Drew High School (Mississippi)

Drew High School was a public high school located in Drew, Mississippi. It was a part of the Drew School District. The school district's attendance boundary included Drew, Rome, and the employee residences of the Mississippi State Penitentiary (Parchman), located in an unincorporated area.[1] It served grades 9 through 12 and later grades 8 through 12.[2][3]

Drew High School
Address
Drew HS: 286 Green Avenue, Drew, MS 38737
Drew Hunter HS: 10 Swoope Road, Drew, MS 38737
Coordinates
Information
TypePublic
Closed2010
Grades8–12
Websitedrewhighschool.com

History

In the 1960s, seven children of the family of Mae Bertha Carter were the first black students to attend white schools in Drew.[4] Archie Manning, an American football player who had attended Drew High School, recalled that there had been no violent incidents against the children but that the white students ignored the Carter children.[4] According to Susan M. Glisson, author of The Human Tradition in the Civil Rights Movement, Ruth Carter, the oldest of the Carter children, encountered racial taunts involving the word "nigger", students avoiding her and moving out of her way, and students throwing spitballs.[5]

In 1969 a court order ended the segregation system in the Drew School District.[6] By 1971 black students were the majority of Drew High School, with four black students for every one white student.[4] After Drew School District was desegregated, white residents of Drew enrolled their children in North Sunflower Academy. White teachers also left the school.[7]

Prior to the 2010–11 school year the school district had three school buildings, with Drew High School being one of them.[1] In 2010 the school district voted to close the Drew High School building and move the 5th and 6th grades to A.W. James. John Thigpen, the president of the school board, stated that the district operated as if it had 1,200 students when in fact it had 650.[8] Drew Hunter High School began serving secondary grades.[9] The Drew School District closed in 2012 and the high school-level students who attended Drew Hunter were moved to Ruleville Central High School.[10][11] The secondary school is now named Drew Hunter Middle School with grades 6 through 8.[12]

Student discipline

According to Charles Bussey, author of the 2004 book Where We Stand: Voices Of Southern Dissent, the assistant superintendent of the North Sunflower Academy discussed with him high expulsion, suspension, and dropout rates in Drew High School, which at that time had become mostly black.[13]

Notable alumni

References
  • Bussey, Charles. Where We Stand: Voices Of Southern Dissent. NewSouth Books, 2004. ISBN 1588381692, 9781588381699.
  • Cobb, James Charles. The Most Southern Place on Earth: The Mississippi Delta and the Roots of Regional Identity. Oxford University Press, August 4, 1994. ISBN 0195089138, 9780195089134.
  • Glisson, Susan M. The Human Tradition in the Civil Rights Movement. Rowman & Littlefield, 2006. ISBN 0742544095, 9780742544093.
  1. "Drew School District Audited Financial Statements For the Year Ended June 30, 2005." (PDF) Office of the State Auditor, State of Mississippi. 12 (18/82). Retrieved on July 20, 2010.
  2. "Drew High School." February 23, 2001. Retrieved on March 23, 2013. "Grades 9 - 12 "
  3. "Drew High School." Drew School District. August 5, 2004. Retrieved on March 23, 2013. "Grades 8 - 12 "
  4. Cobb, p. 248.
  5. Glisson, p. 223.
  6. Glisson, p. 224
  7. Turner, Billy. "The hometown Archie once knew is no more." The Times-Picayune. Saturday January 26, 2009. Retrieved on March 30, 2012.
  8. "Board cuts schools down to 2." WDAM. April 12, 2010. Retrieved on August 16, 2010.
  9. "Schools Archived 2011-09-06 at the Wayback Machine." Drew School District. Retrieved on August 16, 2010.
  10. Amy, Jeff. "Mississippi to return Okolona schools to local control; district merger ends Drew High School." Associated Press at The Republic. May 17, 2012. Retrieved on June 12, 2012.
  11. "Home." (Archive) Drew Hunter Middle School. Retrieved on October 9, 2013. "After two successful academic years, the high school portion of the school merged with Ruleville Central High School and Drew High School became Drew Hunter Middle School."
  12. "Handbook 2012-2013." (Archive) Sunflower County School District. Retrieved on October 9, 2013.
  13. Bussey, p. 150–151. "Other whites remain adamant today in their belief that the civil rights movement ruined "the Southern way of life." The headmistress of the all-white private Sunflower Academy [sic] told us the history of its establishment, and the assistant school superintendent spoke of the high dropout, expulsion, and suspension rates in the now mostly black Drew High School."
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