The Girlfriends S4/Bonus Ep 1: The Freedom Seekers of Kansas City

Summary

The Girlfriends: Untouchable – Season 4: Bonus Episode 1

"The Freedom Seekers of Kansas City"

Release date: January 5, 2026
Host: Nikki Richardson
Featured Guest: Nakia Hope

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Overview

This bonus episode of The Girlfriends: Untouchable dives deep into the rich, revolutionary history of Quindaro, Kansas City, Kansas. Host Nikki Richardson and community activist Nakia Hope recount the powerful legacy of Black people escaping slavery, the building and later decline of the neighborhood, and the resilient spirit of its residents. While illuminating historical triumphs, they discuss modern challenges, including the trauma and broken trust caused by corrupt former detective Roger Golubski—whose abuses targeted Black women for decades. Ultimately, this episode is a tribute to the courage, persistence, and vision of Kansas City’s freedom seekers and their descendants.

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Main Topics & Key Discussion Points

1. Personal Roots and Quindaro’s Hidden Legacy

• Nakia Hope’s Family History:
  • Inspired by her fifth great-grandfather Robert Monroe—a man who escaped slavery and helped shape local history ([03:52]-[05:03]).
  • “He has such a dignified smile... but life wasn't swell for you because Robert Monroe wasn't born a free man.” – Nikki Richardson ([04:41]-[05:03]).
• Growing Up in Quindaro:
  • Fond memories of community, local businesses, and family closeness ([02:45]-[03:41]).
  • Only later did Nakia appreciate her neighborhood's "incredible history," beyond the “stories of crime, violence and decline” ([03:44]-[03:52]).

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2. The Story of Robert Monroe: From Enslaved to Freedom Seeker

• Missouri to Kansas Escape Route:

  • Monroe, enslaved in Missouri, escapes across the frozen Missouri River with others in winter 1856 ([07:43]-[08:48]).
  • The Quindaro area was an entry point for runaway slaves, aided by the Underground Railroad and local abolitionists, including the Wyandotte Native Nation ([08:48]-[10:23]).
  • “It’s not so much about us escaping slavery. It’s about us seeking freedom.” – Nakia Hope ([10:08]-[10:23]).

• Role of the Wyandotte Nation:

  • The Wyandotte adopted families like the Monroes, symbolizing community support and integration ([10:31]-[10:46]).
  • The name ‘Quindaro’ means “bundle of sticks”—highlighting collective strength ([11:10]-[11:24]):
    • “One stick by itself is easy to break, but you put a bundle of sticks together, and that's harder to break. If we stick together, it's harder to separate us.” – Nakia Hope

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3. Education and Community Flourishing

• Western University:
  • Opened in 1865 to educate formerly enslaved people and their descendants, offering a variety of subjects and cultural opportunities like the Jackson Jubilee singing group ([16:31]-[17:47]).
  • “It feels like it's alive. It feels like real life history.” – Nakia Hope ([17:10]-[17:47])
  • Closed in 1944 due to funding, decline, and local hardship ([17:53]-[18:23]).

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4. Decline and Threat of Erasure

• Urban Decline:
  • Highway construction in the 1960s cut off the community, causing displacement and decline ([18:36]-[19:04]).
• Fighting for Preservation:
  • In the 1970s, locals banded together as Concerned Citizens for Quindaro to prevent the historic area from being turned into a landfill.
  • Urban archaeology dig found foundations, artifacts, proving the land’s historical value and saving it from destruction ([19:42]-[21:19]).
    • “Just the community coming together is really what saved the complete erasure of the history.” – Nakia Hope ([20:49]-[21:19])

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5. Modern Reality: Struggles, Memory, and Renewal

• Current State:

  • Today, Quindaro is marred by decline—boarded-up buildings, dangerous streets—but hope lingers among those who remember and imagine its past and future ([21:19]-[22:15]).
  • Renewed life: “To see groups of boys playing basketball at the park... it kind of looks full circle to me. So it gives me a little bit of hope of, like, this could be good.” – Nakia Hope ([22:40]-[23:25]).

