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Part
IV – Progress
and Enduring Legacy: Mississippi
Public Education, 1970-2000
In October 1969 the United States Supreme
Court ruled that Mississippi’s
unitary school system had to be integrated immediately forcing many
districts
to desegregate their schools at mid-year. By
the fall of 1970, every public school district in Mississippi
had been desegregated.
The Price of Desegregation
Integration of Mississippi’s
public schools had a significant impact on the educational
opportunities for
both white and black students. While
many black students finally found themselves in better furnished
schools
offering greater course selection and extra-curricular activities, they
soon
came to realize that they had sacrificed a great deal in order to
achieve their
goals.
At practically every turn, whites worked to
subvert desegregation. As white school districts consolidated
administrative personnel, black administrators were often fired or
demoted to secondary roles. Black principals were usually demoted
to
assistant principal
and black teachers who had supported the civil rights movement or were
deemed
"less qualified" than white teachers were fired. In the 1969-1970
school year, Mississippi’s
public schools had 168 black principals; by 1970-1971 that number had
declined
to nineteen. Between 1970 to 1973 the
number of black teachers fell twelve percent, while the number of white
teachers working within the public school system actually rose by
almost nine percent;
this in light of the fact that there was an almost eight percent
reduction in
school enrollment in the state during the first year of integration. The loss of black role models and leaders was
one more indication that integration would be conducted on terms
established by
the white community.
Some in the black community have noted that
another
sacrifice was the abandonment of many black neighborhood schools during
integration. It is true that many black
schools were deemed “unsuitable” by white-controlled school boards for
the education
of in-coming white students. But much had
been
invested in upgrading black schools prior to desegregation in an
attempt
to hold
off integration by equalizing school facilities. In
many cases black schools were given the
necessary furnishings and equipment needed to improve them and bring
them up to
the same quality as white schools facilities.
“White Flight,” White Control, and Private Schools
Even in predominantly black
school districts, whites
controlled many of the administrative positions and held a majority on
the
school board. In many cases this led to
a gradual decline in the financial health of the district as white
administrators reduced the tax base necessary to support the district. At the same time many white public school
administrators, school board members and teachers were removing their
children
from primarily black schools and placing them in private schools for
white
children. Not only were they placing
their children in private schools, many public administrators and board
members
were actually serving in some capacity of leadership in the formation
and
oversight of the new private school system.
In addition to creating a unitary
school system,
desegregation produced several unintended consequences.
Most notable among those consequences was
“white flight” and the creation of private schools.
In 1968 the Mississippi Private School
Association was formed and by 1970 there were over sixty private
schools
affiliated with the association. Following
the settlement of Alexander v. Holmes in October 1969, whites
rushed to
establish a system of private schools and lobbied the state for public
funding
to support private schools. White
student enrollment in Jackson
public schools dropped 16% between September 1969 and February 1970. Jackson
elementary public schools enrollment dropped by 4,258 in 1970. According to figures provided by Charles C.
Bolton of USM, “Between 1966 and 1970 the number of private schools in
the
state rose from 121 to 236, and the number of students attending these
schools
tripled; much of this growth occurred in black-majority districts.”
Although the vast majority of Mississippi’s
white parents did not abandon the public schools and fears of violence
and
interracial dating did not materialize on the scale anticipated by
whites, it
soon became apparent, that in certain parts of the state, integration
was not
being implemented as the courts intended it to be.
Districts employed a number of strategies to
circumvent court ordered desegregation and give the appearance of
compliance.
In the Yazoo
City,
even though the school was integrated, the classrooms were almost
entirely
segregated by race. In DeKalb
High School, students
were
segregated by classrooms and taught in different wings of the building,
going
to lunch at different times and changing classes at different times. Such measures did not last long as blacks
confronted school officials and changes were made.
Educational Reforms Since Desegregation
As white Mississippi
resigned itself to integration new efforts at school reform emerged
during the
early 1980s under the leadership of Governor William Winter. Under the Education Reform Act of 1982 the
following reforms were passed into law:
1. A
uniform state
curriculum was approved to produce consistency in educational instruction.
