Jackson Preparatory School (Mississippi)

Jackson Preparatory School (Jackson Prep) is an independent, coeducational, day school enrolling 820 students in grades six through twelve. The school is located in Flowood, Mississippi, a suburb of Jackson, and has a controversial history as a segregation academy.

History

The school was founded in 1970 as a segregation academy. A biography of James Meredith cited the school's creation as part of the campaign of massive resistance against the Brown v. Board of Education decision ordering racial integration of public schools.

At the time of its founding, a local member of the White Citizen's Council remarked that schools like Jackson Prep were established because the "educational results of such forced interracial congregation are disastrous for children of both the white and black races".

In 1981, Jackson Prep headmaster Jesse Howell said the school was established because the "upheaval" white parents experienced from desegregation "caused a need for stability, for a place to send their children. We've tried to provide that." Howell claimed not to know why Jackson Prep had never enrolled any black students.

As of 1986, Jackson Prep had never enrolled a black student. The headmaster, Jesse Howell, told a newspaper that the lack of diversity was because "black communities don't choose to attend our school." A black parent disagreed, saying that he didn't enroll his sons because "Jackson Prep was formed in 1970 to try to maintain segregation."

In a 1995 article in the Clarion Ledger, former headmaster Jesse Howell said that "There was resistance from both sides" to school integration.  Gail Sweat, a student who had attended Jackson Preparatory before transferring back to a racially integrated public school, said that, in 1970, "initially there was panic, and most whites bailed out and went to private schools." However, leaving Jackson Preparatory was what "prepared her to live in a diverse society." Sweat added that, after leaving Jackson Preparatory "it wasn't that big a deal, blacks and whites going to school together." In 1999, it was reported that Jackson Prep requires pregnant students to withdraw from the school.

As of 2014, Jackson Prep's student body remained over 97 percent white.

Role in elections
In the 1987 Mississippi gubernatorial election, Bill Waller was criticized for sending two of his children to the "all-white" Jackson Preparatory School. In 1989, Jackson Mayor Dale Danks was similarly criticized for enrolling his daughter in Jackson Prep.

In 1999, Madison county school board member Lee Miller acknowledged that his decision to enroll his children in Jackson Prep may have come across as "nebulous", but insisted the decision was not motivated by racial bias.

School media

Literary magazine
Jackson Preparatory School's Junior High literary magazine is named Mindprints. Mindprints has been awarded five consecutive awards in the American Scholastic Press Association's Annual Magazine Competition, two Silver Crown awards, and two Gold Medal awards from Columbia Scholastic Press Association's International Critique of Student Publications Crown Awards Competition and Medalist Competition. Mindprints has also won many other awards and has been a finalist in many competitions.</ref>https://www.jacksonprep.org/student-life/student-publications/mindprints</ref> Jackson Preparatory School's High School literary magazine is named Earthwinds. Earthwinds had earned four consecutive Gold Medals in the Columbia Scholastic Press Association's Critique of Student Literary Magazines as of the 2007-2008 school year.  Earthwinds has also earned an All-Southern Rating, the highest commendation awarded by the Southern Interscholastic Press Association, judged by the journalism and communications faculty at the University of South Carolina this year.

Newspaper
The Sentry is Jackson Prep's periodically released high school news publication. It is a forum for students in grades nine through twelve to both to keep the Prep community informed, express their opinions, and learn about the process of journalism.

Athletics

Football

Jackson compete as the Patriots, in the Mississippi Association of Independent Schools (MAIS), and currently competes in that league's AAA-I division. Jackson Prep is also the only school in MAIS history to win six championship titles in a row within their division (2013-2018).

When Jackson Prep was established in 1970, the Murrah High School football coach moved to Jackson Prep, along with all the white players. The Murrah High School weight room equipment was also transferred to Jackson Prep since the booster club said that the equipment belonged to the club and not to the Jackson Public School District.

In 1978, NFL coach Romeo Crennel was working as an assistant at Ole Miss and visited Jackson Prep to scout a player. Crennel later recalled that he was the first black person to attend a game at the school and that he had used the alias "Romano Crenelli" to disguise his racial background.

Coach Ricky Black was named the National High School Coaches Association's Coach in 2018. In 21 seasons at Jackson Prep, Coach Black has won 10 MAIS championships.

Among the players to come through Prep's program are former All-SEC, former All-SEC Mississippi State and Canadian Football League standout linebacker Paul V. Lacoste; former Tennessee Vols standout and NFL player Will Overstreet; former Ole Miss and NFL offensive lineman Todd Wade.

Notable alumni 
 Dent May, musician
 Kathryn Stockett, author
 Todd Wade, NFL player
 Scott Stricklin, Athletic director
 Will Skelton, Former Ole Miss Athletic Director

See also
 List of private schools in Mississippi

Footnotes

References

Category:Private high schools in Mississippi
Category:Educational institutions established in 1970
Category:1970 establishments in Mississippi
Category:Schools in Rankin County, Mississippi
Category:Private middle schools in Mississippi
Category:Preparatory schools in Mississippi
Category:Private schools in the Jackson metropolitan area, Mississippi
Category:Segregation academies in Mississippi