• Official Recognition:

  • In 2019, Quindaro was designated a national commemorative site, but this achievement was quickly overshadowed by media coverage of detective Roger Golubski’s crimes ([23:25]-[24:24]).

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6. Roger Golubski: Corruption & Lasting Harm

• Personal Impact:
  • Nakia’s family and many others harassed and abused by Golubski, who became a symbol of systemic failure and oppression ([31:06]-[31:37]).
    • “He was sort of like this monster in the closet in the community. Like, you knew he was there. You probably weren't gonna escape him, so you just kind of did your best to stay out of his way.” – Nakia Hope ([31:06]-[31:37])
• Aftermath of Golubski’s Death:
  • Mixed feelings—brief hope at his arrest, then collective disappointment as justice felt out of reach when he died by suicide ([32:00]-[32:31]).
    • “For a lot of the black community, it kind of reinforced, like, we never get the justice we deserve. We never get the happy ending that we're looking for.” – Nakia Hope ([32:31]-[33:14])
• Need for Systemic Accountability:
  • Nakia calls for sustained vigilance, recognizing that "where there’s one Golubski, there’s two, maybe three, maybe four" ([32:00]-[33:14]).
  • Emphasizes the need for ongoing collective resistance: “It kind of goes back to kind of breaking down those systems.” – Nakia Hope ([33:29]-[33:46])

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7. Hope, Memory, and the Power of Telling the Full Story

• Balancing Critique and Love:
  • Both Nikki and Nakia speak frankly about the dangers and pain in their community, but also push against outside narratives that only emphasize decline ([27:51]-[29:30]).
  • “Like, I know what this was. There's so much room for growth.” – Nakia Hope ([29:42]-[30:39])
• Community Care:
  • Emphasizes family ties, helping neighbors in crisis, and not giving up on each other ([29:07]-[29:30]).
• Preserving and Reviving Legacy:
  • Importance of connecting children to the rich achievements of ancestors; advocates against “starting over” without remembrance ([34:53]-[35:45]).
    • “Why can't we just fix the bad thing? My father is going to be buried in the old Condoro cemetery. I'm always going to go there.” – Nakia Hope ([35:55]-[36:05])
  • “We're gonna be a bundle of sticks for each other.” – Nakia Hope ([36:29]-[36:57])

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Notable Quotes & Memorable Moments

• On the Freedom Seekers’ Perspective:
  "It's not so much about us escaping slavery. It's about us seeking freedom." – Nakia Hope ([10:08])

• On Collective Strength:
  “One stick by itself is easy to break, but you put a bundle of sticks together, and that’s harder to break.” – Nakia Hope ([11:10])

• On Historic Preservation:
  “Just the community coming together is really what saved the complete erasure of the history.” – Nakia Hope ([20:49])

• On Resilience and Hope:
  "To see groups of boys playing basketball at the park... it kind of looks full circle to me. So it gives me a little bit of hope of, like, this could be good." – Nakia Hope ([22:40])

• On Golubski’s Impact:
  "He was sort of like this monster in the closet in the community. Like, you knew he was there.” – Nakia Hope ([31:06]) "We never get the justice we deserve. We never get the happy ending that we're looking for." – Nakia Hope ([32:31])

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Important Timestamps

• [03:52] Introduction of Nakia and her family’s connection to Robert Monroe
• [06:33] Physical and historical landscape of Old Quindaro
• [07:43]–[09:13] Robert Monroe’s escape and the role of the Missouri River
• [10:23] Language: From ‘escaped slave’ to ‘freedom seeker’
• [11:10] Meaning of ‘Quindaro’ and collective identity
• [16:10]–[18:13] Western University’s significance and decline
• [19:42]–[21:19] Archaeology, the landfill fight, and preservation victory
• [22:40] Signs of community renewal at Quindaro Park
• [23:25]–[24:24] National recognition overshadowed by Golubski scandal
• [31:06] Personal stories of harassment by Roger Golubski
• [32:00]–[33:14] Community reaction and sense of justice
• [34:53]–[35:45] The cost of forgetting history; plea for remembrance
• [36:29] The ongoing courage of Quindaro’s women in fighting for justice

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Looking Ahead

• Next episode preview:
  Khadijah takes over the narrative to discuss healing from trauma and the challenge of supporting others while maintaining personal boundaries ([37:08]).

