Hundreds showed up Sunday to rally in front of the Birdville Independent School District Administration Building in support of keeping the Rebel name associated with North Richland Hills’ Richland High School.
Students, alumni and some not associated with the school participated in Sunday’s rally, which was organized over Facebook. A page created Friday, “Save our Richland Rebels,” grew to more than 5,000 likes by Sunday afternoon.
An organizer told NBC DFW he created the Facebook page after learning of calls for change by Rev. Kyev Tatum, the president of the Fort Worth Southern Christian Leadership Conference.
Many of those rallying signed a petition, which organizers plan to deliver to the school board, stating:
“I support the Richland “Rebel” mascot and other names including the Dixie Bells and Johnny Rebs. A Mascot is what you make it, a name is how you live it! We don’t just talk “equality”, WE LIVE “EQUALITY”, a lesson the rest of the country could learn from us. Go Rebels!”
Our media partners at The Dallas Morning News reported Tatum was expected to ask Texas Commissioner of Education, Michael Williams, to support his request to the superintendent and the Board of Trustees of the Birdville Independent School District to consider changing the mascot names of Richland High School from the Rebels, Dixie Belles and Johnny Rebel.
“From the public steps of the statehouse of South Carolina to the public classroom of Texas, it is time to take them down. These symbols are having a negative impact on children of color from Haltom City to North Richland Hills," Tatum said in a press release.
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"Whether it’s the Rebels mascot to the Dixie Belles dance team to Johnny the Rebel on campus, it is time for the Confederacy to come down," according to The Dallas Morning News.
Alumni and students at the rally said they do not equate Rebels with anything divisive or offensive.
“It’s offensive because we tried so hard to make Rebel a good positive thing,” said 2015 graduate Kayla Gossett. “We’re just a band of Rebels – anytime anything bad happened, we all came together as one.”
“My largest conviction about this is there is a gentleman that purports to represent a faith-based organization, and what he is attempting to do in our community is create racial hatred and strife,” said rally participant Larry Partin. “That’s not what we have found here, we’ve had kids here for seven years."
