Episode 17: “I. M. Terrell: The School That Helped Generations Find Their Why (Part 5: Why)”

🎙️ WE GOT THE FUNK PODCAST

Episode 17: I. M. Terrell — The School That Helped Generations Find Their Why (Part 5: Why)

In the final installment of our I. M. Terrell series, we explore the most important question of all:

Why?

Not why the school existed.

But why it mattered.

For generations, I. M. Terrell High School was more than a place of education. It was a place where young people discovered purpose, identity, possibility, and direction. Long before terms like “personal development” and “purpose-driven living” became popular, Terrell was helping students understand that their lives had meaning and that their contributions mattered.

In this episode, DonTheBarber connects the legacy of I. M. Terrell to modern psychological research on purpose, resilience, and human motivation. Through the stories of legendary graduates like Ornette Coleman and Bob Ray Sanders, along with the educators, leaders, and community members who helped shape generations of students, we examine how purpose can transform lives and communities.

We also explore:

• The psychology behind finding your “why”
 • Viktor Frankl’s groundbreaking work on purpose and resilience
 • How Terrell teachers helped students see potential in themselves
 • The role churches, families, barbershops, and neighborhoods played in shaping identity
 • Why Black educational institutions mattered during segregation
 • How Fort Worth continues to benefit from the legacy of I. M. Terrell
 • The powerful example of Fort Worth native Kirk Franklin and the impact of discovering a purpose bigger than your pain

At its heart, this episode asks a simple but life-changing question:

What’s your why?

Because the greatest legacy of I. M. Terrell may not be the diplomas, trophies, or famous graduates.

It may be the generations of people who walked through those doors and left believing they were capable of changing the world.

🎧 Listen now and discover why purpose remains one of the most powerful forces in human history.

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 #FortWorthHistory
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 #BobRaySanders
 #OrnetteColeman
 #KirkFranklin
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Transcript

