Other States
South Carolina was not the only Deep South state to implement a statewide equalization program for its schools. Both Mississippi and Georgia passed legislation aimed at equalizing black and white schools, and both states constructed schools in the same architectural styles as South Carolina. Other regions, counties, and school districts across the Southern states also implemented equalization programs, but only South Carolina, Mississippi and Georgia passed specific sales taxes to fund statewide projects.
All three equalization programs had these aspects in common:
All three equalization programs had these aspects in common:
- Began in response to local desegregation lawsuits
- Consolidation of smaller schools
- Funding through a sales tax
- Continuation of the equalization program after Brown v. Board of Education
Lanier High School (black), 1955, Jackson, MS
(Photograph courtesy Mississippi Department of Archives and History)
Mississippi
Mississippi began to address the significant inequalities in its school system in 1944, when Governor Thomas Bailey asked a legislative committee to study its public school system. In 1946, upon recommendation of the committee, the Mississippi legislature appropriated $3 million for new school construction. The local school districts used the majority of this appropriation on white schools.
Mississippi continued to struggle with the needs of improving and equalizing its school system after 1946, but the legislature did not fund an equalization program
until shortly before the Brown v. Board of Education decision in 1954. Between 1955 and 1960, Mississippi spent around $80 million on schools for African American students, funding its equalization program through an increase of sales and cigarette taxes.
The Mississippi Department of Archives and History has completed a comprehensive historic school survey that includes its equalization schools. While the Department does not have information on the survey on its website, additional information on these schools can be obtained by contacting the National Register of Historic Places staff in Mississippi.
For more information:
Baughn, Jennifer V. Opager. “Education, Segregation, and Modernization: Mississippi’s School Equalization Building Program, 1946-1961.” Arris 16
(2005): 37-55.
Bolton, Charles C. “Mississippi’s School Equalization Program, 1945-1954: ‘A Last Gasp to Try to Maintain a Segregated Educational System.’” The Journal of
Southern History 66, no. 4 (November 2000): 781-814.
Bolton, Charles C. The Hardest Deal of All: The Battle over School Integration in Mississippi, 1870-1980. Jackson: University Press of Mississippi, 2005.
Mississippi began to address the significant inequalities in its school system in 1944, when Governor Thomas Bailey asked a legislative committee to study its public school system. In 1946, upon recommendation of the committee, the Mississippi legislature appropriated $3 million for new school construction. The local school districts used the majority of this appropriation on white schools.
Mississippi continued to struggle with the needs of improving and equalizing its school system after 1946, but the legislature did not fund an equalization program
until shortly before the Brown v. Board of Education decision in 1954. Between 1955 and 1960, Mississippi spent around $80 million on schools for African American students, funding its equalization program through an increase of sales and cigarette taxes.
The Mississippi Department of Archives and History has completed a comprehensive historic school survey that includes its equalization schools. While the Department does not have information on the survey on its website, additional information on these schools can be obtained by contacting the National Register of Historic Places staff in Mississippi.
For more information:
Baughn, Jennifer V. Opager. “Education, Segregation, and Modernization: Mississippi’s School Equalization Building Program, 1946-1961.” Arris 16
(2005): 37-55.
Bolton, Charles C. “Mississippi’s School Equalization Program, 1945-1954: ‘A Last Gasp to Try to Maintain a Segregated Educational System.’” The Journal of
Southern History 66, no. 4 (November 2000): 781-814.
Bolton, Charles C. The Hardest Deal of All: The Battle over School Integration in Mississippi, 1870-1980. Jackson: University Press of Mississippi, 2005.
Martin Elementary and High School (black), Terrell County, Georgia (photograph courtesy of Georgia State Historic Preservation Office)
Georgia
Georgia's 1949 legislature began addressing the inequalities in its school system, requiring all state funding to be equally spent between white and black schools. While the 1949 legislature did not provide for additional funding for school construction, by 1951 Georgia enacted a similar act to South Carolina. The state created its first 3% sales tax that funded over $200 million for equalization. Georgia's equalization act, known as the Minimum Foundation Program of Education (MFPE) equalized funding between black and white schools, teacher pay, and transportation. The State Building Authority oversaw all building projects. By the end of Georgia's equalization program, over 500 new schools for African American students had been constructed.
The Georgia State Historic Preservation Office is currently working to identify, record, and nominate its equalization schools to the National Register of Historic Places. For more information on this current work, visit the links here.
For more information:
O'Brien, Thomas V. The Politics of Race and Schooling: Public Education in Georgia, 1900-1961. Lanham, MD: Lexington Books, 1999.
Virginia
Virginia's Literary Fund, first established in 1810 to fund public schools, received appropriations of millions of dollars in the early 1950s. These funds, known at the Battle Funds after Governor John Battle who increased state appropriations, were designated for equalization school construction. The Battle Funds borrowed from the Virginia Retirement Fund to provide nearly $132 million in school construction across the state of Virginia. This equalization school plan differed from South Carolina, Georgia, and Mississippi in that Virginia utilized a funding structure already in place for public schools.
For more information:
French, Scot A., Craig Barton, and Peter Flora. Booker T. Washington Elementary School and Segregated Education in Virginia. Washington, DC: National Park
Service, 2007.
Mullins, Foney G. "A History of the Literary Fund as a Funding Source for Free Public Education in the Commonwealth of Virginia." PhD diss., Virginia Polytechnic
Insitute and State University, 2001.
