The Girlfriends S4/Bonus Ep 4: A Girlfriends Guide to Making a Change

Summary

The Girlfriends: Untouchable – Season 4 / Bonus Ep 4: "A Girlfriend's Guide to Making a Change"

Date: January 19, 2026
Host: Rafaro Mazaroora (Producer, guest host)
Guests/Voices: Mark Dupree (Wyandotte County DA), Nikki Richardson (activist), Khadijah Hardaway (activist)

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Episode Overview

This bonus episode delves into the ongoing struggle to reform systemic injustice in Kansas City, Kansas, in the wake of the exposure of Detective Roger Golubski’s decades-long abuses and the larger culture of police corruption and institutional racism. The episode zeroes in on two main approaches for effecting change: pushing for reform from within the system (as exemplified by DA Mark Dupree), versus driving change through persistent grassroots activism (as championed by Nikki Richardson and Khadijah Hardaway). The episode’s tone is candid, at times hopeful, but also underscores the slow, harsh realities of pursuing justice and accountability.

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Key Discussion Points & Insights

1. The Two Paths to Change

• Inside-Out Reform:

  • Mark Dupree’s Journey: Born and raised in KCK, the son of pastors, Dupree entered law so his marginalized community would be represented in the justice system.
  • Systemic Barriers: Dupree stresses how deeply rooted biases and lack of checks and balances allowed corruption to flourish.
  • Quote:

    “As a black man in America, it was very clear that the system had biases and still does... I had to learn how to adjust.” — Mark Dupree (06:58)

  • Motivation: His drive stems from personal experience with racism, and guidance from mentors who showed him he could effect change beyond prayer.

• Activism & Systemic Challenge:

  • Nikki & Khadijah’s Position: The sisters believe that true change must come from outside, by confronting and challenging institutions directly.
  • Quote:

    “You can't do it by working within it.” — Nikki Richardson (05:07)

  • Both sides agree transparency and community engagement are crucial.

2. The Reality of Institutional Change

• Early Wins and Setbacks:

  • Exoneration of Lamonte McIntyre: Dupree’s first big success, but he quickly realized the depth of office-wide, longstanding corruption.
  • Culture of Threats and Abuse: Past officials covered up misconduct, including destroyed records and systemic intimidation of witnesses.
  • Quote:

    “It’s one thing to know corruption exists, ... It’s a whole other thing when you’re actually in the system and you actually have the evidence to show ... This was real.” — Mark Dupree (18:06)

• Facing Personal Risks:

  • Speaking out and taking action made Dupree a target for abuse, personal attacks, and even threats against his children.
  • Quote:

    “I received death threats... Teachers would come to my kids and tell them that your father hates police.” — Mark Dupree (21:34)

3. Concrete Reforms and Remaining Gaps

• Dismissals & Disciplining Misconduct:

  • Dupree dismissed several prosecutors, led the investigation that ultimately led to prosecutor Tara Moorhead’s disbarment for her role in McIntyre’s wrongful conviction.
  • Changes have included stronger witness protections and community oversight mechanisms.
  • Quote:

    “You can’t threaten witnesses... Prosecutors who are going rogue can get penalized, can lose their license, not just their job.” — Mark Dupree (20:20)

• Community Integrity Unit:

  • With activists’ support, the Conviction Integrity Unit was formed, giving the community a direct role in reviewing cases and law enforcement conduct.
  • Quote:

    “Unless the community rallied around Mark Dupree for an initiative, he doesn’t have much he can do... Every community does need to establish some sort of grassroots organization that holds these government institutions accountable.” — Nikki Richardson (32:08)

• Tensions and Criticisms:

  • Nikki notes Dupree could do more—such as decriminalizing marijuana, which would have an immediate positive impact on targeted black and brown residents.
  • Quote:

    “He could just make the decision that... he is not going to prosecute marijuana possession... And that protects his community... He has the entire authority to do, and he doesn’t need anybody else to do it, but he’s not doing it.” — Nikki Richardson (30:27)

4. The Difficulty (and Necessity) of Persistence

• Incomplete Justice:

  • Many survivors, including Niko, feel used and unsupported—justice was partial at best.
  • Quote:

    “Her story was not used to charge those people with any crimes or look...into any of that. Nobody listened to her beyond exonerating Lamont McIntyre. And so that left Niko feeling very used.” — Nikki Richardson (28:46)

• Long Road Ahead:

  • All participants agree: real justice is slow, painful, and there’s much ground to make up.
  • Quote:

    “We just have so much that we have to make up for.” — Nikki Richardson (33:52)

  • Progress is possible, but requires both internal reformers and relentless external challengers in the community.

