WASHPO: Legacy of hope: Two friends made it cool to be smart at Ballou. But what happened after they left?

One of the great stories I heard from a Ballou High School teacher at the Kojo in the Community event.

Go HERE to read the full Washington Post article.

Excerpt:

Eight years ago, Leatherman and Nesbit, now 22, had tried to write a different storyline for Ballou. Both were well-liked football players being raised by single fathers who had passed up offers for their boys to attend elite private schools in favor of Ballou, considered by some to be the worst high school in the city. Their studious boys could be good for the school, and the mostly black environment with nurturing teachers could be good for the boys, the fathers decided individually. The two friends agreed then to compete for the No. 1 spot in their class.


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In a school better known for its troubles, this was rare: two young black men, both gifted athletes with stellar academic credentials, working as hard for A's in the classroom as they did for wins on the football field -- all in the open while somehow maintaining their popularity. Leatherman and Nesbit made it okay, cool even, to be smart. And by their senior year, many once-ashamed achievers had come out of the closet. This was the change the duo most hoped would last when they left Ballou to become roommates at the College of the Holy Cross in Worcester, Mass.

Now, after all this time, Leatherman and Nesbit wonder: Did any of what they had tried to leave behind here stick? Or were the forces that had tried to stand in the friends' way -- poverty, apathy, neglect-- insurmountable?

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