SPEAKER_00 0:04

Every generation asks the same question. Who am I? Why am I here? What am I supposed to do with my life? Hey, and if we're honest, most people spend years trying to answer them questions. Some spend decades. Some never even do. Because finding your purpose ain't easy. Finding your calling ain't easy. Finding your why might be one of the hardest journeys a person ever takes. But every now and then, a place comes along that helps people discover. Not by giving them all the answers, but by helping them believe they were capable of finding the answers. And for generations of black students in Fort Worth, IMTL High School became one of those places. Because Tarrell wasn't just producing graduates, Tarrell was producing purpose. It was helping young people see possibilities bigger than their circumstances, helping musicians find their sound, helping educators find their mission, helping leaders find their voice, and helping dreamers find direction. And that's why this final episode ain't about a building. It ain't about a date. It ain't about a neighborhood. It's about something deeper. It's about the reason, the purpose, the calling, the why. Because when we look at the lives of tarot graduates, we see something remarkable. Different careers, different talents, different journeys, but one common thread. Each of them found a reason bigger than they self. And modern psychology tells us something powerful about that. People can overcome incredible obstacles when they have a meaningful purpose. When people know why they're moving forward, they become more resilient, more persistent, more hopeful, and more willing to endure setbacks. In other words, purpose changes everything. Maybe the greatest legacy is that generation after generation walked through those doors and left with a stronger sense of why they were here. Hey, it's your boy Don the Barber, and welcome back to the We Got the Funk Podcast. This right here is part five of the I Am Tarot series, the why. Now before we talk about tarot, let's talk about life. Because every human being is searching for meaning. Some search through careers, some search through family, some search through faith, some search through service, but some search through creativity. But we all searching. Psychologists have spent decades studying what helps people persevere. And one of the strongest findings keeps appearing over and over again. Purpose matters. People who feel connected to a meaningful purpose tend to show greater resilience during adversity. They recover from setbacks more effectively, they persist longer toward difficult goals, and they often report greater life satisfaction. Now think about that for a little bit. Because Terrell existed during segregation, the students who attended that school were facing obstacles many young people today can barely imagine. Limited opportunities, restricted access, systemic barriers, and yet they kept it pushing. Why? Because somewhere along the way, they developed reasons bigger than the obstacles. And purpose has always been stronger than circumstance. So it's a famous psychiatrist named Victor Frankel who spent years studying human resilience. After surviving unimaginable hardship during World War II, he reached the conclusion that changed psychology forever. People can endure extraordinary suffering when they possess a meaningful reason to keep going. Now let's be clear. Purpose doesn't remove obstacles. Purpose doesn't magically solve problems. What purpose does is make the struggle worth enduring. Hey, that's a powerful right there, because every graduate we're about to talk about faced challenges. Every one of them encountered setbacks. Every one of them had moments when quitting would have been easier, but they kept moving because their why was bigger than the difficulty standing in front of them. Hey, take Ornette Coleman. Imagine being told your music don't fit. Imagine being criticized because you're trying something different. Most people would have adjusted, most people would have just conformed, most people would have just played it safe. But Arnette didn't, because his purpose wasn't to fit in. His purpose was expressing something nobody else could hear. His purpose was creating something authentic, something revolutionary, and eventually that purpose transformed jazz forever. That's what happens when purpose becomes stronger than approval. Hey, you stop asking what people think, and you start asking, what am I called to do? And when purpose answers that question, history often follows. Let's talk about another tarot graduate, Bob Ray Sanders. Because purpose doesn't always come through music. Sometimes it comes through storytelling. Sometimes it comes through truth telling. Sometimes it comes through making sure people don't forget. As a journalist and historian, Bob Ray Sanders spent decades documenting stories that might otherwise have been lost. Stories of black for work. Stories of struggle, stories of trial, stories of people who deserve to be remembered. And that's purpose. Purpose isn't always about being the loudest voice. Sometimes purpose is making sure other voices get heard. And if you listen to this entire tarot series, then you've already seen the importance of that work. Because history survives when somebody cares enough to preserve it. And people like Bob Ray Sanders made sure future generations would know where they came from. Hey, that's purpose and action. And then it was other graduates who found their purpose through leadership, through service, through creating opportunities for others, because not everybody is called to stand on the stage. Some people are called to build institutions, to mentor, to advocate, to create pathways, and to lead things better than they found it. And honestly, those people are often the backbone of a community. The names might not always make national headlines, but communities know who they are. Hey, they the ones who keep showing up, keep serving, keep investing, keep believing, and Tarot produced a lot of those people. The kind of people who understood that success means very little if it didn't help somebody else. Now this is the part that hit your boy. Because I don't think Tarot's greatest lesson was algebra or science or literature. Hey, as important as those things are, I think Tarot taught identity. It taught students that they matter, that they belong, that excellence was possible, that greatness wasn't reserved for somebody else. And once a young person starts believing that, everything changes. Because purpose often begins with possibility. Hey, you have to believe you can become something before you ever pursue it. And Terrell gave generations permission to believe. That's bigger than education, that's transformation. Now before we give all the credit to the students, we need to talk about the teachers because every great story usually starts with somebody who saw something before anybody else could see it. I'm talking about a coach, a mentor, a principal, or a teacher. Somebody who looked at a young person and said, Hey, I see something in you. And honestly, sometimes that's all a young person needs. So research continues to show that students often rise to the expectations of adults who genuinely believe in them. Think about that for a minute. The belief of one teacher can alter the trajectory of a life. And that's exactly what happened at Terrell. Generation after generation, teachers wasn't simply delivering lessons. They were building confidence, building discipline, and building identity. Helping students discover strengths they didn't even