South Carolina Independent School Association

The South Carolina Independent School Association (SCISA) is a school accrediting organization. It was founded in South Carolina in 1965 to legitimize segregation academies.[1][2]

History

SCISA was founded on August 10, 1965 with seven member schools[3] and provided organizational support to new segregation academies similar to that provided by White Citizens Councils in Mississippi, and had already founded 26 segregation academies by the spring of 1966.[2] Its first executive director was Tom Turnipseed.[4] Turnipseed admitted that SCISA was founded to support a white-only education system. "We denied it had anything to do with integration, but it did. It was fear. It was racism."[2][5] SCISA was founded as a "haven for segregation academies" but by 1990, according to then executive director Larry Watt, the "great majority" of SCISA's then 70 member schools were no longer segregated by race.[6] Another founder, T.E. Wannamaker also stated that the organization was a response to mass integration and that "Many (Negroes) are little more than field hands."[7]

Athletics

SCISA governs student athletics for its member institutions. Fall sports include Cheerleading, Cross Country, Football, Swimming, Volleyball, Girls Golf, and Girls Tennis. Winter sports include, Archery, Basketball, Bowling, Scholastic Shooting Sports, and Wrestling. Spring sports include, Baseball, Equestrian, Golf, Lacrosse, Sailing, Soccer, Softball, Speed and Strength, Track, and Boys Tennis.[8]

Quiz Bowl

SCISA runs a prestigious quiz bowl competition every fall. The 2023 Middle School Quiz Bowl competition, for example, was held in Orangeburg, South Carolina and won by Pinewood Preparatory School.

Structure

SCISA is structured into 3 divisions, based on school population and size of teams. The levels, from smallest population to largest, are A, AA, and AAA. A and AA sports are further split into 2 regions each, while AAA competes without region differences. As recently as 2022, some have described the structure as continuing to perpetuating racial segregation.[9]

References

  1. ^ Tom Turnipseed (January 18, 2009). "King Day at the Dome: Cotton is King no more". The State. I was the first executive director of the S.C. Independent School Association, formed in 1965 by seven private schools that wanted to share resources, establish more private schools and avoid public-school desegregation. My job was to help local groups of white parents organize private schools so their children would not attend schools desegregated by federal courts. I was a grassroots organizer and helped establish 30 private, segregated academies from 1965 to 1967, mostly in the area now known as the Corridor of Shame.(subscription required)
  2. ^ a b c Blair, Monica Kristin. "A private history of school segregation in Georgia" (PDF). Archived from the original (PDF) on November 10, 2017.
  3. ^ Gloria Ladson-Billings (October 2004). "Landing on the Wrong Note: The Price We Paid for Brown". Educational Researcher. 33 (7): 3–13. doi:10.3102/0013189x033007003. JSTOR 3700092. S2CID 144660677.(subscription required)
  4. ^ Winfred B. Moore, Jr.; Orville Vernon Burton (September 15, 2008). Toward the Meeting of the Waters: Currents in the Civil Rights Movement of South Carolina During the Twentieth Century. Univ of South Carolina Press. p. 412. ISBN 978-1-57003-755-9. Retrieved January 6, 2013.
  5. ^ "Opinion | Deja Vu: Parents in Charge, Tuition Grants, and Choice in Education".
  6. ^ John Egerton (1991). Shades of Gray: Dispatches from the Modern South. LSU Press. pp. 245–6. ISBN 978-0-8071-1705-7. Retrieved January 6, 2013.
  7. ^ Matthews, Jay (January 24, 2020). "A provocative argument on segregation, school choice and shared language". Washington Post. Retrieved October 11, 2020.
  8. ^ "Athletics - South Carolina Independent School Association (SCISA)". www.scisa.org. November 18, 2024. Retrieved December 10, 2024.
  9. ^ Jarrett, Justin (February 23, 2022). "It's time for SCISA to step into the present". Island News. Archived from the original on March 29, 2023. Retrieved November 9, 2023. Even at schools like Thomas Heyward Academy — which is nicknamed the Rebels and until the mid- 2000s had a mascot who dressed as a Confederate soldier on the sidelines at football games and fired a musket at the opening kickoff — diversity among the student body and on sports rosters increases annually, which can only help to create a more welcoming environment as students interact with more of their peers who come from different backgrounds and have different lived experiences. There are still pockets of the state, though, where SCISA sporting events are disturbingly monochromatic, and that isn't likely to change soon.

Further reading