The name Bobby Holley is synonymous with community. The Battle Creek native and 1963 Battle Creek Central High School graduate – who has at least one local park and street name after him – has made a name for himself as a living legend after years of community activism championing human rights and advocating for peace, unity and the dignity and health of area residents, especially young people.
Often this activism comes in the form of the attention-grabbing spectacle. Holley’s crawled on hands and knees from Battle Creek to as far as Detroit – a feat that took 11 days and nights – as well as Lansing, Marshall and Kalamazoo. He’s walked countless miles pulling a casket down the city’s streets, stood for hours in winter weather wearing nothing but a pair of shorts. He’s slept in cardboard boxes and spent the night in jail (voluntarily). He’s fasted, rallied, marched … he’s even hung himself on a cross as part of a campaign to encourage people to go to church.
Mostly his goal is to increase awareness about issues related to drug use, crime, homelessness, drunk driving, bullying and violence. The latter issue is what spurred Holley to action nearly 40 years ago, after the 1987 murder of his 13-year-old nephew.
“That’s why I started my activism against crime, violence and drugs,” Holley says today. “The killings and the gun violence and the drugs and the crime that we have, not only in Battle Creek but also other cities. Somebody got to do something about that. Somebody has to get out there and get in the streets.”
So that’s exactly what Holley started doing – and continues to do to this day. His latest crawl was just last year, from Battle Creek to Marshall. And he can be regularly seen on city streets dressed in all red as his alter-ego Peaceman, casket in tow, calling for peace against gun violence through a megaphone.
He’s also a familiar performer around town – a lifelong entertainer, Holley had a recording contract with Stax Records in the 1960s – where he sings in public to raise funds to purchase bicycles for kids who don’t have one, among other causes.
Holley was drafted into the U.S. Army after high school, and after leaving the service he went back to school, graduating from KCC with an Associate in General Studies degree in 1974. He went on to earn a bachelor’s degree in Communication from Western Michigan University with a minor in Music Theory, and ultimately ended up working at the Federal Center, where he retired after 20 years. He started substitute teaching after retirement – which he still does – and was honored with a KCC Alumni Award in 2023.
Holley credits KCC with helping him to become the well-rounded man he is today.
“KCC gave me the foundation to be a better educator, a better person, with more values,” Holley says. “They taught me the values and skills I need to further myself in life. KCC did that.”
This article first appeared in the December 2024 edition of BruIN magazine. To read the issue online, please visit kellogg.edu/bruinmagazine.