Segregation Academies in Mississippi | Jackson Free Press | Jackson, MS

Segregation Academies in Mississippi

So-called "segregation academies" appeared throughout Mississippi and the South after the U.S. Supreme Court ordered public schools to desegregate in 1954, so that white parents could avoid having to send their children to schools with black students.

Civil Rights

Nominees Share History of Slavery, Plantations, Seg Academies in Natchez Senate Race

Tease photo

Republican Melanie Sojourner told the Jackson Free Press on Oct. 24 that she did not know as a young girl that the school she attended had been organized as a segregation academy at a time when white parents pulled their children out of public schools in response to court-ordered integration.

Civil Rights

Mississippi School Discriminated to Avoid White Flight, Lawsuit Claims

Tease photo

Nearly 50 years after federal courts ordered Cleveland High School desegregated, the Delta high school remains embroiled in battles over desegregation.

Civil Rights

Mississippi’s ‘Seg Academies’ Creating National Dialogue

Tease photo

The Jackson Free Press' 
report that Sen. Cindy Hyde-Smith attended one of Mississippi's first segregation academies and later sent her daughter to one has spurred a national conversation on schools set up to separate white kids from African Americans.

Politics

Hyde-Smith Attended All-White ‘Seg Academy’ to Avoid Integration

Tease photo

U.S. Sen. Cindy Hyde-Smith attended and graduated from a segregation academy that were set up so that white parents could avoid having to send their children to schools with black students, a yearbook reveals.

Civil Rights

How Integration Failed in Jackson’s Public Schools from 1969 to 2017

Tease photo

Jackson's public schools, like the majority in the state, remained solidly separate and unequal in the 1950s and 1960s despite the ruling in the Brown v. Topeka Board of Education decision in 1954, which struck down school segregation by race.

Education

EDITOR'S NOTE: The Lies Scientific Racists Told About Jackson’s Children

Tease photo

I did not know a federal judge in the 1960s had codified lies about how black children in Jackson were genetically inferior.

Cover

Then and Now: When ‘School Choice’ Creates a Divide

Tease photo

"School choice" is a hot-button political phrase, used in some form since the 1960s. At its most generic, it means giving parents an option of where to send their kids to school beyond the traditional public school of the district in which they live, while still using public dollars, such as with charter schools.

Civil Rights

From Council Schools to Today’s Fight for Public Ed

Tease photo

Yearbooks and classmates prove that Gov. Phil Bryant is the product of white flight and segregationist education, which may explain his efforts, along with others in his party, to undermine public education in this state.

Cover

What is a ‘Segregation Academy’?

The greatest hike in private academies in Mississippi was from 1968-1971, during which segregated private schools grew from educating just over 5,000 to 40,000 students in the state.