The Last Black Boarding School

An excerpt from Elle - 

The Last Black Boarding School

Piney Woods—the oldest of four remaining historically Black boarding schools in the United States—provides something rare for its students: a safe space to learn.

By Danielle Prescod

Protecting the legacy of Black education in America is a time-honored form of resistance. Established in 1909, The Piney Woods School is the oldest of just four remaining historically Black boarding schools in the United States. Twenty-one miles outside of Jackson, Mississippi, on 2,000 acres of land, 15 very distinct buildings with signature red roofs break through the uniformity of the lush green landscape. Mississippi’s only amphitheater is the graduation stage for a small class of 21 students who wait to shake hands with faculty before crossing over the threshold to college. The aged stones set firmly in the ground serve as a reminder that this place is established and firmly rooted. This is why a by-the-numbers overview hardly captures the essence of this sacred institution, a physical representation of the enduring importance of education.

Initially, these Black institutions became a bulwark against systemic injustices like segregation or the outright denial of access to education for many Black Americans. Black schools made thinking, imagining, and creating possible. Historically Black Colleges and Universities (HBCUs) like Howard, Spelman, and Morehouse are names that are easily recognized. Their marching bands and sports teams and homecoming celebrations are traditions that span generations. But a Black boarding school? Most people don’t even know they exist. After all, these secondary schools have been significantly less publicized than colleges and universities. But given the crucial development that happens before the age of 18, they are equally as important, if not more so.

The benefits of attending Piney Woods are also why a lot of Black students opt for HBCUs—namely, they are a safe space. Aside from that, rigorous academic and behavioral standards help to mold students into the best versions of themselves. Black institutions can teach the banned material. They are not going to sugarcoat the history of the slave trade or mince words about white supremacy. They are the anti-PragerU, the school learning materials designed to hijack history with rewrites that combat critical race theory. That’s part of the reason that Piney Woods students Taimya and Takira Adams, a graduating senior and rising junior respectively, ended up at the school. Taimya, the class of 2024’s valedictorian, requested that her mother send her to Piney Woods after several incidents at her predominately white school made her question the material she was being taught. “In fifth grade, I had an English teacher insinuate that slaves chose to be slaves—that they would rather be slaves than be free or go out and work on their own,” she says. As the daughter of a political advocate and outreach coordinator, Taimya knew that what she was hearing was wrong, but she did not possess the deft language to express what she wanted to say. Instead, she asked to go to a different kind of school, one that her aunt had attended and always talked about, one where there were Black kids and Black teachers. So she enrolled at Piney Woods. Now, she says, “I feel like I’m going to go out into the world knowing who I am, where I come from, and the history of my people in this country.”

https://www.elle.com/culture/career-politics/a61146049/piney-woods-boarding-school-legacy/