Super Bowl champion Rod Woodson says the KKK tried to burn his family’s home down when he was 11 years old

Rod Woodson says the Ku Klux Klan tried to burn down his family’s home when he was 11, after his parents were targeted for being a mixed-race couple. The former NFL player’s account describes a racist threat that forced his family to consider their safety, though they stayed in the house through his childhood.

Woodson said he woke at about 2am to flames outside his bedroom window and alerted his father; the family escaped, and investigators later found the house had been doused with petrol. A week later, the family received a letter threatening another attack unless they left the area. Woodson also recalled receiving calls and letters from the Black Panthers, and said his father encouraged him to embrace both sides of his identity.