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Tone & Language

The conversation is both frank and reflective, blending personal anecdotes with historic analysis. The tone is empathetic, candid, and grounded in hope—even as it acknowledges pain, disappointment, and the community’s ongoing fight for dignity, recognition, and justice.

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Summary Takeaways

The Freedom Seekers of Kansas City is a powerful testament to the hidden legacies, profound resilience, and continuing struggles of Quindaro and its descendants. It highlights the necessity to remember, honor, and build upon the past while confronting the hard realities of systemic abuse and neglect. Above all, the episode spotlights the enduring strength found in community, memory, and the refusal to let history disappear.

Transcript

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[Nikki Richardson]

What makes you you? Hey, I just wanted to give you a heads up that this series will touch on some tough topics, including sexual assault, murder and suicide. If you or someone you love has been affected by any of those themes, I've left some links in the description that offer resources and support Take Care of your. Like most neighborhoods across the country, Quindero, the area of Kansas City, Kansas, where most of this story is set, isn't perfect. You've already heard the stories of crime, violence and decline, but it's a community that goes beyond the headlines. And for most of my childhood, it was just home. I loved walking around the neighborhood after school, going to Wilson's Pizza for a slice with cheese and pepperoni, and playing outside with my cousins, knowing that all of my family members were just a few minutes walk away. But one thing I didn't know about my neighborhood until much later was its incredible history.

[Nakia Hope]

My name is Nakia Hope.

[Nikki Richardson]

Nakia runs a nonprofit in Kansas City that was inspired by a man she's never met, her fifth great grandfather, Robert Monroe, who she was introduced to by the older members of her family, like her grandma.

[Nakia Hope]

I can remember early as like five or six, them telling us stories and pointing stuff out.

[Nikki Richardson]

Back then, she wasn't really paying attention.

[Nakia Hope]

As a kid, you just do not care. It's just like I'm just riding my bike and I'm hanging with my friends.

[Nikki Richardson]

But as she got older, Nakia found herself drawn to the photo of the man her family was always telling stories about. She keeps it on display in her home.

[Nakia Hope]

He's a really young guy in the picture. He has such a dignified smile in the picture.

[Nikki Richardson]

I'm looking at the photo of Nakia's fifth great grandfather now. He's a black man wearing a white dress shirt, a bow tie and a dapper blazer. It seems like he's in his late 20s or mid-30s and there's an almost stately look about him.

[Nakia Hope]

I just look at him and he just looks like, you know, life is swell. And it's like, but life wasn't swell.

[Nikki Richardson]

For you because Robert Monroe wasn't born a free man.

[Nakia Hope]

He was a slave in a corn plantation in Clay County, Missouri.

[Nikki Richardson]

But in the winter of 1856, he hatched a plan to escape slavery, a journey that would change his life and shape the history of the city we call home. You.

[Radhi Devlukia]

I got you.

[Nakia Hope]

I got you. I got you. I got you.

[Nikki Richardson]

Today we're digging into the long, rich, revolutionary history of Quindero in Kansas City, Kansas, to hear about the native community who came together to help black people escape slavery, the freedom seekers who carved space for themselves at the start of a new age, and the people who call Quandero home, who are fighting to preserve our history and create a better future. I'm Nikki Richardson from the Teams at Novel and I Heart podcast. This is the Girlfriends Untouchable bonus Episode one, the Freedom Seekers of Kansas City. The township of Old Quindero sits on a hill. At the bottom of that hill is the Missouri River.

