Black Principal Runs School With Segregated Class Elections

Some interesting facts about Mississippi’s Nettleton Middle School, which only allows white students to run for class president: their segregated homecoming is mandated in their handbook. And they have a black female principal.

Above, a picture from the Nettleton school district website marked “Homecoming Court, 2009.” Segregation is manifestly a matter of district policy, judging by the high school’s handbook discovered by Nettleton parent Brandy Springer:

Again, here’s the paper distributed to students on running for class elections, which mandates race roles for each position and prevents blacks from being president:

Interestingly, the achievement limit on blacks doesn’t seem to extend to the administration. Here’s a picture of the leadership of the middle school — including a black principal and assistant principal.

For anyone thinking this might be a big misunderstanding, here’s more from Brandy Springer in a local radio interview. Her family had just moved to the area, and when Brandy’s daughter said she wanted to run for school reporter, “the teacher explained to her that she could not apply for that, or she could not run for that because she was white and that was open to only the black students.”

Also, Springer says, “I asked that question to a couple of school officials, if they had a Hispanic student or a Chilean student, what category they would fit in and they didn’t really have an answer for me.”

Springer was told that a “court order” mandated this system, which has yet to be explained. However, like many Southern school districts, Nettleton has been subject to court-ordered desegregation. Here’s a copy of the docket of their case, which began in 1969. We spoke to the local county clerk, who clarified that after providing the required bi-annual reports, the case was closed years ago. (It was erroneously marked July 2010, because the documents were recently digitized, the clerk said.) Maybe someone needs to take another look.

Desegregation Court Documents, Nettleton School District Click to view

Update: The school has reversed its policy, saying it was a rotation put into place 30 years ago to ensure diversity.

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