SPEAKER_07: Reboot your credit card with Apple Card. It gives you unlimited daily cash back that can earn 4.15% annual percentage yield when you open a savings account. A high yield, low effort way to grow your money with no fees. Apply for Apple Card now in the Wallet app on iPhone to start earning and growing your daily cash with savings today. Apple Card subject to credit approval. Savings is available to Apple Card owners subject to eligibility. Savings accounts by Goldman Sachs Bank USA. Member FDIC, terms apply.
SPEAKER_06: Sick of paying $100 for groceries and getting nothing but eggs, orange juice, and a paper bag? Then download the Drop app. Drop lets you earn points with your everyday shopping and redeem them for gift cards. Want a free dinner with those groceries? Drop it. How about daily lattes? Drop it. So download Drop today and get $5 just for signing up. Use invite code GETDROP777.
SPEAKER_02: You and your dog are close, like watch each other go to the bathroom close, but you could be even closer with BarkBox. Every month BarkBox brings dogs and their humans together with original toys and delicious treats. Sign up now at BarkBox.com slash iHeart.
SPEAKER_00: From Wonder Media Network, I'm Jenny Kaplan, and this is Encyclopedia Wamanica. Today's local legend knew the importance of education
SPEAKER_01: and was passionate about making schooling available to children of all races at a time of intense segregation. She helped bring the fight for integrated schools in her hometown of Denver all the way to the Supreme Court. She was an educator, an advocate, and certainly a hometown hero. Please welcome Rachel B. Noel. Rachel was born Rachel Bassett in Hampton, Virginia on January 15th, 1918. From birth, she was surrounded by a family that recognized the power of a good education. Her grandfather, who was formerly enslaved, became one of the first African-American lawyers in the country. He also went on to found one of the first schools for black children in the US. Rachel's father was also a successful lawyer, and her mother was a college-educated teacher at a time when very few women held a degree. Rachel followed in her family's footsteps to earn multiple degrees of her own. She attended Hampton University, graduated top of her class, and traveled to Tennessee's Fisk University to earn a master's degree in sociology. There, she met a medical student named Edmund Noel, and the two quickly became a couple. Rachel graduated in 1940 and headed to DC, where she worked at a home for troubled girls. In 1942, Rachel and Edmund got married just before Edmund was sent to serve in World War II. While he was abroad, Rachel returned to Fisk and worked as a researcher in race relations. In 1949, Edmund took on a new job as a staff physician at Rose Medical Center in Denver. With this title, he became the first African-American doctor to work at a Denver hospital. Rachel's job search in their new home was far less fruitful. She was continually turned away from positions due to racism. It took six years before she finally received a position at the Denver Human Rights Commission. The Noels first settled in Denver's Five Points neighborhood, where most residents were African-American. But when Rachel and Edmund's children grew old enough to go to school, the family moved to the mostly white Park Hill neighborhood to get access to better-performing schools. Rachel's family quickly began to feel the effects of deep-seated racism around them. When Rachel's daughter tried to join the local Girl Scouts troop, she was turned away In response, Rachel and another black mom founded Troop 508, a group specifically for minority girls in the neighborhood. In 1960, Rachel learned her daughter would be transferred from the nearby Park Hill School to Barrett Elementary. Barrett was a much smaller school. It was underfunded, equipped with outdated textbooks, and staffed with inexperienced teachers. Its students were almost all black and Hispanic. Rachel saw this pattern repeated when her son entered middle and high school. Both times, he was sent to a different school than his white neighbors, and became part of a majority-student-of-color cohort. Rachel realized early on that her children's reassignments were part of a larger problem. The district was redrawing attendance lines to corral white kids into the better-funded school, thereby boxing children of color out. Rachel took it upon herself to investigate further. In 1965, she ran for the Denver Board of Education. She became the first African-American member of the board, and the first black woman to hold public office anywhere in the state of Colorado. Once on the board, Rachel's committee found the state's public schools were guilty of de facto segregation. In other words, although the separation of white and minority students wasn't written into law, the state held the right to redraw school boundaries as they saw fit. More often than not, those boundaries were redrawn any time a student of color was about to enter a white school. Rachel became an active participant in the civil rights movement. She