How Segregated Are Your Local Private Schools? We Made a Tool to Help You Find Out.
Our reporters mined a trove of data that revealed detailed demographic information about private schools. That helped us find illuminating stories about how those schools divide communities.
The Story of One Mississippi County Shows How Private Schools Are Exacerbating Segregation
A new ProPublica analysis shows a stark pattern across states in the Deep South: Alongside majority-Black public school districts, a separate web of private academies are filled almost entirely with white students.
Segregation Academies in Mississippi Are Benefiting From Public Dollars, as They Did in the 1960s
ProPublica identified 20 schools in the state that likely opened as segregation academies and have received almost $10 million over the past six years from the state’s tax credit donation program.
Segregation Academies Across the South Are Getting Millions in Taxpayer Dollars
North Carolina offers an especially telling window into what is happening across this once legally segregated region where legislatures are now rapidly expanding and adopting controversial voucher-style programs.
Charleston Unveils Historical Marker at the Site of Firm That Held the Largest Known U.S. Slave Trade
As a graduate student at the College of Charleston, Lauren Davila found an ad for the auction of 600 enslaved people. A ProPublica story last year revealed her discovery and unearthed the identity of the family responsible for the sale.
In a Town Full of Segregation Academies, One Black Family Grapples With the Best School Choice for Their Daughter
Schools in Macon, Georgia, are still largely segregated. Zo’e Johnson’s family is torn over whether they can afford for her to stay at her mostly white private school — and whether the cost makes sense.
These Researchers Study the Legacy of the Segregation Academies They Grew Up Around
Three young academics in Alabama are examining these mostly white private schools through the lenses of economics, education and history to better understand the persistent division of schools in the South.
How an Alabama Town Staved Off School Resegregation
In the 1970s, Black students organized protests and a boycott that cost local white businesses money. Today, many families who could afford private school still choose Thomasville’s public schools.
How Residents in a Rural Alabama County Are Confronting the Lasting Harm of Segregation Academies
In Wilcox County, Alabama, many people say they want to bridge racial divides created by their segregated schools. But they must face a long and painful history.
Segregation Academies Still Operate Across the South. One Town Grapples With Its Divided Schools.
Seventy years after Brown v. Board, Black and white residents, in Camden, Alabama, say they would like to see their children schooled together. But after so long apart, they aren’t sure how to make it happen.
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