American Studies ETDs

Publication Date

5-1-1974

Abstract

This study examines as a social and historical movement the development of segregation academies -- the private, all white elementary and secondary schools founded in the South for the purpose of avoiding public school integration since the Supreme Court's 1954 school desegregation ruling. Chapter I begins by describing the development of Claiborne Academy, the segregation academy in my home town of Homer, Louisiana, in order to establish my relationship to the subject. The chapter describes the nature of the primary research, interviews with state and regional administrators who are leaders in the Southern Independent School Association, and principals, teachers, and students in 25 academies in Louisiana, Mississippi, Alabama, and Virginia. Chapter II traces the development of the academy movement from its earliest beginnings in the massive resistance forces in Southside Virginia during the late 1950's to its epidemic stages from 1969 to 1972. It also describes the development of state and regional organizations, which strengthen the local academy's influence and ability to maintain a hardened segregationist philosophy. Chapter III identifies the people involved in establishing the schools, the circumstances leading to their involvement, and their motivations for supporting the movement. The Academy movement leaders see themselves as resistors of tyranny from the federal government, community benefactors, and preservers of liberty and the "right" of freedom of association. Furthermore, they feel they are alert to the dangers of progressive education and subversive ideas. They often claim to be concerned primarily with "quality" education, but their definition of quality inevitably includes racial segregation. Their standards are rarely different from those maintained by the white public schools before integration. Finally, Chapter IV examines the significance of the segregation academies in Southern and American culture as a whole. The significance of the academy movement in the black belt areas of the South, where the academies are most popular, takes on immense importance in terms of the support of local public education. In these areas the private schools have effectively re-established the crippling injustice of dual school systems which perpetuate institutionalized racism and ineffective education for all. From a regional and national perspective, the existence of the academies attests to 1) the existence of thousands of white Southerners still committed to segregation of the races at any cost and 2) the failure of American public education generally to offer equality of opportunity and to do much more than perpetuate racial and social injustice through the schools.

Language

English

Document Type

Dissertation

Degree Name

American Studies

Level of Degree

Doctoral

Department Name

American Studies

First Committee Member (Chair)

Charles DeWayne Biebel

Second Committee Member

Ferenc Morton Szasz

Third Committee Member

Joel M. Jones

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