Canton Academy is a private school in

Canton, Mississippi The city of Canton is the county seat of Madison County, Mississippi, United States, and is situated in the northern part of the Jackson, Mississippi metropolitan area, metropolitan area surrounding the state capital, Jackson, Mississippi, Jackso ...

, which was established in 1970 to preserve racial segregation in schools.

History

Canton opened in January 1970 as a

segregation academy Segregation academies are private schools in the Southern United States that were founded in the mid-20th century by white parents to avoid having their children attend Racial segregation in the United States, desegregated public schools. They ...

. The school's founders, officially known as the Canton Academic Foundation, were so concerned about the impact of school desegregation that they accepted white students from families for which they knew could not afford tuition. Canton Academy board president J. D. Weeks said that he "anticipat dthe public school system of Canton would be virtually all black". In the school's first year, all but one white high school seniors withdrew from Canton Rogers High School and enrolled in Canton Academy. Canton Academy was initially housed in an abandoned tent factory. The curriculum was reported to be similar to public schools, but with an extra focus on the "evils of

communism Communism () is a political sociology, sociopolitical, political philosophy, philosophical, and economic ideology, economic ideology within the history of socialism, socialist movement, whose goal is the creation of a communist society, a ...

". In the case '' Coffey v. State Educational Finance Commission'' (1969), the United States District Court for the Southern District of Mississippi found that "No Negro pupils would be admitted to the private school."

Sports

Canton competes in shooting sports against Jackson Preparatory School and Tri-County Academy. The school sponsors a ''Twenty Guns in Twenty Days'' raffle to support athletics.

Demographics

As of the 2019-2020 school year, the school had an enrollment of 277 in pre-kindergarten through 12th grade, of whom 3 (1%) were Asian, 10 were Black (3.6%), 3 Hispanic (1%) , 233 were White (84%), and 3 (1%) were two or more races.

Notable people

Glenn Boyce, chancellor of the

University of Mississippi The University of Mississippi (Epithet, byname Ole Miss) is a Public university, public research university in University, near Oxford, Mississippi, United States, with a University of Mississippi Medical Center, medical center in Jackson, Miss ...

coached football at Canton Academy. In 2019, Boyce was criticized his past affiliation with segregation academies like Canton Academy.

Alumni

* Reed Stringer (1979–), college football coach

References

* Bolton, Charles C. '' The Hardest Deal of All: The Battle Over School Integration in Mississippi, 1870-1980''.

University Press of Mississippi The University Press of Mississippi (UPM), founded in 1970, is a university press that is sponsored by the eight state universities in Mississippi (i.e., Alcorn State University, Delta State University, Jackson State University, Mississippi Sta ...

, 2005. , 9781604730609. * Cobb, James Charles. '' The Most Southern Place on Earth: The Mississippi Delta and the Roots of Regional Identity''.

Oxford University Press Oxford University Press (OUP) is the publishing house of the University of Oxford. It is the largest university press in the world. Its first book was printed in Oxford in 1478, with the Press officially granted the legal right to print books ...

, 1994. , 9780195089134. Private K–12 schools in Mississippi Schools in Madison County, Mississippi Segregation academies in Mississippi {{Mississippi-school-stub