From Statehood to School Desegregation: Racial Disparities in the Public Education of Mississippi, 1817–1969

Abstract

On this 50th-year anniversary of Alexander v. Holmes Board of Education (1969) nationally enforcing school desegregation in fall 1970, Mississippi is being sued for racial disparities in public education between Black students and White students in Williams et al. v. Bryant et al. (2017). Using quantitative and qualitative primary sources, I investigate the extent to which Mississippi administered racial disparities in public education between Black students and White students from its statehood in 1817 through school desegregation. The data show many racial disparities such as a $242 million difference in expenditures for 14 years and the school attrition of more than 1 million Black students, over a 17-year period, of which over 730,000 of those students left school after first grade. In the conclusion, I offer three recommendations for how Mississippi can take present-day responsibility for these racial disparities in public education.

Patients and Families’ Participation in Multidisciplinary Tumor Conferences Improves Patient and Family-Focused Cancer Care: Lessons Learned From a Debate on the Role of Radiation Therapy in Primary Mediastinal Non-Hodgkin Lymphoma

“…This is more likely among patients/families with less education/health literacy (HL) [3][4][5][6][7][8]. In the state of Mississippi, the education level is unfortunately low among African Americans [9], who constitute about 40% of the population [10]. Further, the University of Mississippi Medical Center (UMMC) being a safety net hospital sees a higher percentage of African American patients.…”