Talk:Jackson Academy (Mississippi)

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BetacommandBot (talk) 23:15, 13 February 2008 (UTC)

Designation as Segregation Academy

Hello! I've been working on this page for awhile, and after seeing the recent IP edit and subsequent revert, I did some digging. Given the available sourcing, and other coverage of the time, I think the designation (and description) of Jackson Academy as a segregation academy is incorrect.

While it should be mentioned that Jackson Academy's racial demographics mirrored those of segregation academies (which has its own section on the page), sourcing from the time is clear the school was explicitly formed to teach Bearss' phonics system, after it was declined by local school districts. Also, though the school's administration did mirror the attitudes of the rest of the state, Jackson Academy was not formed by the same guidelines (including the time period defined in the Supreme Court case) as the other academies in the category.

(I am still learning Wikipedia, so I apologize if my formatting is off) Meatsauce99 (talk) 19:15, 5 February 2021 (UTC)

Take a look at the book cited James Meredith: Warrior and the America that Created Him, which clearly refers to JA as a segregation academy. Look at this cited source that also determined it to be a segregated school. The IRS here included it as a seg academy. Don't forget that the Clarion Ledger was (and still largely is) a publication dominated by white Mississippians, and JA alumni and parents are among their advertisers. There are plenty of white denial sources that try to paint segregation academies as various attempts at a better education, religious education, etc.....but that's mostly just whitewashing.Jacona (talk) 22:08, 5 February 2021 (UTC)

Perhaps Jackson Academy was not founded as a segregation academy, but the school's controversial racial history should remain in the lead. As the article notes:

• A federal court found the school would refuse to admit qualifed black students;
• Jackson Academy chose to forgo tex excempt status instead of documenting that it had a racailly nuetral admissions policy.
• The FCC ruled that assocation with the school was disqualifying under its moral character requirement for broadcast licenses.
• Supporters of the school threatened a civil rights lawyer with violence in 1979 for questioning the tax exempt status of churches that supported it.
• The headmaster continued to defend racial segregation in the 1980s.
• In the late 1980s, the school acceded to another school's request not to send a black employee to a football game.

I would support replacing the first sentence of the lead with something to the effect of "Jackson Academy is a private school in Jackson Mississippi with a controversial history of racial discrimination. — BillHPike (talk, contribs) 03:04, 7 February 2021 (UTC)

I rewrote the lead so it would flow better and incorporate everything added recently - given the sensitive nature of the page, I thought I would run it by here first. Would this work?: "Jackson Academy is a private school in Jackson, Mississippi, founded by Loyal M. Bearss in 1959. Bearss established the school to teach a phonics program he developed, though the school’s administration had a controversial history of racial discrimination through the 1980’s, including foregoing tax exemption in the 1970’s to avoid adopting a racially blind admissions policy." Meatsauce99 (talk) 21:42, 18 February 2021 (UTC)

References