User:Historians363/EducationalSegregationinSunflowerCountyMississippi

Educational Segregation in Sunflower County, Mississippi

Introduction: The historical sequence of segregation, desegregation, and resegregation is not unique to the schools of Sunflower County, especially the town of Drew. Though timetables vary, the pattern is increasingly evident in public education systems throughout the U.S. This pattern portends disastrous consequences, especially, for youth of color.

Sunflower County Mississippi Incorporated and Unincorporated areas Sunflower Highlighted

Segregation

a.1950s political and social climate towards African Americans b.Segregation in Drew

• Sen. Eastland stated that Sunflower County was “the worst county in the worst state” concerning racial discrimination. (Let the People Decide by J. Todd Moye P. 20)

• In 1960 2/3s of the population in Sunflower County was black, and the average income of those blacks were lower than the federal poverty (Moye, P. 24)

• “The absence of an established African American middle class made civil rights organizing in Sunflower County more perilous than it might have been otherwise.” (Moye, P. 24)

i. Corruption of Police force

1. Two policemen: ‘Good Rockin’ Floyd and ‘Good Rockin’ Flemmins would beat black men and tear out their goatees and punch pregnant black women in their stomachs. They would tell them to leave town until the baby was born.

ii. Sharecropping

1. (Asch, P. 257)

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Due to sharecropping, blacks had few options.

iii. School segregation

1. Black kids didn’t have the opportunity to go to school because they had to work in the fields. Their schooling was squeezed in between the cultivation of crops.

2. African American children were not allowed to have school buses or adequate supplies. Many children didn’t go to school because it was too far to walk or it would be too cold in the winter.

3. Sunflower County estimated that there were 20,473 African Americans between the ages of 6-21, however only 7,709 of them were enrolled in schools. (Moye, P. 47)

4. African American schools had to use hand-me-down school buses from the white schools. (Moye, P. 47)

5. The University of Mississippi’s Bureau of Education Research tried to test black schoolchildren, but there were too few desks and the students had no knowledge how to take a standardized testing. (Moye, P. 47)

6. Black students had to pay $1-6 for heating in the winter. (Moye 48-49)

7. The Bureau of Education found that to make the minimum improvements to the black schools, Sunflower County would have needed to spend $2,493, 745; the county refused to spend the money. (Moye 49)

8. 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. (Moye 51)

Desegregation

One of the largest proponents for desegregation in the Sunflower school systems was Mae Bertha Carter. Mae Bertha Carter dreamed to leave the farm after her children were educated. She noticed the great discrepancies between the two schools systems in Drew and brought attention to desegregating the schools. “If the blacks hadn’t fought they would still be slaves today. Somebody had to step up and say no we are not taking this anymore.”

During this time, two court cases began to change segregation in schools. Green v. County School Bard of New Kent County, Virginia 1968 and Alexander v. Holmes County, Mississippi, Board of Education 1969 (The Senator & The Sharecropper by Chris Myers Asch P. 273-274)caused the Supreme Court to declare that integration in schools had to accomplished immediately. In addition, U.S. district judge William Keady ordered the Indianola school district to fully integrate the public schools (Chris Asch P. 274) In early 1965, to comply with the Civil Rights Act of 1964 and continue receiving federal funds, the Drew school district submitted a “freedom of choice” plan to the federal government.

However, even when schools began to offer the choice to integrate, racial problems still remained. The Carter children experienced in the all-white Drew high school.

Resegregation

Currently in Drew, the public education is predominately black and private education is predominately white. The majority of white parents rejected segregation in schools,and consequently established private white schools, named “segregation academies” by critics. Several "segregation academies" were established in Sunflower County, including Indianola Academy and North Sunflower Academy. (The Senator & The Sharecropper by Chris Myers Asch P. 273) The new private schools took immediate affect on the remaining public schools. White teachers left to work at the private schools, which left few experienced teachers in the public schools. There were also fewer resources for students in the public school systems. There were not any advanced courses to teach the public school students for those who wanted to learn college-level material. Student life in the public schools also changed dramatically. Proms and dances were canceled altogether in order to separate the remaining white students in the public schools from associating with the colored students, which only fueled further racial tension in the community. However, one of the most damaging effects of this move was the school board. The prominent local community leaders left and the public school system collapsed.

Incarceration

The incarceration rate of black male teenagers and the dropout rates in Drew’s public schools is shockingly similar. The whole business of incarceration has ceased to be punishment and has taken on a life of its own. Due to few opportunities available to black youth, the crime rate in Drew is incredibly high. As Mae Bertha Carter stated,“The most important thing is to get an education because without an education you are nowhere.” However, due to the educational segregation based on race, few black youths have been able to move on.

MissStatePenTopographicalMapJuly11976

Mississippi state penitentiary received over 60 million dollars in funding due to the severity of racial problems that have led to the high number of crimes. In comparison, the local college barely received 20 million dollars. This proves that the more education one has in Sunflower County,the less chances of going to prison.

References

Curry, Constance. Silver Rights. Chapel Hill: Algonquin of Chapel Hill, 1995. Print.

Moye, J. Todd. Let the People Decide: Black Freedom and White Resistance Movements in Sunflower County, Mississippi, 1945-1986. Chapel Hill: University of North Carolina, 2004. Print.

Myers Asch, Chris. The Senator and the Sharecropper. New York: New, 2008. Print.

External links

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