White Supremacist Group Pours Money Into Private Mississippi Schools

For only $25 a year, you, too, can become a member of the hate-spewing Council of Conservative Citizens, a group that preaches the inherent Christianity of America, the belief that the U.S. is a "European" nation and that "the American people and government should remain European in their composition and character." Translation: White supremacism.

If you're not already repulsed, check out the group's "traditional family values" platform, which opposes homosexuality and "mixture of the races."

There are about a zillion things wrong with this group, but perhaps the scariest thing is that group members continue to funnel money into two private schools in Mississippi. Calhoun Academy in Calhoun City, Miss., and Carroll Academy in Carrollton, Miss. both receive large amounts of funding from the white supremacist group, the Southern Poverty Law Center uncovered last week.

That's right: Kindergarteners in two schools in Mississippi are practicing their ABCs in classrooms partly paid for by white supremacists.

As the SPLC explains, the landmark 1954 Supreme Court decision, Brown v. Board of Education, ordered desegregation of public schools. This sparked an exodus of white children from public schools, especially in the south, and the creation of all-white private schools known as segregation academies.

Although many of these private academies are still around, most of them no longer cater only to white students. But in the case of Carroll and Calhoun, at least, diversity means having some blondes and some redheads. Carroll Academy's headmaster told the SPLC that they had one non-white student; Calhoun's headmaster said they have four non-white students, some of whom, he said, "may have black blood in their families."

The CCC holds massive barbecue fundraisers to support the schools and features school activities in their publications. The group raised over $100,000 to support Calhoun in 1999, they reported. Just a few months ago, in the April-June 2010 newsletter, the CCC ran a photo of the Carroll Academy Lady Rebels basketball team. They were congratulating them on winning the basketball championship. How sweet.

Both schools' leaders refused to criticize the racist views of the CCC when asked to by the SPLC. The headmaster of Carroll Academy said of the members of the racist group who help fund his school, “they have their right to feel how they feel.”

Both of these schools are accredited members of the Mississippi Association of Independent Schools (MAIS), which includes dozens of private academies in Mississippi, Louisiana and Arkansas. Tell the MAIS to remove accreditation from schools that fund their classes with white supremacist dollars.

Photo credit: Shoshanah