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Memorable Quotes & Moments (with Timestamps)

• “If you are really looking to change the system, you can’t do it by working within it.”
  — Nikki Richardson (05:07)

• “I can sleep at night knowing that I did my part bringing justice to this community.” — Mark Dupree (05:13)

• “I was taught by my parents...if you’re driving as a young black man, to always have your wallet on the dashboard and never make any sudden movements.”
  — Mark Dupree (06:58)

• “Prosecutors who are going rogue can lose their license, not just their job.”
  — Mark Dupree (20:20)

• “My children...had to experience, unfortunately, teachers who were married to law enforcement who talked bad about their father.”
  — Mark Dupree (21:34)

• “Unless the community rallied around Mark Dupree for an initiative, he doesn't have much he can do without the backing of community...Every community does need to establish some sort of grassroots organization that holds these government institutions accountable.”
  — Nikki Richardson (32:08)

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Notable Sections & Timestamps

• Intro & Setting the Stage (02:49–04:29): Producer Rafaro introduces the debate over whether real change happens from within the system or through external activism.
• Mark Dupree’s Early Experiences (06:27–08:32): Personal motivation and the reality of racial profiling and injustice.
• Corruption in the Courts & Law Enforcement (09:39–12:06): Systemic issues, misconduct, and lack of accountability; segue into Dupree’s election.
• Lamonte McIntyre Exoneration & Discovery of Deeper Corruption (12:41–13:35): The beginning of Dupree’s push for wider reforms.
• Consequences of Speaking Out (21:34): Threats and hostility faced by DA Dupree and his family.
• Tension Between Community and Authorities (28:13–33:10): Nikki and Khadijah’s view that justice is unfinished and requires persistent community involvement.
• Reflections on Progress and the Long Road Ahead (33:52–33:58): The ongoing journey for justice in Wyandotte County.

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Tone and Final Thoughts

The tone is earnest, reflective, and deeply personal. The episode highlights the painful complexities of community trauma, the competing philosophies of change, and the need for both inside and outside pressures to reform entrenched systems. While emphasizing the victories and reforms accomplished, the speakers remain clear-eyed about the deep work still left to do.

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Next Episode Preview

The episode closes with a preview: Khadijah will speak with Dr. Marvel Parker about her husband, Wheeler Parker, a witness to the kidnapping of Emmett Till—tying struggles of past and present together.

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For those seeking quick context:
This episode paints a vivid portrait of why fighting for justice—whether from inside or outside the system—is necessary, interconnected, and an ongoing process. Both activists and reformers are crucial to progress in undermining systems of abuse, as shown in Kansas City, Kansas.

Transcript

[Nikki Richardson]

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[Rafaro Mazaroora]

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[Rafaro Mazaroora]

I'm the producer of the Girlfriends Untouchable. In this episode, we'll be exploring the lengths the authorities went to try and fight corruption in Kansas City. While there's a lot of hope in this episode, as well as stories of how people push back against a broken system, there will also be some discussion of murder and sexual assault. If you or someone you love has been affected by any of the themes that come up in this episode, we've left some links in the description that offer resources and support. Take care of yourself. Okay, let's address the elephant in the room. You are not hearing the dulcet tones of Nikki Richardson or Khadijah Hardaway. As you can probably tell, I don't even have an American accent. But as the producer of this series, I spent the past year having hours worth of conversations with people from Kansas City about Roger Golubski and the corruption his story exposed. However, Kansas City isn't an outlier. Police corruption and institutional racism is an international problem that often affects black and marginalized people the most. Stories like these shake our trust in the institutions designed to protect us, but we can't just sit by in despair. If we want to see real change, it's up to us, the people, to speak truth to power and hold these institutions to account. In this series, we've had two different approaches to changing the system. One group of people want to change things from the ground up by challenging those institutions. Like Nikki and Khadija.

[Nikki Richardson]

You know me and you didn't go into this to make friends, right? We went in there to do the right thing.

[Rafaro Mazaroora]

And we've also heard from people who want to change the system from within, like Mark Dupree, the first black district attorney in Wyandotte County's history who came into public service after a life of community activism.

