University of Mississippi eGrove Electronic Theses and Dissertations Graduate School 1-1-2020 Instant Schools: The Frenzied Formation And Early Days Of The Mississippi Private School Association Ernest Flora IV Follow this and additional works at: https://egrove.olemiss.edu/etd Recommended Citation Flora IV, Ernest, "Instant Schools: The Frenzied Formation And Early Days Of The Mississippi Private School Association" (2020). Electronic Theses and Dissertations. 1853. https://egrove.olemiss.edu/etd/1853 This Dissertation is brought to you for free and open access by the Graduate School at eGrove. It has been accepted for inclusion in Electronic Theses and Dissertations by an authorized administrator of eGrove. For more information, please contact
[email protected]. INSTANT SCHOOLS: THE FRENZIED FORMATION AND EARLY DAYS OF THE MISSISSIPPI PRIVATE SCHOOL ASSOCIATION A Dissertation presented in partial fulfillment of requirements for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy in the Department of Education The University of Mississippi By E. Gray Flora IV May 2020 Copyright E. Gray Flora IV 2020 ALL RIGHTS RESERVED ABSTRACT The founding leadership of the Mississippi Private School Association (MPSA) used individual experience and extensive networking via the Citizens’ Council along with the community’s belief and desire to maintain white-only schools to create a coalition of quickly formed but well-resourced private schools. This political and social clout afforded them the ability to create a large, powerful organization almost “instantly” during a pivotal moment of southern educational history. Scholar Kenneth T. Andrews called the establishment of all-white academies in Mississippi, “a countermovement strategy that flowed out of the prior history of organized white resistance to the civil-rights movement.” 1 The significance of this narrative lies in timing and ambitious, aggressive scope of the organization.