Courageous Navigation

Abstract

This final chapter examines the early 1970s. During the summer of 1970, Pressly spoke out against segregationist academies. Concurrently, black Mississippians challenged the tax-exemption status of segregated white private schools. As a result, the IRS required private institutions with tax-exempt status to establish non-discriminatory admissions policies. Under the leadership of William Dandridge, NAIS gave more attention to the quality of the black student experience in independent schools. Yet these changes could not fully interrupt the institutional and interpersonal racism that black students experienced in independent schools. As shifting politics occurred in Atlanta, the black students at Westminster immersed themselves in academics and extracurricular activities, and the students became even more important to the institution. Michael McBay, who had been harassed, became the activist, in the more traditional sense, among the black students. As Michael, Malcolm Ryder, Jannard Wade, and Wanda Ward graduated, new black students like Corliss Blount and Donata Russell joined Westminster. Altogether, thirty-five black students matriculated at Westminster during the first years of desegregation, and over half graduated in time as they individually succeeded, broke barriers, and courageously navigated an institution not originally created with them in mind.