The grandson with a vision
Khotso Khabele, executive director of the school that bears his family’s name, inherited his mother’s and grandmother’s quiet but firm resolve. Born in Eku, Nigeria, he benefited from his parents’ intellectual accomplishments.
Interestingly, his African grandfather also owned a cab company in Kimberley, South Africa, where his father was born.
“He was arrested for taking people other than his race in a taxi,” he says. “They offered him an opportunity to be classified as ‘colored.’ He refused.”
When Khotso was 12, the Khabeles sent him to Austin, where he attended St. Stephen’s like his aunt and older sisters. In a house full of relatives and visitors, he watched his grandmother work night and day.
“I had a lot of freedom,” he says “What I realized later was that what my grandmother was modeling to me what mattered in my life.”
He met his wife, Moya Khabele, who grew up in Louisiana, during an Afro-Brazilian martial arts class. They started the Khabele School six months later and had their first baby, Naledi, six months after that.
The idea for the school grew out of a national crisis. Moya, who now serves as marketing director at the family’s school, was teaching Spanish in a very small private school. Its leader left.
“How do I raise my child in this new world?” Khotso Kabele says. “How do I educate kids for this new, rapidly changing world? We got clear that we wanted to lean into change.”
The Khabeles started with nine students in a borrowed classroom. Now they enroll 460 students.
“We offer the best of traditional education: academic challenge and results,” Khotso Khabele says. “And the best of progressive education, community, student leadership and engagement.”
Among the school’s biggest supporters is none other than Bertha Means.
“Without Bertha Means, not only her legacy, but also her financial support, the school wouldn’t be where it is,” Khotso Khabele says. “She really has invested in her family.”
The family gift
At age 93, Bertha Means has no intention of slowing down. When she’s not running the cab company, organizing benefits and accepting the awards that line her Northwest Hills home, she’s keeping tabs on everyone via her computers and smartphone.
“I don’t care how old I am, I’m grateful and blessed to be alive,” she says. “It all depends on how you live, what you eat, what you drink and how busy you are. I’ve got too much to do. And I like what I’m doing.”
At the urging of their son, Ron Means, Bertha and James Means took over Harlem Cabs in 1984. They ran 59 taxis then. Today, there are 187. Besides the matriarch, Ron Means, James H. Means Jr., Joan Khabele, Alyssa Means, Jasmine Means and James H. “Tito” Means III work there.
The family continues to form the cornerstone of the St. James Episcopal Church, an unusually diverse congregation that recently saluted Bertha Means’ contributions on the 70th anniversary of its founding.
“There’s an intangible sense that all of us seem to have that we are exceptionally fortunate to have the parents and grandparents we’ve had,” Joan Khabele says. “The glue comes from annual holidays, visits to and from out-of-state relatives, keeping in touch by phone and email, and sharing photos and genealogical discoveries.”
The penchant for leadership has not skipped any generations.
“I am trying to raise our children to think for themselves and to lead,” Khotso Khabele says. “For me, when I look at our family, there’s this theme of bringing worlds together, bringing polar opposites together. My grandfather would tell me about white kids that thew rocks at him, and if he told, he’d be in trouble.
“But my grandparents always said: ‘We don’t put much energy into ignorance,’ ” he continues. “Thinking about what they went through, that’s a big deal. My grandmother got active, but she didn’t get bitter. There was no moral righteousness. It was just matter of fact.”