A Shaky Truce

Segregated Education

During the sixteen years between the landmark Brown v. Board of Education (1954) and Alexander v. Holmes County Board of Education (1969) decisions, Henderson High School and the all-white Starkville High School were separate but not equal. Read and listen to stories about living a segregated life here.

Getting Organized

Prior to the passage of the Civil and Voting Rights Acts of 1964 and 1965, there was little-to-no organized resistance to segregation in Starkville. However, some local citizens took it upon themselves to challenge the racially divided society. Read about the leadership and development that it took to bring a community together.

The MSU Story

Mississippi State University (MSU) takes great pride that its integration happened mostly quietly and without overt violence or physical resistance. That did not mean, however, that such change was always welcomed, or that those who pioneered these changes were not criticized, ostracized, or shunned. Read about the historic NCAA tournament game between MSU and Loyola (the “Game of Change”), Richard Holmes’ desegregation of the University, and the visits from activist speakers here.

Fighting Segregation

Sixteen years passed between the landmark Brown v. Board of Education decision and the integration of the public schools in Starkville. Even though the Brown II decision called for “all deliberate speed” in achieving integration, many individuals and public officials in Starkville worked hard to prevent integration from happening. Read about the long struggles for equal educational opportunity here.

Oktibbeha NAACP

As voter registration drives surfaced during the mid-1960s, African Americans in the Starkville area, led by Dr. Douglas Conner, gradually became receptive to the idea of establishing a local NAACP chapter. On April 1, 1969, the Oktibbeha County NAACP was founded. Read about the development of the local chapter here.

Boycotts and Protests

During the 1960s, economic and employment opportunities for African Americans in Starkville remained as limited and restricted as they had been in earlier times. Dr. Douglas Conner tried the change that by forming the Oktibbeha County Black Caucus to combat such discrepancies by staging a boycott accompanied by protest marches during 1970. Read about some of those organized efforts to affect change here.

School Desegregation

Although many Starkville officials and residents resisted public school desegregation, Starkville High School matriculated its first integrated class in 1971. This was, as the Yellow Jacket yearbook called it, a “landmark year.” Yet it was also the beginning of a longer process to achieve and maintain equal educational opportunities for all of Starkville’s residents. Read about the struggle to integrate the schools and the experiences of those who remember that struggle.

Backlash

Starkville Academy, founded in 1969, became one of over a hundred private schools established throughout the state between 1966 and 1970 to resist federally mandated school desegregation. Read about this form of backlash to integrated education and those who fought against it here.