[Mark Dupree]

I believe the Lord pushed me into this to tackle injustice from the inside out.

[Rafaro Mazaroora]

Given what people in Wyandotte county have been through, it's not surprising that different groups have strong feelings about how to move forward. Both are trying to change the system for the better, but which method is.

[Nikki Richardson]

More effective if you are really looking to change the system, you can't do it by working within it.

[Mark Dupree]

I can sleep at night knowing that I did my part bringing justice to this community.

[Rafaro Mazaroora]

I got you.

[Mark Dupree]

I got you.

[Rafaro Mazaroora]

I got you.

[Mark Dupree]

I got you.

[Rafaro Mazaroora]

I'm Rufara Mazaroora from the Teens at novel and iHeart podcasts. This is the Girlfriends Untouchable.

[Mark Dupree]

I got you.

[Rafaro Mazaroora]

I got you. I got you. I got you. I got you. I got you. I got you. I got you. I got you. Love you. I got you. I got you. I got you. Bonus. Episode 4 the Girlfriend's Guide to Making a Change I got you. I got you. I got you. Mark Dupree is a man who's taken on various different roles in his community. He's a pastor, a lawyer, an activist and a politician. And he believes that the system's checkered past is exactly why good folks must get involved and shake it up from the inside.

[Mark Dupree]

I was born and raised here in Kansas City, Kansas, in the inner city. My parents were Pentecostal pastors, so we did a lot of ministry work dealing with gangs and trying to help our community in ministry.

[Rafaro Mazaroora]

Dupree didn't only want to get into law to fight against injustice because it was the right thing to do. One of the reasons he wanted to get into the justice system was because he belongs to the group most likely to be racially profiled and mistreated by the police.

[Mark Dupree]

As a black man in America, it was very clear that the system had biases and still does. And as a black man in this country growing up, I had to learn how to adjust. I had to learn how not to. And so I was taught by my parents, right, if you're driving as a young black man to always have your wallet on the dashboard and never to make any sudden movements.

[Rafaro Mazaroora]

He also knew that if a black man like him became the victim of a crime, he couldn't necessarily trust the cops to come to his rescue.

[Mark Dupree]

There was often victims of crime in my community and we would see the perpetrator not be arrested. Justice wouldn't come. That's why I became a criminal defense lawyer and seeing the victimization of my community members and the system not working to help them. It was at the age of 14 where I had an opportunity to meet a African American judge. And I went down to the courthouse and I walk into the courthouse and that one day shadow experience turned into a seven year mentor, mentee relationship. He talked me that I can do more than pray that I could be involved in the criminal justice system. And that led me to go into law and graduate from law school and worked for a judge and then I did public defense work for some years.

[Rafaro Mazaroora]

Growing up in the 1990s, Dupree belonged to the generation that felt the promise of the civil rights movement had not been realized. The crack cock epidemic and so called war on drugs had devastated black communities across the states. In the late 80s and the early 90s saw a wave of public unrest when the brutal beating of Rodney King at the hands of police officers sparked the LA riots.

[Mark Dupree]

Coming out of the civil rights movement, we're trying to get into fairness and equality and that everyone has a right. Black, brown, broke everyone. We're all equal. Well, not everyone agreed with that. You had people who were in authority and who could police those black and brown communities, but still have their same old school mentality that you do what I say because I can make you do it.

[Rafaro Mazaroora]

Debris went into practicing law with an air of optimism. He was ready to fight for justice and make a difference in his community. But he quickly realized that the actions of the courts and a law of prosecutorial incentives could sometimes get in the way of justice.

[Mark Dupree]

As a prosecutor, the old school mindset was the more cases I win, the more convictions I get, the more notches that come onto my belt. And what you find historically, again across the country is you have 46% of all wrongful convictions are due to prosecutorial misconduct. The police were the ones who was given the authority to keep everyone safe, while at the same time their biases as human beings came through because of that. A culture that allowed that authority to go to some folks heads. And if you wore the badge at that time, you got to do pretty much whatever you wanted to do. And so how does something like this happen? I think it's the lack of checks and balances that was there. I think it absolutely was discrimination and racism that was occurring and then the lack of accountability. Now we later find that in the 80s and in the 90s that that police department was being investigated by the Department of Justice and was being investigated by others. But none of those things were able to stick to the point that records were shredded. That's not the story of just that department. That's the story of this country specifically during that time.