[Nakia Hope]

Abandoned is the best word I could use to describe it. If anyone was to go there today, you would just see a bunch of trees. You would see a bunch of just high, tall grasses, trees. It's really sort of like a rancher lifestyle. The person at this house may have some goats. The person next door may have some horses. There are a few signs, but those signs are so old that they're faded. Most people can barely read them. They're like bullet holes through those signs.

[Nikki Richardson]

But the area didn't always look so desolate. In fact, it was once an oasis for black people on the path to freedom, like her great grandfather, Robert Monroe. Robert Monroe was an enslaved man in his 20s, forced to spend long days working at a corn plantation in Clay County, Missouri. Like so many other black people in America, Monroe was desperate to live as a free man. In the 1850s, the abolitionist movement was picking up steam, and rumors of change were spreading across the country. But Robert was stuck in Missouri.

[Nakia Hope]

Missouri was a slave state. Kansas was a free state.

[Nikki Richardson]

Clay county is close to the Kansas border, where Old Quindero overlooks the Missouri River.

[Nakia Hope]

At that time, there were a bunch of families seeking freedom in Kansas. And there had been lots of talk about this free port at the edge of the river.

[Nikki Richardson]

The Missouri river is the longest in America. Its waters are filled with catfish and otters, and its banks are surrounded by wild grass and leafy trees. It passes through or along the borders of seven different states, including Kansas and Missouri. And in the 1800s, there was a port on the river that separated them.

[Nakia Hope]

There was an entry point. There for steamboats and things to bring food and goods for the people.

[Nikki Richardson]

In the winter, the river froze up, giving enslaved people trying to escape to the free state of Kansas the perfect opportunity to cross over. So in 1856, Robert Monroe did.

[Nakia Hope]

Him and a couple of men wrapped cloth and clothing around their feet in the winter, and they were able to just walk across that river to get here and get to, really, the mouth of what is now Quindero park. Because at the time, slave catchers were allowed to come into Quindero to bring slaves back. So they had to get far enough away from the river to safety, and then they had to be hidden.

[Nikki Richardson]

Robert's journey was aided by the Underground railroad, a network of abolitionists who used secret routes and safe houses to help enslaved people escape to freedom.

[Nakia Hope]

For instance, in Quindero, on the road to the Quindero cemetery, which is called Happy Hollow Road, there was a brewery that was there, and slaves could hide in the basement of that brewery until they were able to let the slave catchers pass over and then find their way to safety.

[Nikki Richardson]

The path to escape Missouri and pass over to Kansas was a dangerous journey, but because the potential outcome was freedom, people like Robert Monroe were willing to take the chance.

[Nakia Hope]

It's like, wow, I'm this close. I might as well try.

[Nikki Richardson]

After successfully escaping slavery, the black people who made Kansas their new home became known as the freedom seekers.

[Nakia Hope]

I don't 100% believe I would have wanted to be called an escaped slave either, you know, so it's like, what this looks like to us is it's not so much about us escaping slavery. It's about us seeking freedom.

[Nikki Richardson]

One of the groups who helped those seekers achieve freedom were the Native Americans of the Wyandotte nation.

[Nakia Hope]

They were the first here and the first to kind of cede the land and take over the land and sort of initiate bringing all of these different.

[Nikki Richardson]

Groups of people together, including Robert and the other members of the Monroe family who escaped slavery.

[Nakia Hope]

My family was adopted by the Wyandotte people, and that's how we got into Quindero. My great, great, great grandfather came over in 1856, and he was actually adopted by the Wyandotte people to kind of make a for himself and then bring our family over later.

[Nikki Richardson]

Working as a community was at the very heart of Quindero's identity. It's right there in the name Quindero.

[Nakia Hope]

It means bundle of sticks. One stick by itself is easy to break, but you put a bundle of sticks together, and that's harder to break. If we stick together, it's harder to separate us.

