
they are pushing it.
Speaker 5 (24:26):
You should take them off on protest.
Speaker 4 (24:27):
You should, you can probably tell from our voices. But
the school board meeting left us all feeling pretty defeated
and frustrated and exhausted and hungry and dreading the early
morning flights we all had to take to get back
home for the holidays. I'm so disappointed in Boone County,
I really am, because you know, as we saw at
(24:52):
the first board meeting we went to, they're willing to
engage on certain things they feel confident talking about. And
to hear Karen Bird, the you know, the head of
the Board of Education basically say I can understand both
sides of this issue. First of all, I don't even
know what the other side of the issue is that
the Confederacy was a part of Kentucky, that we should
(25:13):
have this mascot, like objectively, I plan to follow up
and be like, please explain it, Like I'm ten, what's
the other side of the issue. What is it that
you're a coward? So, I mean, that's really how I feel.
I feel like there's so much cowardice at the heart
of this community and the people who are elected to
represent the community. And so, you know, I'm really proud
(25:36):
of what I said, and I still stand by everything
that I said there, but I am so saddened that,
like this is just something that they clearly don't want
to lead on. And yeah, I also just felt like,
of course, Barbara Brady I had left by that point.
By the time I got to speak, the meeting was
so long, and everybody who's been going to the meeting said,
(25:59):
that's got to be intention Like, why why is it
almost ten pm when I'm speaking? It's crazy. But I'm
glad that we went. I'm glad that we said it,
and I don't think that this is the end of
the conversation. Yeah, and it's nice to Amber and them
were there totally. I mean, like I was really glad
(26:19):
that she was willing to speak and like in support
of this in particular, Like, I know there's plenty of
other issues going on in the school district, and you know,
you know, they have like ten minute presentation on accountability,
and they don't want to be accountable for this. It's
very funny. It was so late when we got back,
(26:43):
and I had a six am flight back to Los
Angeles in the morning. I wish I could say that
I felt anything other than exhausted and disappointed, but I didn't.
A mid December meeting meant that the holidays and winter
break for the schools pushed any chance that we might
hear back from the board or Principal Black while into
the new year. And if you think we heard back
right away, you'd be wrong. Despite our offers of sharing
(27:06):
our research in our contacts, the offer of help from BLDG,
or the ground swell of locals helping to move things forward,
we didn't hear anything from the board or Principle Black.
We wrote them back in the new year, asking the
principle for information on the process she'd promised in the
email before the meeting. No response. We wrote the board
(27:26):
for clarification on the legal question Karen had mentioned in
her response in December. No response, though, we did hear
back from the State Board of Education's legal person who
said that there was no law on the books of
this nature and that while the board may defer to
a school based decision making body, there's nothing making it
against the law for a board to step in. In fact,
(27:47):
that's exactly what happened in twenty twenty in Louisville, Kentucky,
when the Jefferson County Public Schools Board asked all of
its school based councils to reevaluate their mascots based on
a new eight question racial equity analysis protocol. And guess
what one of those Jefferson County Public schools was called?
You guessed it. The Atherton Rebels and now the Ravens
(28:09):
thanks to the intervention of the school board, an intervention
that was absolutely not illegal. Side note this is Jack
Harlowe's High school. The silence from the school and from
the board stretched through January and into February, and then
something wholly unexpected happened. Mister Rebel came back.
Speaker 1 (28:31):
All right, here we are at Walgreens.
Speaker 12 (28:35):
It is Groundhog Day, February second, twenty twenty four.
Speaker 4 (28:42):
We're going to go in here and look for some
offensive spirit wear. Our producer Dan got a text from
Leslie Chambers. It was a picture of a T shirt
for sale at the Walgreens in town. It read Boone
County Rebels in generic collegiate style lettering and topping the
logo was the head of the Air currently not retired
Confederate General, mister Rebel.
Speaker 10 (29:03):
All right, so I'll just go and get these socks,
and then we'll go ahead and check the other Walgreens tomorrow.
