The label ‘Christian education’ functioned as a cover for racial exclusion.

Evidence

A 1972 report on school desegregation noted that segregation academies could usually be identified by the word “Christian” or “church” in the school’s name. The report observed that while individual Protestant churches were often deeply involved in the establishment of segregation academies, Catholic dioceses often indicated that their schools were not meant to be havens from desegregation, which was buttressed by the reputation Catholic schools had in offering free or reduced tuition to children of color in order to afford them a parochial education. Many segregation academies claimed they were established to provide a “Christian education”, but the sociologist Jennifer Dyer has argued that such claims were simply a “guise” for the schools’ actual objective of allowing parents to avoid enrolling their children in racially integrated public schools. — Wikipedia contributors, Segregation Academy, 10

Categorization

• XREF: Connects to a broader pattern where religious framing launders political exclusion, as in other books in the library on nationalism and ideology. — connects to: Segregationists framed racial exclusion as defense of churches, schools, and lodges. — Kevin M. Kruse, White Flight: Atlanta and the Making of…, 204
• SEED: Angle: ‘The Christian in the School Name’ — how religious branding became the most reliable tell for a segregation academy.