[Nikki Richardson]

It was a town founded on the basis of working together as a community. So how did it become so unrecognizable? What led Quindero to go from being an oasis for Black people seeking freedom to a place we now associate with abuse and corruption inflicted on Black women? More after the break.

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In 2008, Nakia's uncle Jesse Hope opened up Old Quindero House, a museum created to preserve the history of their community. The museum is currently closed, but when it was open, Nakia and her family stewarded it. She loved showing people around its various rooms.

[Nakia Hope]

My favorite space in the house was the room that was dedicated to western university.

[Nikki Richardson]

Western university began as a freedmen school, an institution designed to give formerly enslaved people and their children the opportunity to learn how to read, write, and study a variety of subjects that would equip them to start a new life. It was founded in 1865, less than 10 years after Robert Monroe escaped to freedom in quindero, and its opening marked the start of a new chapter for black people in the area.

[Nakia Hope]

It's so cool to kind of have so many pictures from when the school was operational. Pictures of women in culinary class, men in shop classes. We have pictures of the jackson jubilee, which was a singing group. They had a really huge band that was really popular and that traveled the country. And for me to be able to see pictures of my family members who went to western university who were direct descendants of robert monroe, and kind of just see that progression as probably my favorite place in the house, because it just. It feels like it's alive. It feels like real life history.

[Nikki Richardson]

But that's what it is, history. Because the university didn't last.

[Nakia Hope]

It actually closed down in 1944. And I'm so familiar with the date, because when my grandmother was alive, I remember her telling me how, like, sick she was that she couldn't go to western university because she had just missed it. She had just graduated from high school, and they were closing down, so she couldn't go.

[Nikki Richardson]

The school lost some of its sources of funding, and enrollment dropped. Nakia says that the school had also gotten into a lot of debt and couldn't maintain their buildings.

[Nakia Hope]

There was a lot of loitering, and people were vandalizing, and I think a couple of the buildings even caught on fire.

[Nikki Richardson]

Things continued to go downhill in the community from there.

[Nakia Hope]

In the 60s, they built the highway. I think it's 635 highway was built right through the town of quindero.

[Nikki Richardson]

The construction of the highway essentially cut quindero off from the rest of the city.

[Nakia Hope]

We were kind of trapped. On one side, we're trapped by the highway. On the other side, we're trapped by the river. So a lot of families became displaced. A lot of families moved. The community kind of just started to die Once the highway came into place.

[Nikki Richardson]

And that deterioration made the community lose value in the eyes of the people who owned the land.

[Nakia Hope]

By the time we get to the 70s, they're surveying the land. They're saying, hey, there's some potential here is riverfront property. Maybe there's some potential to build here. So they had a surveyor come in and kind of tell them what that would cost. And he's like, you know, it can be fixed up, but it's gonna cost a lot of money.

[Nikki Richardson]

Then a trash service company came into the picture.

[Nakia Hope]

They're like, it makes for a good landfill.

[Nikki Richardson]

But the people of Quindero refused to let that happen.

[Nakia Hope]

They came together, they had a meeting, and they went and found out what was going on. They found out that it was going to become a landfill. And they're like, that's a no for us. So they established Concerned Citizens for Ocwindero, which fought and provided history. At that time, everyone who lived in Quindero was a descendant of someone who had escaped slavery. And in the 70s, that history was probably a lot better documented. People probably had a lot better record to be able to say, hey, we have proof that this is historic, and you guys can't just put a landfill here.

[Nikki Richardson]

From the outside, it looked like empty land, but there was so much more below the surface.

[Nakia Hope]

Because of how the law was written at that time, it required the city to do an archaeological dig before they could move forward with trying to turn it into a landfill.

[Nikki Richardson]

Nakia's family didn't have great expectations when they went into the dig. They were just hoping to find an artifact or two. But when it finally happened, they unearthed the foundations of entire buildings, Some of.

