“My upper body is fine,” Flowers said, ignoring the red splotches all over her arms. “My feet are killing me, but I love it. I get to hit people and not get in trouble for it. You can’t ask for anything more.”

As Flowers eased her skates off in the middle of the track at Agnes Scott College, Jacqueline Thermitus, who had inflicted some of Flowers’ pain, skated by and tapped her on the shoulder. Jessika Morgan and Camille Watwood, set to play in the next match, stretched and warmed up nearby.

They are all part of a growing number of Black women who are embracing what is widely considered a white-dominated fringe sport: roller derby.

Credit: HYOSUB SHIN / AJC

Credit: HYOSUB SHIN / AJC

Roller derby came out of The Great Depression in 1935 as a way to draw crowds and earn money. By 1949, roller derby matches were televised, and skaters became regional and national celebrities.

In the 1970s, after a midcentury lull, close to 20,000 people would show up for matches in Madison Square Garden.

But the sport was still considerably white.

Tess Harrison, a recruiting analyst for the University of Georgia’s football team, also serves as vice president for USA Roller Derby, where she is in charge of diversity and inclusion. Known in roller derby circles as “Baller Shot Caller,” she said it will take extraordinary efforts and a massive recruiting strategy to attract more Black women.

“I love that it is a female sport that is full contact, with a full community that is very inclusive,” said Harrison. “We are not perfect, but we are more inclusive than most spaces. We accept everybody in terms of race and gender. We pride ourselves on being open with the outcasts of the world.”

Roughly 25% of Atlanta Roller Derby’s members are Black. According to officials that makes it the most diverse league in the world.

Darlane Besand, a Panamanian by way of Kentucky, goes by the nickname “Sprint Julip.” Besand was the only Black skater in her Kentucky league before she moved to Atlanta about 18 months ago.

Credit: arvin.temkar@ajc.com

Credit: arvin.temkar@ajc.com

“Atlanta is the first league where I have ever seen this many Black skaters, so this is a big deal for me,” she said.

“It is extremely empowering seeing someone with the same skin color, with the same goals as you, who knows the same struggles you do, on and off the track.”

April Woods, president of the Atlanta Roller Derby, understands those inherent challenges. She moved to Atlanta six years ago from Portland, Oregon, where she was the only Black skater in the largest league in the country.

“I remember when I walked into the practice space of Atlanta Roller Derby and was greeted by six Black skaters. Honestly, I teared up,” said Woods, who goes by the name “Ra,” after the Egyptian sun god.

Thermitus, who has been skating since 2009, has seen growth from inside-out as an active member of Black Diaspora Roller Derby, an organization of more than 300 active skaters.

Credit: HYOSUB SHIN / AJC

Credit: HYOSUB SHIN / AJC

Thermitus, who goes by the name “Blaque Jac,” estimates there are more than 2,000 Black skaters worldwide.

“I was around when there were very few of us,” she said. “Now, every time I open my eyes, every time I come to practice, there is another Black skater who looks like me.”

A wild, wild world

“Black people,” yelled Blaque Jac to everyone and no one in particular, at a recent scrimmage inside a Mableton warehouse. “BLACK PEOPLE!!!”

When she finally yelled it, 17 other Black skaters quickly gathered around Thermitus, who is one of the league’s most respected voices. She wanted to take a photograph, beneath the Atlanta Roller Derby mural.

The dozens of non-Black skaters in attendance went about their business.

Credit: arvin.temkar@ajc.com

Credit: arvin.temkar@ajc.com

With characters like “Jork the Dork,” “Orville WrecknBlocker,” “Erykah Ba-Doozie,” “Octavia Hustler,” “Twink-182″ and “Scarlette Fatale,” few of the skaters in Atlanta Roller Derby even know their teammates’ real names.

Not that it matters. The queer-friendly league for women and the gender expansive includes everyone from doctors and lawyers to teachers and college students.

Credit: arvin.temkar@ajc.com

Credit: arvin.temkar@ajc.com

Some sport brightly colored hair and mohawks. Glam makeup adorns their faces, and tattoos decorate parts of their bodies not covered by elbow pads and kneepads. Many of the Black women wear black lipstick, with twists, braids, dreadlocks or short hair styles.

“No one is shamed for who or what they are,” said Watwood, who goes by the name “Susie Scar Michael.”