Speaker 4 (29:10):
In fact, it was part of a whole line of
mister Rebel clothes for sale at the local Walgreens, including
T shirts, hoodies, sweatpants, and socks. Listener, I now own
a pair of mister Rebel socks because I had to
see it to believe it. But here he is laughing
at me. And then a few weeks later we got
a photograph of a Boone County wrestler on the winters
(29:33):
podium and who's on the warm up shorts? Yep, it's
mister Rebel again. Mister Rebel was retired in twenty seventeen.
There were whole news reports about it and everything.
Speaker 7 (29:44):
Well, call me the Boone County Rebels will stay the
Boone County Rebels, but the image of mister Rebel has
been gone from the jim floor for the long time.
Speaker 4 (29:53):
Mister Rebel will be retired. About thirty students have already
submitted ideas, and yet here in February twenty twenty four,
seven years later, his mustache visage is once again staring
out at me. Six months into our work to get
the team name changed for good, and now we're back
fighting twenty seventeen's battles all over again.
Speaker 10 (30:13):
Now.
Speaker 4 (30:14):
The merch sold at Walgreens based on the tag is
created by a company that supplies school merch to Booster Clubs,
arguably not the school itself, though it clearly reads that
proceeds go to Boone County High School. But how did
the third place finisher at the state wrestling Championships, a
black kid, I should add, end up wearing mister Rebel
on his leg. We reached out to Lance Melching, who
(30:36):
holds the double title of both Boone County High school's
athletic director and journalism teacher to find out. Our previous
emails to him had always gone unresponded, but this time
he wrote back right away again. I've asked a friend
to read his email.
Speaker 1 (30:53):
Our policy has been that we are phasing out any
apparel slash, signage, slash etc. With the depiction of a
rebel character. That process is nearly complete, though some kids
and people still have some items. We have not ordered
anything new with the depiction of the character since that
process started. These shorts were found during a closet cleanout
(31:15):
and evidently offered to some kids as an alternative to
having them thrown out. Going forward, we will be disposing
of these kinds of items. Over the years, the school
has entered into various agreements with third parties who produce
apparel for businesses. I've only found out about these agreements
when I have occasionally received a check from the proceeds
(31:35):
and then inquired as to where it came from and
why the revenue from this particular vendor was not directed
towards the athletic department. So I was unfamiliar with them
until they reached out last week and were directed to me.
At that time, we sent them a new logo. To
my knowledge, all of our vendors of this type have
our new marks that do not include any depiction of
(31:58):
a character.
Speaker 4 (32:00):
What are the odds that just the week before we
raised the issue, the company that made the Mister Rebel
merch reached out all on their own and they changed
the logos. I hope someone in the email chain bought
a lottery ticket. So here we are. We've been at
this for months and the only movement has been backwards.
Mister Rebel is back, though maybe only temporarily. The Rebel's
(32:23):
name remains, and we've heard nothing from Principal Black about
the process to define a process that she promised us
was well under way in that email back in December.
Believe me, we've asked nine episodes in and we have
basically nothing to show for it. Change is hard and slow,
I know, but it's still frustrating and disappointing. So disappointing.
(32:44):
I knew changing things in Florence would be hard, but
what I didn't expect was that it would feel like
we're fighting against not just local headwinds, but national ones too.
As the country wound its way toward another presidential election,
cycle with Donald Trump at the top of the Republican ticket.
The winds of change, especially the ones that blew in
twenty twenty following the murders of George Floyd and Breonna Taylor,
(33:07):
wins that blew away rebel team names across the country,
brought equity initiatives to the foe and began, albeit slowly,
to dismantle some of the systemic racism that defines the country.
Those winds were blowing the other way.
Speaker 9 (33:19):
All right.
Speaker 2 (33:20):
With a five to one vote, it was the Shenandoah
County School Board voting to restore the names of Mountain
View High and Honey Run Elementary to Stonewall, Jackson High
and Ashby Lee Elementary. Those who voted in favor say
the twenty twenty board took shortcuts and made decisions without
public opinion, arguing they ignored the people they represent. A
(33:40):
concerned resident argued, restoring these names is like going back
to nineteen fifty nine, a year they say rooted in
mass resistance and jim.
