Central Holmes Christian School (CHCS), previously Central Holmes Academy, is a Christian private school in Lexington, Mississippi, United States. It includes elementary, middle, and high school grades 1-12. The headmaster is Mike Sumlin Lexington is the county seat of Holmes County.
In the late 1960s public schools in Holmes County, Mississippi and across the state were being racially integrated. The majority of the county population was black, as in many parts of the Delta. Many white parents withdrew their children from the public system and began sending them to Central Holmes, a newly established private school. James Charles Cobb said that Central Holmes Academy had been "hastily constructed" as a segregation academy established by a chapter of the White Citizens' Council. A group of young men enrolled in a vocational program funded by the federal government of the United States used their training to establish the segregation academy.
In the late 1960s, white parents enrolled almost every white child in Lexington in Central Holmes Christian Academy to avoid having them attend school with blacks. But across the state as a whole, only a very small minority of white students were withdrawn to attend private schools; most stayed in public schools. Today Central Holmes Christian School has 263 students enrolled.
References
Bibliography
- Bolton, Charles C. The Hardest Deal of All: The Battle Over School Integration in Mississippi, 1870-1980. University Press of Mississippi, 2005. ISBN 1604730609, 9781604730609.
- Cobb, James Charles. The Most Southern Place on Earth: The Mississippi Delta and the Roots of Regional Identity. Oxford University Press, 1994. ISBN 0195089138, 9780195089134.
External links
- Central Holmes Christian School
