Ridgeland is a town in Jasper and Beaufort counties, South Carolina, United States. The population was 3,749 at the 2020 census, a 7.1% decrease from 2010. It has been the county seat of Jasper County since the county's formation in 1912. As defined by the U.S. Census Bureau, Ridgeland is included within the Hilton Head Island–Bluffton metropolitan area.
Thomas Heyward Jr. was an American Founding Father, lawyer, jurist, and politician. Heyward was active politically during the Revolutionary Era. As a member of the Continental Congress representing South Carolina, he signed the Declaration of Independence and Articles of Confederation. Heyward's imprisonment in Florida by the British for nearly a year and the loss of a considerable number of slaves led to his being proclaimed a martyr of the revolution.
Thomas Lynch Jr. was a signer of the United States Declaration of Independence as a representative of South Carolina and a Founding Father of the United States. His father Thomas Lynch was a member of the Continental Congress and had signed the 1774 Continental Association. When he had to step down because of illness, Thomas Lynch Jr. was selected to fill his post.
Desegregation busing was a failed attempt to diversify the racial make-up of schools in the United States by sending students to school districts other than their own. While the 1954 U.S. Supreme Court landmark decision in Brown v. Board of Education declared racial segregation in public schools unconstitutional, many American schools continued to remain largely racially homogeneous. In an effort to address the ongoing de facto segregation in schools, the 1971 Supreme Court decision, Swann v. Charlotte-Mecklenburg Board of Education, ruled that the federal courts could use busing as a further integration tool to achieve racial balance.
Massive resistance was a strategy declared by U.S. senator Harry F. Byrd Sr. of Virginia and his son Harry Jr.'s brother-in-law, James M. Thomson, who represented Alexandria in the Virginia General Assembly, to get the state's white politicians to pass laws and policies to prevent public school desegregation, particularly after Brown v. Board of Education.
The Montgomery Academy is a non-sectarian independent day school located in Montgomery, Alabama. The Lower School accommodates kindergarten through fourth grade and the Upper School fifth through twelfth. The school's current total enrollment is just under 900, of which approximately 300 are in the Upper School. Montgomery Academy was founded in 1959 as a segregation academy.
Segregation academies are private schools in the Southern United States that were founded in the mid-20th century by white parents to avoid having their children attend desegregated public schools. They were founded between 1954, when the U.S. Supreme Court ruled that segregated public schools were unconstitutional, and 1976, when the court ruled similarly about private schools.
Hilton Head Preparatory School (HHP) is a private school for junior kindergarten through 12th grade, located in Hilton Head Island, South Carolina, United States. It belongs to the South Carolina Independent School Association, and is accredited by the Southern Association of Colleges and Schools and the Southern Association of Independent Schools. It is the only school on Hilton Head Island to be accredited by the National Association of Independent Schools.
The Heyward-Washington House is a historic house museum at 87 Church Street in Charleston, South Carolina. Built in 1772, it was home to Thomas Heyward, Jr., a signer of the United States Declaration of Independence, and was where George Washington stayed during his 1791 visit to the city. It is now owned and operated by the Charleston Museum. Furnished for the late 18th century, the house includes a collection of Charleston-made furniture. Other structures include the carriage shed and 1740s kitchen building.
Wake Christian Academy (WCA) is a private, Christian, co-educational school in Raleigh, North Carolina, United States. It was established in 1966 as a segregation academy in response to the racial integration of public schools.
Orangeburg Preparatory Schools, Inc. is an independent, college-preparatory, coeducational day school enrolling students in preschool through 12th grade. It is located in Orangeburg, South Carolina. Orangeburg Prep has two campuses: the Lower Campus, housing preschool to 5th grade; and the Upper Campus, housing grades 6 to 12. OPS also operates a year-round day care center on the Lower Campus. Orangeburg Prep was formed through the merger of two segregation academies, Wade Hampton Academy and Willington Academy.
The Mississippi Delta region has had the most segregated schools—and for the longest time—of any part of the United States. As recently as the 2016–2017 school year, East Side High School in Cleveland, Mississippi, was practically all black: 359 of 360 students were African-American.
Athens Christian School (ACS) is a private, PreK–12 non-denominational Christian school located in Athens, Georgia, United States.
The South Carolina Independent School Association (SCISA) is a school accrediting organization. It was founded in South Carolina in 1965 to legitimize segregation academies.
Old House is an unincorporated community in Jasper County, South Carolina, United States. The community is located at the intersection of SC 336 and SC 462; 5 miles (8.0 km) east of Ridgeland.
Old House Plantation, also known as Daniel Heyward Plantation, is a historic plantation site and grave located near Ridgeland, Jasper County, South Carolina. The plantation was first settled in 1743 and was likely active through the first quarter of the 19th century. It was the birthplace and burial site of Founding Father Thomas Heyward, Jr., one of South Carolina's four signers of the Declaration of Independence. The plantation site includes a variety of plantation structures including the main house, two probable flanking outbuildings, a tidal mill, stable and likely slave quarters. The original 500-acre plantation grew to 16,000 acres, but it was destroyed by fire in 1865. Associated with the plantation is the Heyward family cemetery and surrounding brick wall.
Beaufort Academy (BA) is a Pre-K through 12 independent school located in Lady's Island, South Carolina, United States. Beaufort Academy is a member of the South Carolina Independent School Association (SCISA), a school accrediting organization that was founded in 1965 to legitimize segregation academies. As of 1982, the school had never had a Black student, insisting that none had ever applied.
Central Alabama Academy was a segregation academy in Montgomery, Alabama in 1970. The school opened at 3152 Debby Drive, Montgomery and subsequently moved to 6010 Vaughn Road, Montgomery. The site was taken over by Saint James School. The school adopted the name of a Methodist institution in Birmingham of the same name that existed 1866-1923. There is no evidence that this school was associated with the Methodist Church.
Prior to the civil rights movement in South Carolina, African Americans in the state had very few political rights. South Carolina briefly had a majority-black government during the Reconstruction era after the Civil War, but with the 1876 inauguration of Governor Wade Hampton III, a Democrat who supported the disenfranchisement of blacks, African Americans in South Carolina struggled to exercise their rights. Poll taxes, literacy tests, and intimidation kept African Americans from voting, and it was virtually impossible for someone to challenge the Democratic Party, which ran unopposed in most state elections for decades. By 1940, the voter registration provisions written into the 1895 constitution effectively limited African-American voters to 3,000—only 0.8 percent of those of voting age in the state.
