114:, public education for African-Americans in the Delta was neither compulsory nor free. As a result, many did not attend. Sunflower County estimated that there were 20,473 African Americans between the ages of six through twenty-one; however, only 7,709 of them were enrolled in schools. Tradition played a part; many black children had been employed in agriculture, including the October–November cotton harvest season. Geography played a role: schools were not close enough to walk to and school boards did not always supply buses. And money, too played a role. In 1949–1950, Sunflower County spent the same amount on white education (28% of the population) as it did on the black (72%). Schools asked the parents of black children to pay assessments for heating the schoolhouse. When Gov. Hugh White visited Indianola in 1953, he stated that finding enough money to support the two separate school systems was the biggest financial problem of his administration. In the Delta,
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68:, which serves as an example for the region. It is consistently 72% Black or African-American at every census. In 1960, the average income of African Americans in Sunflower County was lower than the federal poverty line. Farm mechanization in the first half of the twentieth century, among other things, had made employment prospects bad in the region. As a result, from 1940 to 1970, there was
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altogether to prevent the remaining white students in the public schools from associating with the black students. However, one of the most damaging effects of this move was on the school board. After forty years of complaints, the state combined the
Sunflower, Drew, and Indianola school districts,
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legislation wasn't promulgated until 1965. Mississippi's first segregation academies didn't start opening until 1967. By then
Virginia's tuition grant program had been called illegal and tax-exempted status for segregated schools would soon follow.
87:, population 12,000, has barely enough population to support one high school, much less the two that it supported from 1966 to 2017. Nevertheless, the Delta region has had the most dogged commitment to school segregation of any area of the country.
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Sunflower County serves as an example. In 1930, it had a population of 66,000. It had built
Inverness High School in 1922. By 1970, its population had shrunk to 37,047. In about 1968, the school district sold Inverness to
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plan as "constitutionally defective". All over the Delta region, parents started private schools for white children. Population had been declining, so school boards were willing to give away facilities.
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to northern and western inner cities and suburbs and from 1970 to present, urban centers in the South outside of
Mississippi. The population has been decreasing since 1930. In 1962, a colleague of
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had 360 students in 2015, 359 of whom were black. The town had exhausted its legal options. In
September 2017, it complied with federal court order and combined the high schools as
187:, those three schools took enough white children from the Sunflower public schools to make an 80-20 mix. The private schools competed for teachers with the public schools. The
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had established national education policy in 1954, but the less populated districts of the Delta were not compelled to act until the 1960s. Nevertheless,
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In 1969, a federal court found
Mississippi's tuition grants supporting private schools—segregation academies for the most part—illegal in
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in 1956 and laws protecting segregation in 1958. Its first segregation academy was started in 1955, with a slew in 1959. In
Mississippi,
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219:, originally a white school, was by 2015, half and half. By itself, it was a model of success. The town's other high school,
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in
Mississippi. Cleveland established its freedom of choice plan and the Cleveland Colored Consolidated High School in 1966.
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is nineteen counties in the northwest of the state, bounded on the west by the
Mississippi River and the south by the
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Let the People Decide: Black
Freedom and White Resistance Movements in Sunflower County, Mississippi, 1945–1986
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was not just about black kids going to school with white kids; in many cases it was about going to school at all.
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was to do nothing and wait for court orders. The Virginia General Assembly, by contrast, implemented the
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worker Charles McLaurin said that Sunflower County was "the worst county in the worst state" for
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in the north of the region enrolled 267 black students, 1 Hispanic, and no white students.
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was complying with the big federal rules, but making up its own small ones.
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Challenging the Mississippi Firebombers, Memories of Mississippi 1964-65
42:, was practically all black: 359 of 360 students were African-American.
64:. It is a poor region of the country's poorest state. In the center is
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179:. Along with the other two all-white private schools in the county,
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had one black student in its 156 student enrollment (2015–2016).
476:"Historical population of Sunflower County for period 1850-2014"
454:"United States v. Indianola Municipal Separate School District"
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The towns in the region were small then and remain so today.
456:. U.S, Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit. July 25, 1969
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Education segregation in the Mississippi Red Clay region
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U.S. v. Indianola Municipal Separate School District
499:"Bryant Signs Bill Forcing Sunflower School Merger"
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371:"The Real Story of the White Citizens' Council"
324:"A School District That Was Never Desegregated"
501:. Mississippi Business Journal. Archived from
156:Coffey v. State Educational Finance Commission
591:. Brooklyn, New York: First Run/Icarus Films.
8:
702:Education in Sunflower County, Mississippi
567:. National Center for Education Statistics
527:. National Center for Education Statistics
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99:of Sunflower County began to organize the
604:. Chapel Hill: Algonquin of Chapel Hill.
707:African-American history of Mississippi
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525:"School Directory Information 2014-15"
681:"SCHOOL DESEGREGATION IN MISSISSIPPI"
204:In the 2014–2015 school year, public
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712:Education segregation in Mississippi
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369:Cobb, James C. (December 23, 2010).
356:
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322:Lerner, Sharon (February 5, 2016).
657:. Montréal, Québec: Baraka Books.
617:University of North Carolina Press
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679:Loewen, James W. (August 1973).
636:The Senator and the Sharecropper
634:Myers-Asch, Christopher (2008).
497:Wright, Megan (April 20, 2012).
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206:Coahoma Agricultural High School
189:Sunflower County School District
137:Mississippi's first response to
565:"Private School Universe Study"
553:. U.S. Department of Education.
551:Private School Universe Survey
398:. N.D. Miss. February 13, 2015
193:Proms and dances were canceled
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225:Cleveland Central High School
133:Sunflower County, Mississippi
22:The Mississippi Delta region.
393:"Cowan v. Bolivar Objection"
92:Brown v. Board of Education
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596:Curry, Constance (1995).
166:described Mississippi's
30:region has had the most
638:. New York: New Press.
185:North Sunflower Academy
609:Moye, J. Todd (2004).
589:The Intolerable Burden
373:. History News Network
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85:Cleveland, Mississippi
40:Cleveland, Mississippi
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217:Cleveland High School
177:Central Delta Academy
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105:segregation academies
78:racial discrimination
70:net outward migration
50:Further information:
36:East Side High School
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298:United States portal
56:The Delta region of
505:on November 7, 2016
97:Robert B. Patterson
653:Dann, Jim (2013).
270:Mississippi portal
230:Three miles away,
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122:Segregation after
101:Citizens' Councils
32:segregated schools
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664:978-1-926824-87-1
645:978-1-59558-332-1
626:978-0-8078-5561-4
431:, pp. 48–49.
243:Humphreys Academy
181:Indianola Academy
168:freedom of choice
147:freedom of choice
52:Mississippi Delta
28:Mississippi Delta
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507:. Retrieved
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531:December 2,
62:Yazoo River
58:Mississippi
696:Categories
305:References
46:Background
441:Moye 2004
429:Moye 2004
417:Moye 2004
357:Moye 2004
345:Moye 2004
221:East Side
587:(2002).
249:See also
110:Before
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623:
396:(PDF)
200:Today
139:Brown
124:Brown
116:Brown
112:Brown
659:ISBN
640:ISBN
621:ISBN
573:2017
533:2017
511:2017
484:2017
462:2017
404:2017
379:2011
332:2017
183:and
26:The
237:In
211:In
38:in
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Text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike License. Additional terms may apply.