[Nakia Hope]

Them from Western University, some of them from foundations that were at the bottom of the hill where the township was, near the river, where homes were. So they found a lot of items kind of buried, you know, dishes and plates and things like that. And so after that archaeological dig, they found that they couldn't make it a landfill because it was indeed historical. So just the community coming together is really what saved the complete erasure of the history.

[Nikki Richardson]

But while the community has a rich history, it's long past its golden days. The roads are filled with boarded up buildings, businesses that have been forced to shut down, streets that have gotten so dangerous that even I don't feel comfortable walking down them. I hate to say it, but as the years have gone by, I've seen the area get progressively worse. It's painful to see a place you love deteriorate. But like me, Nakia can see past what the community currently is for what it was and could still become.

[Nakia Hope]

Because of what I know about it. I can acknowledge that it needs work. But to me, I just see history everywhere. Like one person could be looking at this empty lot. My eyes can see the buildings that used to be there, so my eyes can see the history.

[Nikki Richardson]

Nikia understands how hard it can be to convince people to invest in preserving history when their immediate worries are keeping their families safe, paying rent, and putting food on the table. So she was glad to see that rather than closing the area off and separating people from their past, the area became a hub for the community.

[Nakia Hope]

I kind of feel like Quindero park has become an entryway into redeveloping old Quindero. And so to see groups of boys playing basketball at the park. Now, I hadn't seen that since I was a little girl in elementary school to see, you know, kids up there having picnics and having food and throwing birthday parties, and people are starting to use it for baby showers and graduation celebrations. So to kind of see life get breathed back into it from the park, I think is a cool thing. Especially since I have, like, pictures at home of, like, my grandparents picnicking in the park. You know, it's like, it kind of looks full circle to me. So it gives me a little bit of hope of, like, this could be good.

[Nikki Richardson]

In 2019, Quindero was designated a national commemorative site for its role in the city's history. It was a real cause for celebration. But what should have been a moment to amplify the northeast side of KCK's rich history was soon overshadowed in the media by something else. Someone else. The man who'd been targeting and preying on people in Quindero for decades.

[Radhi Devlukia]

That breaking news we begin with here.

[Nakia Hope]

The man accused of heinous crimes spanning over three decades is dead.

[Nikki Richardson]

Roger Golubski, a man who would change our perception of what should have become known as the home of the freedom seekers.

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[Nakia Hope]

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[Radhi Devlukia]

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[Nikki Richardson]

But if you've forgotten to get that.

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[Nakia Hope]

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[Nakia Hope]

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[Radhi Devlukia]

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[Nakia Hope]

I got you. I got you. I got you.

[Nikki Richardson]

I don't know where you're from. Maybe you live in a big city, small town, or tiny village. Regardless of the place you call home, I think you probably understand what it is to have a complicated relationship with the place you grew up in. I know I do. Quindero's the place that shaped me. So I'm happy to talk about it honestly and critically. Nikki is the same.

[Nakia Hope]

I am a person who understands that things can be like, mutually exclusive of one another. Like two things can 1000% be true at the same time. So while I can see Quindero the way I can see it, I also can see it the way that other people can see it. I understood growing up that drugs were a problem. I had family members who had gotten into drugs and were living on the street.

[Nikki Richardson]

It's one thing for us to criticize our hometown, but it's strange to hear people who've never been here or understood what it's like to call this place home reduce it to the headlines. Because modern day Quindero's story is more than just how people find themselves on the wrong path. It's about a community that bundles together to see each other through the tough times too.

[Nakia Hope]

So if we've seen a cousin or an uncle who had now gotten into drugs to the point where they had become homeless or lost their home, we didn't treat them like an outsider. It was like, hey, go take your cousin this plate of food. Hey, such and such. We see him standing on the corner, roll down the window and give him some money. Or go up the street to that store and let's buy him some stuff and go take it back to him.

[Nikki Richardson]

But I won't lie. Sometimes it was scary growing up in an area where so many people were in crisis. I didn't always feel safe, and neither did Nakia.