[Rafaro Mazaroora]

It was in light of these facts that Mark Dupree set his sights on the district Attorney's office.

[Mark Dupree]

I decided to run for DA 2014. I ran as the DA to make change, to hold people accountable, to hear the community and to be in the community. And that's what I did. And so the citizens of this community wanted to get rid of all of those allegations of corruption. And quite frankly, many of those folks had experience and had been touched by the system and the flaws that were in it. The community still believes in making these changes and holding people accountable. Not just those outside the system, but holding people accountable inside the system.

[Rafaro Mazaroora]

Mark Dupree was elected in 2016, taking office as Kansas first black DA in 2017.

[Mark Dupree]

I am the only African American elected DA in the entire state of Kansas. In 2017. I was and I still am. Before me, everyone who sat in this chief law enforcement official seat as the DA was not a person of color. And across the country to this day, 92% of those who are sitting in elected DA seats are white men.

[Rafaro Mazaroora]

As soon as he assumed office, the people of Wyandotte county started knocking on his door, sending emails and making calls because the community was desperate for change. One of Dupree's first major breakthroughs was the exoneration of Lamont McIntyre. But that was just the start.

[Mark Dupree]

After we finished with Lamont's case, I had seen too much information that said, you know what, I can't just sit silent, right? And many people said, well, Dupree, just leave it alone. You don't want to get into it. He's been a dedicated officer for all these years, you know, just leave it alone. Well, that's that good old boy mentality. I scratch your back, you scratch mine. And I felt like that, yes, Lamont McIntyre had an injustice done to him, but Quite frankly, for 40 years this individual had been on the force, and I dare not say that he was the only one doing this type of foolishness.

[Rafaro Mazaroora]

Dupree had heard rumors that prosecutors, police officers, and people working in positions of authority had abused their power. But he was about to find out that that corruption ran even deeper, a realization that would force him to push back against the very office he'd assume. After the break, we'll hear what Mark Dupree has been able to achieve and explore some of the limits to his agenda for reform.

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[Rafaro Mazaroora]

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[Rafaro Mazaroora]

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[Rafaro Mazaroora]

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[Rafaro Mazaroora]

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Homes.com, we've done your homework. I got you, I got you, I got you. After Lamont McIntyre was exonerated in 2017, Wyandotte County's first black DA, Mark Dupree, got to work addressing the issues he saw when it came to the way the justice system treated people in his community.

[Mark Dupree]

Doing this work, I came to the conclusion that it was not just about protecting those who are outside the system, but it is about making sure that the system itself is doing what is right and what is just. It's about doing justice and making sure that the victims of all Races are taken care of. And you don't just win by any means necessary. You win based off of the law. And if you lose based off of the law, guess what? The law still did its job.

[Rafaro Mazaroora]

But he saw that the DA's office hadn't always made fairness and justice the priority when it came to how they treated people. In fact, he was kind of horrified when he saw how elements within his new office had operated in the past. He believed there had been miscarriages of justice, threatening of witnesses, and a failure to take a stand against sexual violence. Law enforcement wasn't just protecting and serving his community the way they were supposed to. On some occasions, they were actively harming them. And the district Attorney's office hadn't been doing enough to challenge them.

[Mark Dupree]

I'll tell you, I think it's important to note, it's one thing to know corruption exists, right? Or you can feel they're not treating us right. It's something to know that on the outside of the system looking in, it's a whole other thing when you're actually in the system and you're the DA and you actually have the evidence to show I wasn't tripping. This was real. I knew they were biased. I was like, oh, wow, really? And so how did that make me feel? It made me feel like, you know, despite me not ever wanting to be the prosecutor, I now see why. I see why I'm here. I believe the Lord pushed me into this, and it was for a greater cause.

[Rafaro Mazaroora]

The system was broken. Wyandotte county needed change, and that could only come with a real, true reckoning. So Mark Dupree pushed for prosecutor Tara Moorhead to be held to account. But going up against people in positions of power like Moorhead isn't easy.

[Mark Dupree]

Tara Moorhead, who was a seasoned prosecutor who had a desire to make sure she climbed the letter.

