The Origins of Segregation Academies in Mississippi: 1954 to 1976
Open Access
Author:
Kemp, Kayla
Graduate Program:
Sociology (MA)
Degree:
Master of Arts
Document Type:
Master Thesis
Date of Defense:
March 16, 2022
Committee Members:
David Baker, Professor in Charge/Director of Graduate Studies David P Baker, Thesis Advisor/Co-Advisor Maryellen Schaub, Committee Member Charles Seguin, Committee Member
Keywords:
segregation academies social movements civil rights movement private schools
Abstract:
As activists in the civil rights movement began to achieve victories for school desegregation in the Supreme Court, white supremacists responded with a countermovement to form their own private schools known as “segregation academies.” In this thesis, I use an original longitudinal dataset compiled from the Mississippi Department of Archives and History to analyze the historical spread of the segregation academy countermovement. Using discrete-time analysis, I find that having a higher proportion of Black residents best predicts whether counties founded segregation academies, with geographic factors playing little to no role. Through historical and descriptive analysis, I also find that the timing of the spread of segregation academies throughout the state of Mississippi corresponded with the timing of major civil rights victories in education. These findings support racial competition theory, which suggests that white supremacists primarily mobilize when they find themselves in the midst of large minority populations, and bolster the argument that segregation academies operate as a countermovement.