“I learn something new about somebody every day.”

Credit: arvin.temkar@ajc.com

Credit: arvin.temkar@ajc.com

It was a different world for Morgan, a former sports reporter looking for something to do after she put down her pen.

When she discovered Atlanta Roller Derby, she was comforted by how many Black women were involved in the league.

“It made me proud to know there are people who look like me in this league, whose voices are valued and who have a seat at the table,” Morgan said. “These women inspired me to dive into this wild, wild world.”

Credit: HYOSUB SHIN / AJC

Credit: HYOSUB SHIN / AJC

Letting Go

Last week’s matches at Agnes Scott served as tune-ups for upcoming playoff games. Atlanta will send two teams to the Women’s Flat Track Derby Association’s regional championships on June 28, in Austin, Texas.

Veteran Natasha Cook, an internal auditor skating since 2008, calls herself an “old head.” Everyone else calls her “Trouble MakeHER.”

“I didn’t realize how competitive I was until I started playing,” she said. “I have a boring 9-to-5 job but I get to beat people up at night while still having fun.”

Credit: arvin.temkar@ajc.com

Credit: arvin.temkar@ajc.com

Cook did not play last week because she was recovering from a partially torn PCL in her left knee and didn’t want to tempt fate ahead of the playoffs. On and off the track, nearly everyone is nursing some kind of injury.

For the uninitiated, roller derby is sometimes violent. At times, the action can be brutal. There is also elegance, particularly as skaters glide past blockers whose job is to protect them from opponents eager to clobber them. Even then, they help each other up.

For Black women, the rough-and-tumble skating element represents another sort of delicate balancing act. From Vice President Kamala Harris to WNBA rookie Angel Reese, tennis legend Serena Williams and others, Black women are often unfairly labeled as angry or aggressive.

The same can happen on the track.

Credit: arvin.temkar@ajc.com

Credit: arvin.temkar@ajc.com

“Sometimes we get a bad rap in sports, but here we are allowed to get our aggression out without being seen as being seen as ‘aggressive Black women,’” Cook said. “For me, it is not about letting aggression out, it’s about being active and not having to think about my day. Just let it go.”

Thermitus, who also serves as a league official, does not like the word “aggressive,” especially when it applies to Black women.

“As a Black woman, I use the word ‘assertive,’ because that is how I present myself,” she said. “I am direct on what needs to be said and how it needs to be done.”

Out of darkness

Roller derby also serves as an essential form of therapy for many women.

Flowers said she uses it to exercise her demons. Watwood skates to cope with depression and mental illness. Besand had a bad breakup and wanted to try something new.

Woods has been in recovery from drug addiction for 24 years. In 2005, four years before she started skating competitively, her oldest son was murdered in Portland. In 2015, her youngest son was also murdered.

“I remember my dad being in the hospital after my youngest son died, and the only thing I could do was put my skates on and go to practice. I couldn’t go to work. I couldn’t go to school. I couldn’t do anything,” said Woods, who worked in homeless services for 30 years before switching to her new career as a flight attendant.

“It helped me stay clean and not get loaded when the hardest thing in my life happened. Roller derby was my savior.”

Credit: Ernie Suggs

Credit: Ernie Suggs

After Saturday’s Pride match, Flowers changed out of her skates, grabbed a plate of wings and watched the second match of the doubleheader, while reflecting on her happenstance entry into the sport.

In 2015, living in Pennsylvania, she got arrested for her second DUI. While awaiting her sentence, her best friend introduced her to roller derby.

“I went, and somebody real small hit me and I was like ‘What the hell?’ Then she hit me again and I fell,” Flowers recalls.

“She tried to hit me the third time and I leaned into her and hit her back. And I fell in love.”

Credit: HYOSUB SHIN / AJC

Credit: HYOSUB SHIN / AJC

Two weeks later, Flowers was sentenced to three months in jail. “I was devastated,” she said. “I found this new sport that I absolutely love and now I am gonna lose it because I messed up.”

Her newfound roller derby friends didn’t let that happen. They visited Flowers every night at her dad’s auto body shop, where she was able to work through a work release program. She improved quickly as they helped her work out, and by the time her sentence was up she was ready to join her first team.

“I always tell people, that you find derby when you need it the most. And I needed it,” Flowers said. “I was at my darkest point, and it saved my soul.”

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