[Rafaro Mazaroora]

But Dupree, looking into the McIntyre case, put a spotlight on Tara Moorehead's history of alleged misconduct, an investigation that led to her being called before a panel at the Kansas Board for Discipline of Attorneys and surrendering her license to practice law. The Kansas Supreme Court formally disbarred her in April 2024. But one official facing scrutiny wasn't enough. The McIntyre case had revealed a culture of intimidating witnesses and failing to protect victims, a pattern that could only thrive in an office that lacked accountability. So Dupree set out to try and create safeguards to protect victims and witnesses and ensure the integrity of the justice process.

[Mark Dupree]

The law has changed quite a bit, right? You can't threaten a witness. That's the biggest thing. You can't threaten witnesses. But more importantly, there are offices in place where now those individuals have the ability to. To report when it happens. So that prosecutors who are going rogue can get penalized, can lose their license, not just their job, but their license to practice law. So there's been huge change in what I would say in reform into accountability for not just prosecutors, but for lawyers and law enforcement alike, as well as.

[Rafaro Mazaroora]

Championing more community focused policing. The DA set out to change the culture in his own office.

[Mark Dupree]

I came in and I had to release, I believe, six or nine prosecuting attorneys. It left me with very few, and I had to hurry up and hire a whole bunch of new ones.

[Rafaro Mazaroora]

It's important to note that the attorneys die Dupree released are not publicly accused of or implicated in any wrongdoing. According to our reporting, Dupree's reforms drew a hard line, which made him enemies. The old guard who were used to being in power were not about to vanish without putting up a fight.

[Mark Dupree]

It was tough. You know, all kinds of things. I received death threats. All of this stuff happened because we wanted real justice from the inside out. My children had to grow up in a way that I didn't. They had to experience, unfortunately, teachers who were married to law enforcement who talked bad about their father. Teachers would come to my kids and tell them that your father hates police.

[Rafaro Mazaroora]

But Dupree remained steadfast.

[Mark Dupree]

I think the best thing that can happen for this community is that they see accountability, that no one is above the law.

[Rafaro Mazaroora]

Dupree started working with the FBI. He took them around the community and they began digging around.

[Mark Dupree]

They sent it over to the U.S. attorney's office for actual prosecution. At which point then the question became, how do we get some of these witnesses who may have been victimized by this detective?

[Rafaro Mazaroora]

Dupree's changes over the past few years have been wide ranging. Old school prosecutors have been phased out. Bad prosecutors have been taken out of commission. And the police department's culture has started to change. While some residents are still unhappy about what they perceive as a lack of real measurable change, the way Dupree puts it, Wyandotte county is moving forward.

[Mark Dupree]

We have a new police chief, an African American police chief who grew up here in this community as many of those officers and detectives during that era has retired and moved on. And so we have a police department who is really focused on justice in every community. And our crime rate has gratefully decreased over 27%. And we're community based. We're focused on the community. What we've done in our office is made sure from the top that training is known. We've also made it very clear that witnesses and victims of crime are our partners. They are not to simply do what we say when we say it. It was normal practice for threats to be made. And if prosecutors approach them as you need to do what I, I tell you to do because I need to close this case, then that's where the culture of threatening witnesses, the culture of creating evidence, the culture of with the culture of winning by any means, that's where that culture is formed. So again, there's been great reform. We're focused on the community and seeing that they have individuals righting wrongs, built that trust that says maybe my grandmother couldn't trust them. But right now we have the ability to trust in a law enforcement and in a DA who really cares.

[Rafaro Mazaroora]

When I initially talked to D8 Dupree, I got the sense that change was actually happening, that Kansas City and the rest of Wyandotte county were about to transform. Dupri is a compelling talker. He knows the right points to tell a journalist, and hearing him speak sometimes felt like being in a Sunday morning sermon. I was buying into the vision he was laying out, and it felt like he really did believe that you can change the system from the inside. But there are people like our girlfriends Nikki and Khadija, who believe that the most effective way to create change is to challenge the systems of authority and speak truth to power, which we'll hear more about after the break. Hey, this is U.S. olympic gold medalist.

[Tara Davis Woodhull]

Tara Davis Woodhull, and I'm U.S. paralympic gold medalist Hunter Woodhull.

[Rafaro Mazaroora]

As athletes, our lives are about having.

[Tara Davis Woodhull]

A clear path and a team that you can absolutely trust.

[Rafaro Mazaroora]

So when it came to getting the.

[Tara Davis Woodhull]

Best mortgage, we chose PennyMac.

