The evolution of a segregation academy (Jackson, Hattiesburg: low crime, hotel, limousine)

[Listener2307]

It's also noteworthy that the faculty of Greenville Christian has 16 White faces and 2 Black ones.
But the school truly is integrated, with 52% Black students.
There are also more girls (127) than boys (94) in that school. Somehow, I found that surprising.
In 2009 enrollment jumped from 150 to 225. There are 22 seniors and 30 juniors in school. The Junior & Senior classes will supply the football team, and somehow they found 21 boys out of a possible 52 students who could play championship grade football..

They won the MAIS 2020 3A state championship with relative ease, out-scoring teams 122-33 in three playoff games. With most of that roster returning, including 21 seniors.....

I wish each of these kids the best of luck, but I am suspicious of the school's agenda. I think it just boils down to survival; offer up a winning football team or go out of business.

[Desert kid]

Yup, saw one of these schools in Carrollton during my last trip. Carroll Academy, with their Col. Reb mascot to boot.

Originally Posted by Suesbal

What I really want to know - and this is something that would be taboo for most people to discuss- is if the black students at these formerly all-white academies are doing better academically than their public school cohorts.

If I had to guess, they probably do get a comparatively better quality education. Because they are still functionally private schools and the parents would have to pay a pretty penny for their kids to go there.

[viverlibre]

Originally Posted by Desert kid

Yup, saw one of these schools in Carrollton during my last trip. Carroll Academy, with their Col. Reb mascot to boot.



If I had to guess, they probably do get a comparatively better quality education. Because they are still functionally private schools and the parents would have to pay a pretty penny for their kids to go there.

Private schools have recruited public school athletes since the 80s, usually the former public school kid doesn't pay tuition, it is usually paid for by one of the private school "boosters" or he is on "scholarship." Obviously GCS took it to a new level. I have no idea of the financial arrangements in this situation.

[eddie gein]

Originally Posted by viverlibre

Private schools have recruited public school athletes since the 80s, usually the former public school kid doesn't pay tuition, it is usually paid for by one of the private school "boosters" or he is on "scholarship." Obviously GCS took it to a new level. I have no idea of the financial arrangements in this situation.

Good point.

This is an issue all over the country. More common is the black inner city star athlete getting recruited to the white suburban public school these days. In this case the uniqueness is that they are recruiting kids from over an hour away. So not only is somebody paying tuition for them, it is likely that somebody is helping with transportation and or housing for these students.

As far as academic performance I don't think there is any question that these private academies provide a superior education by a significant margin. In some of these Mississippi areas I'm sure they get all the white students and the cream of the crop of the Black students whose parents can afford to send them.

[teddyearp]

And just think. After they make the NFL they can protest about how oppressed they were.

[Mtthw97]

The school that I went to in Bolivar County is called a segregation academy on it’s Wikipedia page, that might’ve been the intention when it opened in the 60s but the reason that people send their kids there now is that unless you’re in Madison, the quality of public schools in the state of Mississippi are pitiful and every good parent wants to give their kid the best education that they can, and the fact is that in Bolivar County those families who can afford to educate their kids private are mostly white. Yes, there are lots of unfortunate historical reasons why blacks in the Delta are usually poor and thus can’t afford anything but public school, and a factor in the low quality of public education in Mississippi is definitely that most white families with resources pulled their kids out of public schools in the 60s and 70s either to avoid integration itself or federally mandated bussing, but the fact is that no good parent is going to put their kids in subpar school when they can afford better to redress an historical wrong. A parent’s primary responsibility, before community, social or political concerns is their children and a parent who would voluntarily disadvantage their children by sending them to a Mississippi public school for some greater good when they can do better, even if better is a so-called segregation academy is failing in their primary responsibility and isn’t a good parent.


I probably won’t raise a family in Mississippi because there isn’t much down there in terms of my chosen profession, but if I were going to raise kids in MS, or AL or a few other similar places like northern Louisiana, East Texas etc. I would definitely send them to one of these maligned private schools, unless my family and I lived in a handful of places like Madison where the schools are good enough to be worth considering.

