Pillow Academy

Pillow Academy (PA) is an independent, co-educational college preparatory school in unincorporated Leflore County, Mississippi, near Greenwood.[1] It was founded by white parents in 1966 as a segregation academy to avoid having their children attend school with blacks.[2]

Pillow Academy
Address
69601 U.S. Highway 82 West

Greenwood
,
Mississippi
38930

United States
Coordinates33°32′03″N 90°15′16″W
Information
TypePrivate
Established1966
GradesK-12
Color(s)Green and gold   
NicknameMustangs
AccreditationSouthern Association of Colleges and Schools
AffiliationMississippi Association of Independent Schools
Websitewww.pillowacademy.com

Pillow Academy campus
Last updated: 5 January 2018

History
See also: Education segregation in the Mississippi Delta

The school opened with grades K-8 in 1966.[1] It began as a segregation academy,[2] started in resistance to the integration of the public school system ordered by federal courts more than a decade after segregated schools were ruled to be unconstitutional.[3] From 1967-1969 grades 9 and 10 were established. In 1969 a new high school building was built, and grades 11 and 12 were added.[1] One of the founders of the Pillow Academy was Robert B. Patterson, also founder of the Association of White Citizens' Councils,[4] which opposed the civil rights movement, including allowing African Americans their constitutional right to vote.[5]

A 1970 marketing brochure for Pillow Academy stated that one of the benefits of attending the school was that classroom discussions could take place without "causing embarrassment to social or ethnic groups."[6]

As of 1989, Pillow Academy had adopted a non-discriminatory admissions policy, but did not have any black students.[7] The headmaster Thomas Thompson told the Clarion-Ledger that he was hopeful black students would enroll because "It would help us secure grants."[7]

In a 10-year period until 1998, enrollment at Pillow grew by almost 25%. Many white students who would have otherwise attended public schools, which were becoming mostly black, attended Pillow. In 1998 Richard Rubin of The New York Times wrote, "Whites in Greenwood are much more likely today than they were 10 years ago to openly admit that they send their children to Pillow Academy not because it is a better school but because of its racial composition."[5]

As of 2018, Pillow Academy was 90 percent white students.[8]

Campus

The 58-acre (23 ha) campus is located along U.S. Highway 82, 3 miles (4.8 km) west of Greenwood.[9]

Student body

In the 2010-2011 school year the school had 816 students. Students come from Leflore, Carroll, Grenada, Holmes, Sunflower, Tallahatchie, and Washington counties.[9]

The New York Times noted that Pillow Academy enrolled almost 800 students for the 1997-98 school year; none was black. A decade before, the public high school had about equal numbers of black and white students but by 1998 was predominately black.[5] The Academy was also economically segregated, as most of its students were middle-class, in an area where many African Americans were poor.

In the 2009-2010 school year, the demographic profile of the student body was 96.0% white, 1.7% black, and 1.9% Asian.[10] By comparison, the 2010 demographic profile of Leflore County showed the population as 24.9% white, 72.7% black, and 0.6% Asian.[11]

Notable alumni

See also
  • List of Private Schools in Mississippi

References
  1. "About PA." Pillow Academy. Retrieved on August 10, 2010.
  2. "What is a 'Segregation Academy'?". 17 December 2014. Retrieved 18 October 2017.
  3. Adam Lynch (18 November 2009). "Ceara's Season". Jackson Free Press. Retrieved 19 August 2011.
  4. "In the Poorest Neighborhood in the Poorest City in the Poorest County in the Poorest State (or, Bless Your Heart, Mississippi)". SouthWithinUs. 25 November 2013. Retrieved 18 October 2017.
  5. Richard Rubin (30 August 1998). "Should the Mississippi Files Have Been Re-opened?". New York Times. Retrieved 19 August 2011.
  6. Joseph, Crespino (2007). In search of another country : Mississippi and the conservative counterrevolution. Princeton, N.J.: Princeton University Press. p. 244. ISBN 9780691122090. OCLC 123490542.
  7. Gates, Jimmie (June 18, 1989). "Students may be key to unity in community". Clarion-Ledger. p. 7H – via Newspapers.com.
  8. Acharya, Avidit; Blackwell, Matthew; Sen, Maya (2018-05-22). Deep Roots: How Slavery Still Shapes Southern Politics. p. 3. ISBN 978-1400889976.
  9. "Profile of Pillow Academy 2010-2011 Archived 2001-12-01 at the Library of Congress Web Archives." Pillow Academy. Retrieved on March 25, 2012.
  10. "Pillow Academy". Private School Universe Survey. U.S. Department of Education.
  11. "2010 Demographic Profile Data". U.S. Census Bureau. 2010. Archived from the original on 2020-02-12.
  12. "Louis Coleman Stats". Baseball Almanac. Retrieved July 18, 2013.
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