[Rafaro Mazaroora]

PennyMac is proud to be the official mortgage provider provider of Team USA and.

[Tara Davis Woodhull]

You learn more at pennymac.com PennyMac Loan Services, LLC equal housing lender and MLS ID 35953 licensed by the Department of Financial Protection and Innovation under the California Residential Mortgage Lending Act. Conditions and restrictions may apply.

[Rafaro Mazaroora]

Homes.com knows having the right agent can make or break your home search.

[Nikki Richardson]

That's why they provide home shoppers with.

[Rafaro Mazaroora]

An agent directory that gives you a detailed look at each agent's experience, like the number of closed sales in a specific neighborhood, average price range, and more. It lets you easily connect with all.

[Nikki Richardson]

The agents in the area you're searching.

[Rafaro Mazaroora]

So you can find the right agent with the right experience and ultimately the.

[Nikki Richardson]

Right home for you.

[Rafaro Mazaroora]

Homes.com, we've done your homework.

[Angela Yee]

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[Rafaro Mazaroora]

Got you, I got you, I got you. Mark Dupree Making history by becoming Kansas first Black District Attorney is something that Nikki and Khadijah respect. But making history doesn't make you immune to criticism. Each time I've spoken to them, I've gotten this sense that there's still a lot of unfinished business in Wyandotte County's search for justice. Some people feel that Dupree's administration hasn't gone far enough when it comes to supporting the victims and survivors who spoke up but haven't gotten justice yet.

[Nikki Richardson]

In the case of Niko, her story was riddled with abuse, sexual harassment by Golubski, prosecutorial misconduct by Tara Moorehead. Her story was not used to charge those people with any crimes or look and investigate into any of that. Nobody listened to her beyond exonerating Lamont McIntyre. And so that left Nico feeling very used.

[Rafaro Mazaroora]

The women who shared their stories put themselves out on the line, and some of them aren't sure it was worth it.

[Nikki Richardson]

A lot of the pathways of justice was wrapped up in that federal trial. And when Galupski committed suicide, that pretty much ended that pathway. We were working with the Department of Justice on creating new pathways of systemic change for Wyandotte county to resolve some of these issues. But the external factor of the Trump administration has completely broken down that relationship.

[Rafaro Mazaroora]

When I spoke to Dupree, it almost seemed as if he was describing an idealized version of Wyandotte County. But Nikki thinks this outlook misses the Mark because she feels like the old guard still calls the shots.

[Nikki Richardson]

The corruption, the nepotism, the lack of care about people who don't look like you or who are marginalized or who have a harder life. Those biases really have seeped their way into the culture of our local government, and it has really shaped the policies that have been made over the years.

[Rafaro Mazaroora]

And according to Nikki, there are some straightforward changes that DA Dupree could push for to improve the lives of people in the community.

[Nikki Richardson]

Mark Dupree has every ability in his elected position to do a lot more than what he is doing. I strongly feel that that Wyandotte county should be decriminalized for marijuana use. They use marijuana possession to target black and brown people specifically, especially in the east area. And he could just make the decision that in his office he is not going to prosecute marijuana possession. And then that deincentivizes the police department from even looking at marijuana possession. And that protects his community. And that is something he has the entire authority to do, and he doesn't need anybody else to do it, but he's not doing it. Policing the black and brown community is a part of the system that upholds his job. Right. How can you not try to do something more or at least be more vocal about it in the public?

[Rafaro Mazaroora]

But Nikki and Khadijah don't see it as just a Dupree issue. It's an issue with power itself.

[Nikki Richardson]

Can you really change the system by just working within it? And there's a lot of, you've got to have more than just him in there. You got to change the whole thing. He's got to change the whole thing.

[Rafaro Mazaroora]

But while they were hesitant to work with the authorities, they've seen the impact that being persistent can have on creating change within the system. For example, in their support of the Conviction Integrity Unit, deprisa app, it was an initiative to empower the community to challenge law enforcement. It later became the Community Integrity Unit and now gives the community even more powers to scrutinize and challenge law enforcement in Wyandotte County, A sign that sometimes working together can be the most effective way to change things.