know they possessed. Hey, think about it. How many musicians first discovered their gift because a band director pushed them? How many future leaders learned confidence because a teacher challenged them to speak up? How many future professionals learned excellence because somebody refused to lower the standard? We'll never know all their names. History rarely remembers every teacher, but every successful graduate carries pieces of them. Because purpose is often introduced by somebody who already recognizes it. Before you even discover you're why, somebody usually helps you believe you're worth finding it. And Terrell had a building full of people doing exactly that. Year after year, decade after decade. Hey, now let's go even deeper. Because schools don't create purpose alone. Communities do. Terrell existed inside a larger Black Fort Worth ecosystem. I'm talking about churches, families, barber shops, beauty shops, business owners, neighborhood leaders, grandparents, everybody played a role. And that's something modern society sometimes forgets. It takes a whole village to build confidence. It takes a village to build character. It takes a village to help a young person discover purpose. Back then, students wasn't just hearing messages about excellence at school. They heard it at church. They heard it around dinner tables. They heard it in neighborhood conversations. Hey, they heard it from people who expected something from them. And expectations can become powerful. Because when enough people believe in you, eventually you start believing in yourself. That's what community does. Community creates mirrors. Mirrors that reflect possibility, mirrors that reflect value, mirrors that reflect identity. And for many students, Tarrell became one of those mirrors. The school wasn't simply teaching young people what they could do, it was reminding them who they already were. Hey, that's powerful right there because purpose grows fastest in environments where people feel seen. Hey, sometimes we spend so much time asking what people accomplish that we forget to ask what drove them, what kept them going, what made them refuse to quit, what made them keep believing. The answer is often purpose. Hey, now let's bring this home to the city itself. Because this story ain't just about terror, it's about Fort Worth. The Fort Worth we inherited, the Fort Worth we building, and the Fort Worth we gonna leave behind. Every city has buildings, every city has streets, every city has schools, but not every city produces legacy. Not every city produces generations of people committed to lifting others. Fort Worth has. And Terrell is one of those reasons why. Because a school became a pipeline of possibility. People left those halls and became educators, artists, entrepreneurs, musicians, leaders, public servants, and community builders. And every one of them carried a piece of Fort Worth with them. A school does not have to produce thousands of celebrities to change history. It only has to produce enough people willing to serve, enough people willing to lead, enough people willing to care, and that's exactly what Terrell did. Generation after generation, the city is better because those students existed. And that's what purpose does. Purpose don't always make headlines. Sometimes purpose simply makes communities stronger. So whether we're talking about Ornette Coleman, whether we're talking about Bob Ray Sanders, whether we're talking about educators, civic leaders, musicians, entrepreneurs, or everyday graduates whose name never appeared in newspapers, the common thread remains the same. They found a reason bigger than they self. Psychologists call it purpose, faith communities call it calling, grandparents call it finding your place in the world. Hey man, whatever you call it, the result is the same. People become stronger when they know why they're moving forward. People become resilient when they know what they're fighting for. People become more committed when they know who they're serving. And Terrell kept helping students answer that question. Why am I here? What am I supposed to do? How can I contribute? Those questions transcend generations, and every generation has to answer them for themselves. Now, before we close this series, I want to talk about somebody who represents the idea of purpose in a powerful way. I'm talking about that boy, Kurt Franklin. Kurt wasn't an IMT graduate, but he may be one of the greatest examples of what happens when purpose becomes bigger than pain. Because if you know his story, you know it wasn't easy. I'm talking about challenges, rejection, questions about identity. Hey, moments that could break somebody, moments that could have caused somebody to give up. But somewhere along the way, he discovered his why. And once he found that, everything changed. Music became the vehicle, faith became the message, service became the mission. And what happened afterward? Millions of lives impacted. Generations inspired a global influence built from a purpose that started right here in the front. Hey, and that's why I bring him up. Because purpose don't belong to one school. Purpose belongs to every person willing to discover it. Terrell helped generations find theirs. Kirk found his, and now the question becomes: what's yours? Hey, so let me leave y'all with this. The greatest thing a school can give a student ain't information. Information changes every year. Technology changes every year. Jobs change every year. The greatest thing a school can help a student discover is purpose. Because purpose survives change. Purpose survives setbacks. Purpose survives obstacles. Purpose survives criticism. And purpose survives time. And that's why I believe the greatest legacy of I Am Tarot wasn't simply education. It was inspiration. It was helping young people believe they were capable of becoming something meaningful, helping them believe that their life matters, helping them believe they have something unique to contribute. And once a person discover that, it ain't no telling how far they can go. That's why tarot matters so much. That's why the story matters, and that's why the legacy still continues. Hey man, so when somebody asks you, why does I am tarot matter, tell them this. Because it wasn't just a school. It was a place where generations of black students discovered possibility. A place where teachers saw potential. A place where communities reinforced purpose. A place where young people learned that their circumstances didn't have to define their futures. A place to help students find their why. And when people find their why, they can change families. They can change neighborhoods, they can change cities, they can change history. That's exactly what happened at I Am Terror. And that's exactly why the school still matters today. Not because of the bricks, not because of the hallways, not because of the address, but because of the lives, the purpose, the legacy, and the generations that continue to benefit from what was built there. Hey, if this episode meant something to you, share it with somebody who loves to funk the way we do. I'm talking about somebody that believes our stories deserve to be told. Somebody who understands that preserving black history means preserving community memory. And make sure you connect with your boy on Instagram, Facebook, TikTok, and YouTube at Don the Barber underscore 817. Because we're gonna keep uncovering the people, places, and stories that shape the city. Until next time, keep your mind sharp, keep that spirit grounded, and keep honoring the shoulders you stand on. Peace.