‘We’re known as a Confederate school’: 5,000 sign petition to rename Richland High Rebels
For the past four years when Makayla Klie wanted to show school pride, she has had to support Richland High School’s spirit team Johnny Rebs, despite her opposition to its Confederate ties.
But now, inspired by the hundreds of protests across the country for the Black Lives Matter movement, the graduating senior is petitioning to have the school’s Confederate themes removed.
Klie, who is white, started a change.org petition asking the Birdville ISD Board of Trustees to get rid of the school’s Confederate themes. This includes a Richland Rebel flag reminiscent of the Stars and Bars, the dance team name Dixie Belles, the spirit team name Johnny Reb, and the Rebel mascot.
Johnny Reb is a name used to describe Confederate soldiers. Dixie refers to states that constituted the Confederate States of America.
Most recently in Texas, Tarrant County commissioners voted Tuesday to remove the Confederate monument from the courthouse yard. On June 4, a Texas Ranger statue was removed from Dallas Love Field.
As of Tuesday afternoon, Klie’s petition has more than 5,000 signatures. Students, parents and alumni gathered Monday at Richland High School, in North Richland Hills, to protest the school’s use of Confederate branding, she said.
“If you look up Johnny Rebel, the kind of things that would come up are absolutely disgusting,” Klie said. “That is the title of a spirit team that I love.”
“We are known as the ‘Confederate school’,” Klie wrote in an open letter to the Birdville ISD Board of Trustees. “And we should not be proud of it.”
Klie also wrote that the “Rebels” is something some may be proud of, but those students signing the petition are not.
“Confederate Rebels, Dixie Belles, Johnny B Goode, are all toxic traditions promoting and upholding the Southern effort to protect slavery,” she wrote.
While Klie loves her school, she said she doesn’t love the racist undertones it promotes. Out of the 34 schools in Birdville ISD, only Richland High School still has Confederate ties, she said.
In her school parking lot, she has seen stickers of the Confederate flag and the flag itself on cars. Klie thinks the school’s symbolism enables this.
“It all comes down to the fact that they feel like our mascot reinforces their beliefs,” she said.
Mark Thomas, Birdville ISD communications officer, said in an email that “we are thoughtfully listening to our community”.
With protests and rallies going on around the world after the death of George Floyd in Minneapolis police custody, Klie said, that sparked conversations between her peers and it motivated her to start the petition.
“It felt like the right time to do it,” Klie said.
But, for Richland High School, this wasn’t the first time the topic of its Confederate symbolism has been brought up.
In 2015, the Fort Worth chapter of the Southern Christian Leadership Conference filed a civil rights complaint against Birdville ISD. The complaint was against allegations of racist remarks made by a former Richland High softball coach.
“Every day they call themselves the Dixie Belles and the Johnny Rebels. All they’re doing is perpetuating the Confederacy,” SCLC chapter leader the Rev. Kyev Tatum told the Star-Telegram in 2015.
Ali Gleaves, who graduated in 2019, also signed the petition and said the removal of these symbols would mean black students wouldn’t have to walk hallways that have Confederate ties.
When he was a student, Gleaves said, he hated it. As a black person, he felt the need to stand with current students and fight for future students who will attend Richland High.
“I would not feel right, if I made it through saying, ‘You know what I got mine. This is your problem now’,” he said.
There are other problems regarding race at the school, but removing these symbols is the first step, Gleaves said.
“It could be a great place to start, but a terrible place to stop,” he said.
This story was originally published June 9, 2020 at 5:39 PM.