2. A school
improvement plan that addressed five major indicators of effective
schools.
3. Public
kindergarten.
4. A stronger
compulsory attendance law.
5. Higher
teacher
pay.
6. An effective
staff
development program to support the instructional and classroom management needs
of
teachers.
Under Governor Ronnie Musgrove, Mississippi
teachers were promised a significant increase in pay in an effort to
bring
teacher pay up to the average salary of other southeastern states. Teacher shortages continue to plague Mississippi
and a number of scholarships were funded by the state legislature
to
encourage teachers to stay in the state. In
exchange for teaching for a period in critical shortage
areas,
teachers were given special low interest mortgage rates on homes and
offered
financial scholarships toward the pursuit of their masters’ degree in
education.
Governor Musgrove also
implemented a system of state-wide
testing to improve student achievement through high-stakes testing. Students are now required to pass four
subject area tests in order to graduate from high school.
Such testing continues to demonstrate the
inequities that exist in funding between predominantly poor school
districts
and relatively wealthy districts. Lower
test scores in poor districts and high test scores in wealthier
districts have
been attributed to inadequate funding and the social problems that
often attend
poverty stricken families.
The Re-Segregation of Mississippi Schools
In spite of significant gains
public education, some
Mississippians continue to look for alternatives to public education. Home-schooling has emerged as the fastest
growing alternative for parents who are concerned about what they
perceive as “the
cultural decline and lack of discipline in public schools.” Religious private schools are also popular as
evangelicals propose to “put prayer and God back in the schools.” Predominantly black private schools are also
emerging as an alternative to what black parents perceive to be unsafe,
undisciplined,
and underachieving public schools. Parents
of both races are willing to pay the “double-tax”
of private
school tuition to place their child in a learning environment which
they
believe can better prepare their child for the world of work or
institutions of
higher learning.
Private schools are still common
in black majority school
districts. In some districts it is not
uncommon to have a predominantly black high school and a predominantly
white
high school along with a private school for whites in the majority
black school
zone. The result is the resegregation of
majority black schools and school districts across the state.
The Legacy of Brown in Mississippi
Charles C. Bolton has
observed that “In the end, most black
and white Mississippians could at least agree that the attempt to
integrate the
state’s school system in 1970 was generally a failure.”
Court orders compelled whites to surrender
their beloved dual system of public education based on the notion of
white
supremacy. Even to this day, the
existence and successes of predominantly white private schools and
academies
remind those who fought for integration that court orders and
injunctions cannot
change the
human heart. Although race and racism
are still dominant factors in public education, many Mississippians,
white and
black, are looking for either reform in public education or
alternatives to
it.
The legacy of Brown v. Board of Education
is,
ironically, a situation much akin to the conditions which existed at
the time
of Plessy v. Ferguson; with a dual system of public schools for
blacks
and private schools for whites. The
legacy is not one of true and complete integration, but one of
resegregation of
public schools in predominantly black districts. In
many cases blacks have secured the better
facilities and more rigorous courses they desired from pursuing Brown,
but they have essentially netted a “separate but equal” school system
still
dominated by white school boards and administrators and still avoided
by white students.
Outwardly, white Mississippians have
accepted
integration; but inwardly there is still much work to be done. Outwardly, black Mississippians have gained
the legislation and legal remedies for which they fought; but
inwardly,
they know that in many instances, they are still not accepted as equals
by
their fellow white citizens. A great deal of
progress has been made, but much work remains to be done.
Sources:
Bolton, Charles C. “The Last Stand of Massive Resistance: Mississippi
Public
School Integration, 1970.
Mississippi
Journal of History, Vol. LXI, No. 4 (Winter 1999): 329-350.
McLemore, R.A. A
History of Mississippi,
Vol. II. Jackson:
University Press of Mississippi,
1973.
Jesse O. McKee, ed. Mississippi:
The Magnolia State. Atlanta:
Clairmont Press, 2005.
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