The South Carolina Independent School Association (SCISA) is a school accrediting organization. It was founded in South Carolina in 1965 to legitimize
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. ...
.
[https://getd.libs.uga.edu/pdfs/blair_monica_k_201505_ma.pdf ]
History
SCISA was founded on August 10, 1965 with seven member schools
and provided organizational support to new segregation academies similar to that provided by
White Citizens Councils
The Citizens' Councils (commonly referred to as the White Citizens' Councils) were an associated network of White supremacy, white supremacist, Racial segregation in the United States, segregationist organizations in the United States, concentra ...
in Mississippi, and had already founded 26 segregation academies by the spring of 1966.
Its first executive director was
Tom Turnipseed.
Turnipseed admitted that SCISA was founded to support a white-only education system. "We denied it had anything to do with integration, but it did. It was fear. It was racism."
SCISA was founded as a "haven for segregation academies" but by 1990, according to then executive director Larry Watt, the "great majority" of SCISA's then 70 member schools were no longer segregated by race.
Another founder, T.E. Wannamaker also stated that the organization was a response to mass integration and that "Many (Negroes) are little more than field hands."
Athletics
SCISA governs student athletics for its member institutions.
Structure
SCISA is structured into 3 divisions, based on school population and size of teams. The levels, from smallest population to largest, are A, AA, and AAA. A and AA sports are further split into 2 regions each, while AAA competes without region differences.
References
Further reading
''Independent Schools''Letter to the editor of the
News and Courier
''The Post and Courier'' is the main daily newspaper in Charleston, South Carolina. It traces its ancestry to three newspapers, the ''Charleston Courier'', founded in 1803, the ''Charleston Daily News'', founded 1865, and ''The Evening Post'', f ...
by Tom Turnipseed, April 11, 1966
External links
SCISA official website
{{coord missing, South Carolina
Private and independent school organizations in the United States
Segregation academies in South Carolina
Organizations established in 1965