Legendary Mississippi public school administrator Julian D. Prince’s new book captures the trials of integration in the 1960s, but it also could serve as a blueprint for districts in the state today.
In “Balancing the Scales: A Turbulent Age of Mississippi History During School Integration,” Prince reminds us of the travails he negotiated in the desegregation of the McComb schools starting in 1965-66.
By the end of 1964, when Prince was in Corinth, McComb had earned the sobriquet of “Bombing Capital of the World” following a year-long civil war between the races. Blacks were fighting to gain their rights as voters and full participants in the American democratic system of government. The Ku Klux Klan was determined to maintain white supremacy.
“That spring I began to pay closer attention to what was happening in McComb. During the five years I was in Corinth, news stories from McComb often got my attention because the city was a place I still cared about. The violence of the civil rights conflict in McComb seemed unreal to me,” Prince wrote.
Prince, a former McComb principal, walked into this cauldron on his arrival as superintendent, hoping to meld its schools into one cohesive unit under the 1954 federal court decision to desegregate public school systems.
Little did he know that his main project in Corinth — a “Freedom of Choice” plan allowing black students to choose a white school in four grades the first year, leading to full integration — prepared him for a similar endeavor in McComb.
McComb school trustees told Prince upon return that “You are going to have to integrate the races either voluntarily or by court order.” He chose the tougher voluntary path.
Prince tackled the job head-on starting on July 1, 1965, his first day as McComb superintendent. He was greeted with a black students’ protest march to the district’s central office during his second week of duty.
Before August expired and the 1965-66 school year could begin, safety measures had been established for Prince and his family after a local Klan unit misfired on a cross-burning on the high school property.
His plan to desegregate the McComb schools went forward, however, leading to full desegregation of the schools from kindergarten through the 12th grade with the opening of the 1971-72 school year.
Prince later became superintendent of the Tupelo schools, guiding that already-good school system to even greater heights. He eventually moved to Jackson as head of the Public Education Forum. He retired to Tupelo in 1993.
“Balancing the Scales” tells the highs and lows of Prince’s grand achievement in McComb. This is a complete history of a major Mississippi city’s volatile public schools desegregation.
Some Mississippi districts face similar tests of endurance in today’s racially-charged atmosphere. Their school leaders would do well to read Prince’s book for pointers.
Such a story could be told only by a seasoned educator who pulled it off. That man was Julian Prince.
