RE Log Spring 2019

12 Ransom Everglades LOG SPRING 2019 1989 Many BSA alumni are huge cheerlead- ers for Ransom Everglades, diehard fans of the school who want it to continue to take the right steps forward. They are encouraged by the RE Board of Trustees’ two-year-old DEI initiative, and proud of the longevity of the BSA, but they are also realistic, and much too wise to be satisfied. At Ransom Everglades today, five percent of RE’s students overall and 10 percent in the Class of 2025 (current sixth grade) are African American/black. BSA alumni want their alma mater to be not merely improved, but a national leader. “It’s really important,” said Beverly Watson ’90 , a graduate of Georgetown University and Stanford Law School who is now Director of Global Scholars at King Philanthropies in Menlo Park, Calif. “Numbers matter. When you have a healthy representation across cultures and ethnicities, that really adds to the experience.” Watson and her fellow inaugural BSA members kicked off a de facto DEI initia- tive before anyone had heard of such a thing. They created a “safe space” before that descriptor had been invented. They ignited a campus awakening – even as many of the earliest members were reluctant participants, fearful of alienat- ing themselves from the student body at large by having too strong an association with the group. “It was needed,” Myers said. “At that age, I don’t think we realized how much it was needed.” The students featured here participated in some of the earliest meetings of the BSA at Ransom Everglades, though many recall the friendships and experiences far more clearly than the actual club gatherings. Their stories illustrate how the BSA’s first members came together despite different backgrounds, upbringings and cultural exposures to offer a lasting testament to the power of seeking unity in diversity. From Liberty City Four of the five students in Gordon Myers’ carpool lived in or near Liberty City, a predominantly black Miami neighbor- hood. John Walker McGee II ’91 grew up in Little Haiti in a three-bedroom, one-bathroom house he shared with 11 family members – his mother, sister, grandmother, three uncles, two aunts and three cousins. He slept on a couch in the living room. James Weaver ’90 lived in Liberty City in the home of an aunt and uncle of Haitian descent. His father bounced from halfway house to halfway house. His mother, who died of AIDs during his freshman year at The College of Wooster, suffered from an addiction to drugs. Both spent after- noons playing tennis at nearby Moore Park in a strong youth program that included Stephanie Chandler ’92 and Monique Roundtree ’92 . The Moore Park players competed in tourna- ments around South Florida, and they caught the eye of Curtis Way, who was then Ransom Everglades’ tennis coach and athletic director. Way urged the chil- dren to apply to Ransom Everglades, and all were accepted and received financial aid. When he arrived at RE as a sophomore from Miami Edison Senior High, Weaver quickly earned his peers’ respect for his prowess as a three-sport athlete – he was inducted into the RE’s Athletic Hall of Fame in 2018 – but he recalled struggling to adjust to the increased academic demands. Those challenges, he said, drove him to seek out fellow black students and gave him a special interest in the development of the BSA. James Weaver ’90 It was about having solidarity and helping the campus be more culturally and socially aware. We engaged with parents, teachers, the headmaster and administration.” – James Weaver ’90 “ John Walker McGee ’91