History of Lauderdale County School District | Page 88

Negroes, located on the county home road near new Highway 39. Recently completed, the
building is now being moved into and classes will begin Monday.
(The Citizens Study Group, an organization designed to study the county’s rural school
problems, will meet tonight at 7:30 in the Masonic Lodge at Andrew Chapel.)
The new school will house every Negro school child in the county (grades 1 – 12 outside
Meridian). Its location is designed to minimize transportation problem, as student from the
Northern part of the county can reach it by way of high way 39, and those from the southern part
by way of highway 45. The total enrollment at the outset will be 1900, but Principal F.P. Posey
predicts that this will grow to 2100 by next year. The school will thus be more than four times
large as any white county school. The large enrollment is reflected in a far wider choice and
assortment of courses offered to the students. This will become still more evident in the school’s
first full year of operation next year.

While waiting to move into the new building, Negro students have been attending the old
Stevenson and Bailey Schools. These will be abandoned next week. The most striking example
of the wider curriculum is in the field of language. Middleton offers a year of Latin and a year of
French – the only county school to offer any foreign language, modern or classical. Middleton
offers the usual four units of English, and a four-unit math program including general math, two
years of algebra and plane geometry. The math offering may be expanded. In Science,
Middleton offers general science, biology, chemistry and physics. The school is fully equipped
with new science laboratory materials. Social sciences offered include civics, U.S. history,
world history, economics, Mississippi history and American government. The school will also
offer a full program of vocational education, including shop work, agriculture and home