North Sunflower Academy is a private school, founded to provide a segregated education for white students in

unincorporated Unincorporated may refer to: * Unincorporated area, land not governed by a local municipality * Unincorporated entity, a type of organization * Unincorporated territories of the United States, territories under U.S. jurisdiction, to which Congress ...

Sunflower County Sunflower County is a county located in the U.S. state of Mississippi. As of the 2010 census, the population was 29,450. Its largest city and county seat is Indianola. Sunflower County comprises the Indianola, MS Micropolitan Statistical Are ...

Mississippi Mississippi () is a state in the Southeastern region of the United States, bordered to the north by Tennessee; to the east by Alabama; to the south by the Gulf of Mexico; to the southwest by Louisiana; and to the northwest by Arkansas. Miss ...

, in the

Mississippi Delta The Mississippi Delta, also known as the Yazoo–Mississippi Delta, or simply the Delta, is the distinctive northwest section of the U.S. state of Mississippi (and portions of Arkansas and Louisiana) that lies between the Mississippi and Yazoo ...

area, between Ruleville and

Drew Drew may refer to: __NOTOC__ Places ;In the United States * Drew, Georgia, an unincorporated community * Drew, Mississippi, a city * Drew, Missouri, an unincorporated community * Drew, Oregon, an unincorporated community * Drew County, Arkansas ...

. The school has grades Kindergarten through 12. As of 2002, the school draws students from Doddsville,

, Merigold, Ruleville, Schlater, Tutwiler, and

Webb Webb most often refers to James Webb Space Telescope which is named after James E. Webb, second Administrator of NASA. It may also refer to: Places Antarctica * Webb Glacier (South Georgia) * Webb Glacier (Victoria Land) * Webb Névé, Victor ...

.No simple solutions to education, workforce training problems. (Focus Delta & River Cities).
''

Mississippi Business Journal ''The Mississippi Business Journal'' is a statewide weekly business newspaper, located in Jackson, Mississippi. Each issue contains news coverage relating to the Mississippi business world along with regular opinion and freelance columns. Issues ...

''. May 27, 2002. Retrieved on August 10, 2010.

History

The school originated 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 desegregated public schools. They were founded between 1954, when the U.S. ...

.Moye, J. Todd. '' Let the People Decide: Black Freedom and White Resistance Movements in Sunflower County, Mississippi, 1945-1986''.

UNC Press Books The University of North Carolina Press (or UNC Press), founded in 1922, is a university press that is part of the University of North Carolina. It was the first university press founded in the Southern United States. It is a member of the Ass ...

, 2004
243
Retrieved from

Google Books Google Books (previously known as Google Book Search, Google Print, and by its code-name Project Ocean) is a service from Google Inc. that searches the full text of books and magazines that Google has scanned, converted to text using optical c ...

on March 2, 2011. "Sunflower County's two other segregation academies— North Sunflower Academy, between Drew and Ruleville, and Central Delta Academy in Inverness— both sprouted in a similar fashion." , . After the Drew School District was desegregated, white residents of Drew enrolled their children in North Sunflower Academy. When the school was founded, there were only eight students per grade. In 1969 the State of Mississippi passed a law written by Ruleville-based state senator Robert L. Crook that allowed

Mississippi State Penitentiary Mississippi State Penitentiary (MSP), also known as Parchman Farm, is a maximum-security prison farm located in unincorporated Sunflower County, Mississippi, in the Mississippi Delta region. Occupying about of land,Delta Democrat Times The ''Delta Democrat Times'' (sometimes spelled ''Delta Democrat-Times'') is a daily newspaper that has been published in Greenville, Mississippi, United States since 1938, when Hodding Carter merged his ''Delta Star'', which he started with his wi ...

'' article, the State of Mississippi spent over $250,000 ( when adjusted for inflation) in tuition costs and thousands of dollars in transportation costs for North Sunflower. By that time nobody had legally challenged that law in court.

Constance Curry Constance Winifred Curry (July 19, 1933 – June 20, 2020) was an American civil rights activist, educator, and writer. A longtime opponent of racial discrimination, she was the first white woman to serve on the executive committee of the Stud ...

, author of ''Silver Rights'', stated that it was legal under Mississippi law but may have been unconstitutional under U.S. federal law. In 2002 the school had about 180 students, a decrease from its maximum of 200 from several years prior. Headmistress Sarah W. Love said that the lack of industry led to a decrease in students. Many families moved to

Cleveland, Mississippi Cleveland is a city in Bolivar County, Mississippi, United States. The population was 11,199 as of the 2020 United States Census. Cleveland has a large commercial economy, with numerous restaurants, stores, and services along U.S. 61. Clevelan ...

, where the public schools were considered to be better than those in other Mississippi Delta towns. According to Charles Bussey, author of the 2004 book ''Where We Stand: Voices of Southern Dissent'', the assistant superintendent of the North Sunflower Academy discussed with him high expulsion, suspension, and dropout rates in Drew High School, which at that time had become mostly black. While the school now claims to be a non-discriminatory in regards to race or national origin, according to the

National Center for Education Statistics The National Center for Education Statistics (NCES) is the part of the United States Department of Education's Institute of Education Sciences (IES) that collects, analyzes, and publishes statistics on education and public school district finance ...

the student body was composed of 135 white students out of a total 137 students, or 98.5% white as of the 2017-2018 school year.

Athletics

The athletic teams participate using the nickname Rebels, a reference to the army

Confederate States of America The Confederate States of America (CSA), commonly referred to as the Confederate States or the Confederacy was an unrecognized breakaway republic in the Southern United States that existed from February 8, 1861, to May 9, 1865. The Confeder ...

, which sought to maintain slavery of African-Americans. Their mascot is a Confederate Colonel.

Campus

In 2013, the building had a

Confederate flag The flags of the Confederate States of America have a history of three successive designs during the American Civil War. The flags were known as the "Stars and Bars", used from 1861 to 1863; the "Stainless Banner", used from 1863 to 1865; and ...

on its side. The football field also was painted with a Confederate flag at least until 2015. File:NSA Pump House.jpg, The pump house (no longer used) with a sign in Gabrielle font, donated by the Class of 2017, which replaced the old Confederate flag painting File:NSA Field house, gym, and cafeteria.jpg, West of the main school building, the forward most building in the image is the field house, with the gym and cafeteria behind, respectively

References

* Bussey, Charles. ''Where We Stand: Voices Of Southern Dissent''.

NewSouth Books NewSouth Books is an independent publishing house founded in 2000 in Montgomery, Alabama, by editor H. Randall Williams and publisher Suzanne La Rosa. Williams was the founder of Black Belt Press, working there from 1986 to 1999, and La Rosa wo ...

, 2004. , 9781588381699.

External links

* {{authority control Schools in Sunflower County, Mississippi Private K-12 schools in Mississippi Segregation academies in Mississippi

History

Athletics

Campus

See also

References

External links