Private religious schools served as a vehicle for evading desegregation orders

Evidence

Bob Jones University excluded Black students, but this was not uncommon among southern educational institutions at the time. In response to the desegregation orders that flowed from the Supreme Court’s Brown v. Board of Education decision of 1954, a number of white families in southern states wished to avoid sending their children to integrated schools. Public officials began promoting “schools of choice,” a euphemism for private schools that were, in effect, white-only. Such “choice” schools were also known as “segregation academies.” In many cases they were, like Falwell’s, affiliated with churches and other religious entities. — Katherine Stewart, The Power Worshippers, 249

Categorization

• SEED: ‘Segregation academies’ as the original ‘school choice’ could anchor an essay on how public-school privatization language has deep roots in white resistance to integration.
• XREF: connects to: Church-affiliated private schools outlasted public schools as refuges of segregation — Kevin M. Kruse, White Flight: Atlanta and the Making of…, 405; Forced desegregation of Christian schools, not abortion, sparked the Christian Right — Andrew L. Whitehead, American Idolatry, 530; The Religious Right began as reaction to IRS desegregation of Christian schools. — Andrew L. Whitehead; Samuel L. Perry, Taking America Back for God, 312 (+4 more)

Broader Connections

• Church-affiliated private schools outlasted public schools as refuges of segregation #corroborates (0.95) — Kevin M. Kruse, White Flight, 405
• Forced desegregation of Christian schools, not abortion, sparked the Christian Right #expands (0.85) — Andrew L. Whitehead, American Idolatry, 530
• The Religious Right began as reaction to IRS desegregation of Christian schools. #expands (0.85) — Andrew L. Whitehead; Samuel L. Perry, Taking America Back for God, 312
• School vouchers originated as subsidies for segregated white religious academies #expands (0.80) — Katherine Stewart, The Power Worshippers, 752
• Federal policy publicly subsidized private resegregation even as desegregation efforts advanced. #expands (0.80) — David Theo Goldberg, The Threat of Race, 380