even met Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. during one of his visits to Denver. Though she practiced peaceful protest, she found new urgency in April of 1968 when Dr. King was assassinated. That same month, Rachel introduced Resolution 1520, also known as the Noel Resolution, to the Denver Board of Education. The resolution explained the findings of de facto segregation in Denver schools and called for an immediate end to the practice. It proposed integrating students from the overpopulated schools in the state into the larger, better-funded ones. It also called for revisions to the whitewashed textbooks in order to recenter people of color as part of historical narratives. The resolution incited a deep divide in Denver. Some white parents protested violently against it. Rachel even received death threats by mail and phone, warning her to step away from the issue. But she remained steadfast in her work and gained the support of hundreds of students across the city who joined her in protest. The Noel Resolution passed in January of 1969, but the success was short-lived. Just six months later, it was repealed by a new school board Parents and students alike fought against the reversal. One group of parents organized and sued the district for discrimination in a case that made it all the way to the Supreme Court. Rachel supported the leader of the case, a parent named Wilfred Keys, as he received threats and even had his house bombed. In 1973, the Supreme Court ruled that Denver public schools were guilty of de facto segregation and were complicit in keeping schools for minority students in worse conditions than those for white students. Still, Rachel's battle continued. Though the Supreme Court directed Denver schools to integrate, the state dragged its feet. The court eventually had to order a mandatory busing program, a decision that sparked so much outrage that the Denver Public Schools bus depot was bombed. Even so, the program remained in place until 1995. After finishing her time on the Board of Education, Rachel accepted a position as a professor of African American studies at Metropolitan State University and eventually became head of the department. In 1976, she was appointed by the state governor to the University of Colorado Board of Regents and became its first black member. After the end of her initial term, she beat 22 opponents to keep the position. She eventually became the first ever woman to serve as chair of the board. Rachel held many other positions in her career. She worked as a consultant for Denver Public Schools, a commissioner for the Denver Housing Authority, and the head of the Black Advisory Committee for the mayor. She won several civil rights awards and honors. In 2004, the Rachel B. Noel Middle School was named in honor of her work in public education. In 2008, Rachel died peacefully in her sleep. She was 90 years old. All month, we're talking about local legends. For more on why we're doing what we're doing, check out our newsletter, Wamanica Weekly. Follow us on Facebook and Instagram at Encyclopedia Wamanica. Special thanks to Liz Kaplan, my favorite sister and co-creator. Talk to you tomorrow.
SPEAKER_04: AT&T and Verizon lure you in with their best phone offers, only to lock you into a three-year phone contract, not at T-Mobile. Now, with T-Mobile's best Go 5G plans, upgrade when you want, every year or every two, you decide. Visit T-Mobile.com to take charge of your upgrades.
SPEAKER_03: Get two-year financing on Go 5G Plus and Next. One-year upgrade on Go 5G Next requires financing a new qualifying device and upgrading in good condition after six plus months with 50% paid off. Upgrade ends financing in any promo credits. See T-Mobile.com.
SPEAKER_05: Do you hear it? The clock is ticking. It's time for the new season of 60 Minutes. The CBS News Sunday Night tradition is back for its 56th season with all new big name interviews, hard-hitting investigations, and epic adventures. No place, no one, no story is off limits, and you'll always learn something new. It's time for 60 Minutes. New episode airs Sunday, September 24th on CBS and streaming on Paramount Plus.
SPEAKER_08: Has all of that summer travel taken a toll on your sleep? Leave those out-of-town beds and sleeping bags behind this Labor Day weekend and come home to the cool, comfy sleep you deserve with Lisa. Lisa's hybrid mattresses are designed to beat the heat so you can look forward to having a relaxing and peaceful night's sleep every night. For a limited time, save up to $700 off select mattresses plus two free pillows during Lisa's Labor Day sale. Use the code IHEART and receive an additional $50 off mattresses and select goods. That's code IHEART. Make a positive impact with your Labor Day purchase. Lisa donates one new mattress for every 10 sold. For a limited time, save up to $700 off select mattresses plus two free pillows during Lisa's Labor Day sale and use code IHEART for an additional $50 off mattresses and select goods. Go to lisa.com today. That's L-E-E-S-A.com. Exclusions apply. See lisa.com for details.