[Nikki Richardson]

Unless the community rallied around Mark Dupree for an initiative, he doesn't have much he can do without the backing of community. That's how we got the Conviction Integrity Unit. He would not have been able to do that had we not supported that. If there was no grassroots organization in Wyandotte county, this would not be happening. And so every community does need to establish some sort of grassroots organization that holds these government institutions accountable. What will always work is fellowship and engagement. And as long as we are continuing to build together and collectively sharing our stories and collectively doing the work, we outnumber them. And I think being able to have avenues where the community can actually see what's really going on behind the curtain would go a long way to make sure that there are accountability measures in place, but also build trust.

[Rafaro Mazaroora]

Wyandotte county and Kansas City, Kansas, still have a long way to go. But the Galupski story made people realize that nobody is above the law. And a lot of progress can be made when a community comes together to hold power to account. Since this story came to light, Nikki and Khadijah have seen more people coming together, putting a spotlight on potential wrongdoing and calling it out. While they don't always see eye to eye and have different opinions on how to enact change, officials like Mark and activists like Nikki and Khadija are doing the crucial work it takes to improve their community and protect its people's rights.

[Nikki Richardson]

I believe in some ways we're moving in the right direction. We just have so much that we have to make up for.

[Rafaro Mazaroora]

The road to justice can be long and arduous, often littered with more setbacks than tangible signs of progress. Pushing back against old systems isn't comfortable, and change can take years, decades even. But when you love your city and are that deeply invested in its future, it's a journey worth fighting for. In the next episode of the Girlfriends Untouchable, Khadijah will be having a really thought provoking conversation with Dr. Marvel Parker, whose husband Wheeler Parker was a witness to his cousin Emmett Till's kidnapping at the hands of a Lynch mobile.

[Nikki Richardson]

The open casket funeral of Emmett Till.

[Rafaro Mazaroora]

Is said to have been the catalyst.

[Nikki Richardson]

That sparked the civil rights movement.

[Rafaro Mazaroora]

Rosa Parks said when she refused to give her seat up on the bus.

[Mark Dupree]

She thought about Emmett Till and she.

[Rafaro Mazaroora]

Stayed in her seat. And we know that one act was the birth of the Montgomery bus boycott that brought Dr. King to town, that.

[Nikki Richardson]

Gave birth to the civil rights movement.

[Rafaro Mazaroora]

Emmett's death was the spark. The Girlfriend's Untouchable is produced by Novel for iHeart Podcasts. For more from Novel, visit Novel Audio this episode was hosted by me, Rafaro Mazaroora. It was produced produced by Mohamed Ahmed and Rafaro Mazaroora. The editor is Joe Wheeler. The researcher is Sayana Youssef, Production management from Chevre Houston and Joe Savage. The fact checker is Fendor Fulton. Sound design, mixing and scoring by Daniel Kempson with additional engineering by Nicholas Alexander. Music supervision by Rafaro Mazaroora, Nicholas Alexander and Joe Wheeler. Original music by Amanda Jones. The series artwork was designed by Christina Limcool. Novel's director of development is Selena Mehta. Willard Foxton is Novel's creative director of development. Max o' Brien and Craig Strachan are executive producers for Novel. Katrina Norvell and Nikki Itor are the executive producers for iHeart podcasts. The marketing lead is Alison Cantle. Special thanks thanks to Will Pearson and a special thanks to Karlie Frankel and the whole team at wme.

[Tara Davis Woodhull]

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[Rafaro Mazaroora]

Hey, this is US Olympic gold medalist Tara Davis Woodhull.

[Tara Davis Woodhull]

And I'm US Paralympic gold medalist Hunter Woodhull.

[Rafaro Mazaroora]

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[Tara Davis Woodhull]

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[Rafaro Mazaroora]

So when it came to getting the.

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[Rafaro Mazaroora]

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[Angela Yee]

This is Angela Yee from Way up with Angela Yee, y'.

[Nikki Richardson]

All.

[Angela Yee]

Black Girl Vitamins is completely changing the wellness game for us. You know our bodies don't move the same as we get older and health becomes even more important. BGV Black Girl Vitamins is giving us all the supplements we need to stay healthy. I've seen hundreds of ladies online raving about their tasteless collagen powder that made their joint pain practically disappear. I had to try it myself. And y', all, it is the truth. If your body needs help bouncing back, go ahead and check their products out on BlackGirlVitamins Co and get 20% off using code.

[Rafaro Mazaroora]

Angela Yee this is an iHeart podcast.

[Nikki Richardson]

Guaranteed human.