[sheena12]

Segregation Academies are NOT unique to Mississippi - or to the South.

I live in Ohio and we have Valley Christian School in Youngstown and Victory Christian Academy in Niles. Marylin Manson is also from my area of Ohio. He attended a Segregation Academy in Ohio. Heritage Christian. Really worked wonders on him.

There are some AA students in Ohio. many are recruited for sports.

Back in NY State there are Christian Schools and academies all over Long Island. Most public schools are good, so I don't think people choose them out of safety. Some are good until HS or Middle School. That was the case with us. The education is no better, but it's different. Obviously they don't teach evolution, and they spend way too much time on handwriting and memorizing Bible verses.

Really wealthy people in NY usually choose elite private schools,

I had to use a "Christian Academy" for a year when I was living on Long Island. The $50,000 per year tuition was out of my league but the $10,000 was manageable for two kids. The alternative was Catholic school, and we are Protestant, so I chose the Christian Academy.

Then we bought a house in a better school district. Ours was "safe" until Middle School. Then we sold our starter house and 'got outta Dodge".

[viverlibre]

Originally Posted by Mtthw97

A parent’s primary responsibility, before community, social or political concerns is their children

I say this all the time. If you are a poor parent in a depressed area, say the MS Delta, do everything possible to get yourself and your kids out of there. Schools are terrible, crime is likely high and there are few decent jobs (and none on the foreseeable horizon). You owe it to your kids and their kids to get out of that situation, even if it means leaving older family members behind, else the cycle will never be broken and your descendants will likely be doomed.

[Mtthw97]

Originally Posted by viverlibre

I say this all the time. If you are a poor parent in a depressed area, say the MS Delta, do everything possible to get yourself and your kids out of there. Schools are terrible, crime is likely high and there are few decent jobs (and none on the foreseeable horizon). You owe it to your kids and their kids to get out of that situation, even if it means leaving older family members behind, else the cycle will never be broken and your descendants will likely be doomed.

Exactly, my family loves the Delta, according to our records and my own genealogy research my family arrived in Adams County from Frederick County, Maryland in the late 1820s and through marriages our connection to the area might go back another 50 or so years when British soldiers were settled and granted land in what was then the Old Southwest frontier after it was won from the French, but if for some reason our family found itself in unfortunate circumstances when my brothers and I were young my parents wouldn’t even have to think for a second about moving us away to a place where we would have access to good school and they’d be able to make money, even if it was to somewhere that was the total opposite of the lculture and values of Mississippi, like a college town in New England or Northern California.

Back to schools and parental priorities, I currently live in Chicago (not for long God willing) and I happen to read an article which brings the poorest state of public schools in the city on the fact that middle class whites started to pull their kids out of CPS and either move to the suburbs or pay for private school in the 60s and 70s and that has kept on until today. The implication of that piece was that the right thing to do would he for middle class whites to choose to send their kids to schools that are so bad that 2/3 of high school graduates aren’t able to read at a 2nd grade level, where it’s just as easy to get a hit of crack as it is to get a bottle of Gatorade during lunch break, when they have the means and ability to give their kids so much better by moving across Milwaukee Ave or Austin Blvd, or paying tuition fees, ie presenting failing your kids as a moral imperative for the sake of the greater good. However, what really serves the greater good is for as many kids as possible to get the best education and access to resources that their parents can provides, since well cultivated children blossom into high quality adults; yes inequality sucks but I would rather that there be some kids with nurtured potential and some kids who are basically a lost cause than for every student to be equally screwed.

[sammyreynolds1977]

Manchester Academy in Yazoo City where I'm from was established in 1969 and only until I think the last 20 years or so allowed African American students. Of course, their parents can pay the tuition. I don't know where the kids whose parents don't want them to with "black kids" sent their children now.