[Nakia Hope]

I saw the crime because I lived there. I was. It kind of flew right over my head, literally. There were times where I would be in my house as a little girl sleeping, and there are gunshots outside at night. We had come out to my mom's car some mornings and like, her windows were shot out. I could 1000% acknowledge that there was violence. And so I could 1000% see and understand how other people viewed Quindero. If you never knew the history of Old quandary. You wouldn't have an appreciation for what it could be again. You would assume it's been this way forever. It's never going to get better. It has no potential to get better. And a person like me who knew how it started is like, okay, this is where we are. But there's so much possibility. Like, I know what this was. There's so much room for growth.

[Nikki Richardson]

And one of the areas for growth Nakia can envision is improving the community's relationship with law enforcement. But first, they need to acknowledge all the ways that the police department and local government eroded the trust of the area's black residents by failing to stop Roger Golubski. Like so many other people in the area, Nakia's family had negative interactions with him.

[Nakia Hope]

My dad had been harassed by Roger Galupski several times, stopped for no reason, thrown on the hood of his car. I had a few cousins who had been violated by Roger Galupski on my mom's side. So he was sort of like this monster in the closet in the community. Like, you knew he was there. You probably weren't gonna escape him, so you just kind of did your best to stay out of his way, really.

[Nikki Richardson]

For a generation of people living in Quindero, Golubski was just the problem. They had to live through a constant oppressive but ultimately untouchable presence. News of his arrest and trial opened up a glimmer of hope, but a lot of that hope died with him. When he decided to take his own life. It was difficult for Nakia to reckon with.

[Nakia Hope]

After I found out that he died, I think my biggest hope was that people wouldn't give up. Because in my mind, where there's one Golubski, there's two, maybe three, maybe four. And so I was hoping that it would re energize people to fight harder. Re energize them to say, we need to actually go harder. Because if there's him, who else is there that we haven't talked about? It's not just him, you know, but.

[Nikki Richardson]

That'S not what happened when he died.

[Nakia Hope]

For a lot of the black community, it kind of reinforced, like, we never get the justice we deserve. We never get the happy ending that we're looking for. And I think for people in Wyandotte county, the police department is kind of like the same as him. It's kind of like a monster in the closet. And a lot of people have either decided, I'm just going to live with it. I'm going to move out of the city. You Know, I'm gonna go somewhere else. I'm just gonna be quiet. We're never gonna get justice, so why is it worth it? And I've heard that amongst people, like, oh, it happened. How do we move forward? And that's kind of scary to me because I don't feel like enough people are kind of sitting in, how big of a deal what he did was. So I find that scary a little bit.

[Nikki Richardson]

It's hard to get people to believe that change is possible when cynicism and apathy start to creep in. But Nakia still hopes the community will recover from their disappointment and come back to fight for their city.

[Nakia Hope]

What I'm still hoping is that people internalize and say, hey, he kind of had a system that ran relatively smooth. How was it able to run this smooth? Who's backing him? Who's being quiet? It kind of goes back to kind of breaking down those systems.

[Nikki Richardson]

And looking back at our community's radical history to inspire us to fight for a better future, our ancestors crossed frozen rivers, hid in safe houses, and risked their lives for a chance at freedom. Nikia hopes that remembering where we've come from will give people the courage to fight for the city we want to see KCK become.

[Nakia Hope]

It is really hard to get people to buy in to the idea that what I do and people like me do is important. And I understand that to an extent, because life is really hard in America right now. There's so much going on. People are having to work more, be away from their kids more, make ends meet. So I get it. But I think my biggest fear is by the time people realize what's there, it'll be too late.

[Nikki Richardson]

Because who do we become when we're so desperate to move on that we forget where we came from?

