South Carolina Independent School Association

The South Carolina Independent School Association (SCISA) is a school accrediting organization. It was founded in South Carolina in 1965 to legitimize segregation academies.[1][2]

History

SCISA was founded on August 10, 1965 with seven member schools[3] and provided organizational support to new segregation academies similar to that provided by White Citizens Councils in Mississippi, and had already founded 26 segregation academies by the spring of 1966.[2] Its first executive director was Tom Turnipseed.[4] Turnipseed admitted that SCISA was founded to support a white-only education system. "We denied it had anything to do with integration, but it did. It was fear. It was racism."[2][5] SCISA was founded as a "haven for segregation academies" but by 1990, according to then executive director Larry Watt, the "great majority" of SCISA's then 70 member schools were no longer segregated by race.[6] Another founder, T.E. Wannamaker also stated that the organization was a response to mass integration and that "Many (Negroes) are little more than field hands."[7]

Athletics

SCISA governs student athletics for its member institutions.

Structure

SCISA is structured into 3 divisions, based on school population and size of teams. The levels, from smallest population to largest, are A, AA, and AAA. A and AA sports are further split into 2 regions each, while AAA competes without region differences.

References
  1. Tom Turnipseed (January 18, 2009). "King Day at the Dome: Cotton is King no more". The State. I was the first executive director of the S.C. Independent School Association, formed in 1965 by seven private schools that wanted to share resources, establish more private schools and avoid public-school desegregation. My job was to help local groups of white parents organize private schools so their children would not attend schools desegregated by federal courts. I was a grassroots organizer and helped establish 30 private, segregated academies from 1965 to 1967, mostly in the area now known as the Corridor of Shame.(subscription required)
  2. https://getd.libs.uga.edu/pdfs/blair_monica_k_201505_ma.pdf
  3. Gloria Ladson-Billings (October 2004). "Landing on the Wrong Note: The Price We Paid for Brown". Educational Researcher. 33 (7): 3–13. doi:10.3102/0013189x033007003. JSTOR 3700092. S2CID 144660677.(subscription required)
  4. Winfred B. Moore, Jr.; Orville Vernon Burton (15 September 2008). Toward the Meeting of the Waters: Currents in the Civil Rights Movement of South Carolina During the Twentieth Century. Univ of South Carolina Press. p. 412. ISBN 978-1-57003-755-9. Retrieved 6 January 2013.
  5. "Opinion | Deja Vu: Parents in Charge, Tuition Grants, and Choice in Education".
  6. John Egerton (1991). Shades of Gray: Dispatches from the Modern South. LSU Press. pp. 245–6. ISBN 978-0-8071-1705-7. Retrieved 6 January 2013.
  7. Matthews, Jay (January 24, 2020). "A provocative argument on segregation, school choice and shared language". Washington Post. Retrieved 11 October 2020.

Further reading

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