Education Segregation In Mississippi Delta
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The Mississippi Delta region has had the most segregated schools—and for the longest time—of any part of the United States. As recently as the 2016–2017 school year, East Side High School in
Cleveland, Mississippi Cleveland is a city and one of two county seats of Bolivar County, Mississippi, United States, the other seat being Rosedale, Mississippi, Rosedale. The Cleveland population was 11,199 as of the 2020 United States census. Cleveland has a large c ...
, was practically all black: 359 of 360 students were African-American.


Background

The Delta region of
Mississippi Mississippi ( ) is a U.S. state, state in the Southeastern United States, Southeastern and Deep South regions of the United States. It borders Tennessee to the north, Alabama to the east, the Gulf of Mexico to the south, Louisiana to the s ...
is nineteen counties in the northwest of the state, bounded on the west by the Mississippi River and the south by the
Yazoo River The Yazoo River is a river primarily in the U.S. state of Mississippi. It is considered by some to mark the southern boundary of what is called the Mississippi Delta, a broad floodplain that was cultivated for cotton plantations before the Ame ...
. It is a poor region of the country's poorest state. In the center is Sunflower County, 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 net outward migration 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
civil rights Civil and political rights are a class of rights that protect individuals' political freedom, freedom from infringement by governments, social organizations, and private individuals. They ensure one's entitlement to participate in the civil and ...
worker Charles McLaurin said that Sunflower County was "the worst county in the worst state" for
racial discrimination Racial discrimination is any discrimination against any individual on the basis of their Race (human categorization), race, ancestry, ethnicity, ethnic or national origin, and/or Human skin color, skin color and Hair, hair texture. Individuals ...
. The towns in the region were small then and remain so today.
Cleveland, Mississippi Cleveland is a city and one of two county seats of Bolivar County, Mississippi, United States, the other seat being Rosedale, Mississippi, Rosedale. The Cleveland population was 11,199 as of the 2020 United States census. Cleveland has a large c ...
, 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. ''
Brown v. Board of Education ''Brown v. Board of Education of Topeka'', 347 U.S. 483 (1954), was a landmark decision of the United States Supreme Court that ruled that U.S. state laws establishing racial segregation in public schools are unconstitutional, even if the ...
'' had established national education policy in 1954, but the less populated districts of the Delta were not compelled to act until the 1960s. Nevertheless, Robert B. Patterson of Sunflower County began to organize the
Citizens' Councils The White Citizens' Councils were an associated network of white supremacist, segregationist organizations in the United States, concentrated in the South and created as part of a white backlash against the US Supreme Court's landmark ''Brown v ...
that sponsored
segregation academies 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 desegregated public schools. They were founded between 1954, when the U.S ...
in Mississippi. Cleveland established its freedom of choice plan and the Cleveland Colored Consolidated High School in 1966. Before ''Brown'', 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, ''Brown'' was not just about black kids going to school with white kids; in many cases it was about going to school at all.


Segregation after ''Brown''

Mississippi's first response to ''Brown'' was to do nothing and wait for court orders. The Virginia General Assembly, by contrast, implemented the
Stanley Plan The Stanley Plan was a package of 13 statutes adopted in September 1956 by the U.S. state of Virginia. The statutes were designed to ensure racial segregation would continue in that state's public schools despite the unanimous ruling of the U.S. ...
in 1956 and laws protecting segregation in 1958. Its first segregation academy was started in 1955, with a slew in 1959. In Mississippi, ''freedom of choice'' 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. In 1969, a federal court found Mississippi's tuition grants supporting private schools—segregation academies for the most part—illegal in '' Coffey v. State Educational Finance Commission''. Later in 1969, ''U.S. v. Indianola Municipal Separate School District'' described Mississippi's ''freedom of choice'' 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. 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
Central Delta Academy Central Delta Academy (CDA) was a private elementary and middle school,, and later just elementary school, in Inverness, Mississippi,
. Along with the other two all-white private schools in the county,
Indianola Academy The Indianola Academy is a K-12 private school in Indianola, Mississippi founded as a segregation academy. Indianola Academy comprises an elementary school, a middle school, and a college preparatory high school. Indianola Academy is a 501(c)(3 ...
and
North Sunflower Academy North Sunflower Academy is a private school, founded to provide a segregated education for white students in unincorporated Sunflower County, Mississippi, in the Mississippi Delta area, between Ruleville and Drew. The school has grades Kinderg ...
, 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 Sunflower County School District was complying with the big federal rules, but making up its own small ones. Proms and dances were canceled 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, for example.


Today

In the 2014–2015 school year, public Coahoma Agricultural High School in the north of the region enrolled 267 black students, 1 Hispanic, and no white students. In
Bolivar County Bolivar County ( ), officially the County of Bolivar, is a County (United States), county located on the western border of the U.S. state of Mississippi. As of the 2020 United States census, 2020 census, the population was 30,985. Its county sea ...
, lawyers fought for fifty-one years to keep both Cleveland's two high schools open. Cleveland High School, originally a white school, was by 2015, half and half. By itself, it was a model of success. The town's other high school, East Side 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
Cleveland Central High School ''For other schools, see Cleveland High School (disambiguation)'' Cleveland Central High School is a public high school in Cleveland, Mississippi. The sole high school of the Cleveland School District, it serves Cleveland, Boyle, Renova, and ...
. Three miles away, Bayou Academy, founded in 1964, is also a single color. Demographic data for Bayou Academy shows that of the 355 students who attended in the 2015–2016 school year, 4 were black (1%). In Humphreys County to the north,
Humphreys Academy Humphreys Academy is a private, nonsectarian, school in Belzoni, Mississippi (United States). Located at 800 Pluck Road in Belzoni, the school serves students in grades K- 12. History Humphreys Academy was established in 1968 as a segregation ...
had one black student in its 156 student enrollment (2015–2016).


See also

* Education segregation in the Mississippi Red Clay region


References

* * * * *


External links

* {{cite web, author=Loewen, James W., url=https://sundown.tougaloo.edu/content/LoewenMonographSCHDESEG.doc, title=SCHOOL DESEGREGATION IN MISSISSIPPI, publisher=
Tougaloo College Tougaloo College is a private historically black college in the Tougaloo area of Jackson, Mississippi, United States. It is affiliated with the United Church of Christ and Christian Church (Disciples of Christ). It was established in 1869 by ...
, date=August 1973 Education in Sunflower County, Mississippi African-American history of Mississippi Education segregation in Mississippi