Pillow Academy

Pillow Academy is an independent, co-educational college preparatory school in unincorporated Leflore County, Mississippi, near Greenwood. It was founded by white parents in 1966 as a segregation academy to avoid having their children attend school with blacks.HistoryThe school opened with grades K-8 in 1966. It began as a segregation academy, started in resistance to the integration of the public school system ordered by federal courts more than a decade after segregated schools were ruled to be unconstitutional. From 1967-1969 grades 9 and 10 were established. In 1969 a new high school building was built, and grades 11 and 12 were added. One of the founders of the Pillow Academy was Robert B. Patterson, also founder of the Association of White Citizens' Councils, which opposed the civil rights movement, including allowing African Americans their constitutional right to vote.In a 10-year period until 1998, enrollment at Pillow grew by almost 25%. Many students who would have otherwise attended public schools, which were becoming mostly black, attended Pillow. In 1998 Richard Rubin of The New York Times wrote, "Whites in Greenwood are much more likely today than they were 10 years ago to openly admit that they send their children to Pillow Academy not because it is a better school but because of its racial composition."CampusThe 58acre campus is located along U.S. Highway 82, 3mi west of Greenwood.