Speaker 4 (33:47):
As we were getting nowhere in Boone County, things were
happening a few hundred miles away in Shenandoah County, Virginia,
where after removing the names of Confederate icons on their
schools in twenty twenty. The school board had voted just
four years later to change them back.
Speaker 11 (34:03):
I wanted to look back and find out when exactly
did all of this start, because this appears to be
the first school to be able to go back and
change his names after what happened during the George Floyd
time period, back during the pandemic.
Speaker 4 (34:19):
This is Nathaniel Klein, an award winning journalist who has
written about the Shenandoah County School Board's decision to reverse
the renaming of their schools.
Speaker 11 (34:27):
This could possibly be a blueprint if other school boards
decided to do this down the road and change names
back to it. If you know the story, it'll kind
of talk about this resolution that was passed by the
Board of Supervisors, which is completely different from the school
board in combating racism, and so they said, well, we
need to take it a step further, and so they
(34:47):
took that step back in twenty twenty one, you know,
and working on this story, you know, after the twenty
twenty one decision, it was a slow build up of
that school board changing.
Speaker 4 (34:59):
The board now composed entirely of white members, includes one
member who praised Stonewall Jackson as a gallant commander.
Speaker 11 (35:06):
It wasn't just the changing of the names. There were
other policy decisions being made by school boards across the country, including,
you know, for the rights of transgender.
Speaker 5 (35:14):
Students and.
Speaker 11 (35:17):
Exactly exactly, and so eventually, once that school board kind
of basically overhauled itself, you saw that backlash, backlash.
Speaker 4 (35:25):
So backlash to backlash, reaction to reaction was very.
Speaker 11 (35:29):
Quick to get everything back up. When I went out
there for a visit, I didn't even I didn't You
couldn't tell anything happened at all the last few years.
It was so quick.
Speaker 4 (35:38):
Wow, the struggle for progress is far from over. Every
school with a rebel mascot or a Confederate general's name
defies progress, decency, and the acknowledgment that Black Americans risk
their lives to secure education for their children. We've learned
that Confederacy based violence remains alive and well after Charlottesville.
We explored how the scendants of enslaved people and slave
(36:01):
owners attended Boone County High School. Together. We discussed how
even well meaning white people struggle to enact change due
to community pressure that mascots carry significant weight, capable of
inspiring pride, but also perpetuating oppression and signaling how a
community views black students. Now, at the end of all this,
you're likely beginning to understand why we titled this episode
(36:24):
so disappointing. At this point, given our lack of progress
with the school board in BCHS, combined with the actual
reversal of progress in places around the country, our journey
is truly feeling so, so so disappointing. Every episode of
this podcast, I've tried to end with hope, to leave
you with a sense that change is really possible. But honestly,
(36:47):
after everything that's happened since we were here in Florence
in December, the lack of action from anyone there, and
the sense that things aren't progressing but instead are regressing,
not just in Florence but everyone, I'm not sure I
believe it. Rebel Spirit is a production of Ninth Planet
(37:11):
Audio and association with iHeart Podcasts. Reporting and writing by
me Aquila Hughes. I'm also an executive producer and the host.
Produced by Dan Sinker, edited by Josie A.
Speaker 3 (37:23):
Zahm Our.
Speaker 4 (37:24):
Assistant editor is Jennifer Dean, music composed by Charlie Sun,
Sound design and mixing by Josie A. Zahm Our. Theme
song is All the Things I Couldn't Say, performed by
Bussy and the Bass courtesy of Arts and Crafts Productions, Inc.
Our production coordinator is Kyle Hinton. Our clearance coordinator is
Anna Sunenshine. Production accounting by Dill prit Singh. Additional research
(37:46):
support from Janice Dillard. Emails read by Nicole Thurman and
Frank garcia Hile. Executive producers from Ninth Planet Audio are
Elizabeth Baklett and Jimmy Miller. Special thanks to Jay Becker
and the whole team at BLDG, the Florence y'alls, Amber Hoffmann,
Hillary Delaney, and Leslie Chambers. If you have a racist
mascot at your high school, or are an alumni of
(38:08):
a high school with a racist mascot and want to
share your own experience, please email us at Rebelspirit podcast
at gmail dot com. We would love to hear from you.
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