[Nakia Hope]

I kind of hate this whole, like, let's start over thing that the country is doing and that the administration is doing is like a let's just pretend this never happened, and let's just build new, nice things. I think so much about children, and there are so many children who live in Quindero who don't know that famous people went to college at Western University, who don't know that Tuskegee Airmen went to college at Western University, who don't know that there were doctors and lawyers and fire chiefs and engineers and chemists. And it's like, it really is sad to me. And so my hope is that we can, in some way ignite people to say, hey, we need this. We need to see this. We need to know this was here.

[Nikki Richardson]

And to the question that so many people have asked her, why don't you just leave? If there are so many bad things happening in the community, Nakia has a simple answer.

[Nakia Hope]

Why can't we just fix the bad thing? My father is going to be buried in the old Condoro cemetery. I'm always going to go there.

[Nikki Richardson]

So as she looks ahead to the future, she hopes that people keep sharing the story of their neighborhood, both the rich history and the sometimes painful reality. Because knowing what happened is essential to understanding what needs to be done for the community to move forward, especially those affected by Golubski's abuse.

[Nakia Hope]

I think it was really courageous. He had gone, like, unchecked for so long that I thought it was extremely courageous for people to just start saying, hey, what do you know? You know what happened to you? It's courageous for people to share that, but also for people to decide we're gonna do something about it. And I think at its core, that is Quindero. Like, we're gonna be a bundle of sticks for each other.

[Nikki Richardson]

In the next episode of the Girlfriends Untouchable, my friend Khadijah will be taking the reins as we discuss how to heal in the aftermath of trauma.

[Nakia Hope]

I got a ton of calls, and it's just like, I'm not Jesus, baby. I'm not Moses at all. I don't know what you want me to do with all of this. How do you set these boundaries that don't re traumatize yourself while you're trying to help other people?

[Nikki Richardson]

The Girlfriend's Untouchable is produced by novel for iHeart podcast. For more from Novel, visit Novel Audio. The show is narrated by me, Nikki Richardson. It was written and produced by Rufaro Mazarua. The editors were Leona Hamid and Joe Wheeler. Our assistant producer is Mohamed Ahmed. The researcher is Zayana Youssef. Production management from Sheree Houston and Joe Savage. The fact checker is Findle Fulton. Sound mixing and scoring by Daniel Kimpson with additional engineering by Nicholas Alexander. Music supervision by Rufaro Mazurua, Nicholas Alexander and Joe Wheeler. Original music by Amanda Jones. The series artwork was designed by Christina Lempool. Novel's director of development is Selena Mehta. Willard Foxton is Novel's creative director of development. Max o' Brien and Craig Shirley Strachan are executive producers for Novel. Katrina Norvell and Nikki Itor are the executive producers for iHeart podcast and the marketing lead is Allison Cantor. Special thanks to Will Pearson and a special thanks to Carly Frankel and the whole team at WME.

[Nakia Hope]

Foreign.

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[Radhi Devlukia]

This is Radhi Devlukia from a really good cry and I absolutely love getting outside, whether it's a quick walk or a few mindful steps in between meeting or a longer run to just clear my head. But the one thing that can really ruin that for me is shoes that just don't feel right. That's why I started wearing Altra Running with the Altra fit Every step feels comfortable, balanced and strong, like my feet could finally move freely. What really stood out to me was the roomy toe box, especially because I have wide feet. My toes actually now have room to spread out, which makes movement feel more natural and comfortable. And when your feet aren't cramped, you feel more balanced, like every step has a strong, stable foundation. I've noticed that with extra space, my foot muscles get to work building strength so I can actually move with more confidence. Whether it's a short walk or a longer run. It's amazing how freeing your feet can also help free your mind too. Altra fits and moves with you no matter your pace or your goals. Beginner or a marathon runner, they've really become my go to for any kind of running or training and I always feel like my feet can do exactly what they're meant to. Feel the difference by visiting ultrarunning. Com that's a L T R A running com Experience Ultra and stay out there.

[Nikki Richardson]

This is an iHeart podcast. Guaranteed Human.