Greenwood High School (Mississippi)

Comprehensive public high school in Greenwood, MS, United States

Greenwood High School

Address

1209 Garrard Avenue[1]

Greenwood

38930-5125

United States

Coordinates| 33°30′38″N 90°11′38″W﻿ / ﻿33.51056°N 90.19389°W﻿ / 33.51056; -90.19389[2]
Information
Type| Comprehensive public high school
Motto| Maximizing Student Potential
School district| Greenwood-Leflore Consolidated School District (2019–)
Greenwood Public School District
Principal| Kevin Pulley
Faculty| 36.99 (FTE)[3]
Grades| 9-12
Gender| coed
Enrollment| 656 (2017–18)[3]
Student to teacher ratio| 17.73[3]
Color(s)| Maroon and white
Team name| Bulldogs
Website| gh.glcsd.org

Greenwood High School (GHS) is a public high school located in Greenwood, Leflore County, in the U.S. state of Mississippi. The school is part of the Greenwood-Leflore Consolidated School District.

## History[edit]

An early 20th century illustration of the former Greenwood High School building

The school was reserved for white students only from its founding until 1969, when two African-American students, Marcel Gulledge and Milbertha Teague, walked past a crowd of jeering students and entered the school.[citation needed] It was a part of the Greenwood Public School District until 2019, when that district merged into Greenwood-Leflore CSD.[4]

### Location[edit]

Greenwood, Mississippi, is a town of slightly over 15,000 residents located on the banks of the Yazoo River about 130 miles (210 km) south of Memphis, Tennessee, and about 95 miles (153 km) north of Jackson, Mississippi. The city and county are named after Greenwood Leflore, the designated leader of the Choctaw nation who ceded Mississippi land under pressure of the 1830 Indian Removal Act to the United States government in exchange for a land allotment in today's state of Oklahoma.

### De Jure segregation years[edit]

Greenwood was the original home of the White Citizen's Council, a white supremacist organization established in the summer of 1954 in response to a national trend towards racial integration and civil rights for African-Americans which culminated in the landmark 1955 Supreme Court decision Brown v. Board of Education.[5]

During this period the town of Greenwood's high school students attended Broad Street High School, the site of today's Threadgill Elementary School — including most notably in its Class of 1955 Academy Award-winning actor Morgan Freeman.[6][7]

## Academics[edit]

In 2012 Greenwood High School was attended by nearly 770 students.[8] The school features a student-to-teacher ratio of 17.8 to 1.[8] The school nickname is the Bulldogs.

According to U.S. News & World Report, for the 2009-10 school year Greenwood High School's student body of 719 students was 98 percent of African-American ethnicity and about 1 percent White American.[9]

Greenwood High School was one of the first two public high schools in the state of Mississippi to earn accreditation from the Southern Association of Colleges and Schools.[10]

## Demographics[edit]

Around 1988 Greenwood High School was almost split evenly between black and white students. In 1998 it was 92% black. Many white students were instead going to the private school Pillow Academy.[11]

## Academic performance[edit]

This section needs expansion. You can help by adding to it. (September 2018)

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The Mississippi Department of Education gave the school an "F" grade for the 2013–14 school year. In the period circa 2010–2015 the graduation rate was 67.4%.[12]

## Notable alumni[edit]

* Mario Branch, former professional football player
* Byron De La Beckwith, assassin of civil rights leader Medgar Evers[13]
* Carlos Emmons, former professional football player, New York Giants, Philadelphia Eagles, and Pittsburgh Steelers
* Webb Franklin, former U.S. Representative from Mississippi's 2nd congressional district[14]
* Kent Hull, former professional football player, Buffalo Bills[15]
* Cleo Lemon, former professional football player, Jacksonville Jaguars, Miami Dolphins, and San Diego Chargers[16]
* Mulgrew Miller, jazz musician

## Footnotes[edit]

1. ^ "School Directory Information (2014–15 school year)". U.S. Department of Education. Retrieved November 22, 2015.
2. ^ U.S. Geological Survey Geographic Names Information System: Greenwood High School
3. ^ a b c "Greenwood High School". National Center for Education Statistics. Retrieved January 10, 2020.
4. ^ "School District Consolidation in Mississippi Archived 2017-07-02 at the Wayback Machine." Mississippi Professional Educators. December 2016. Retrieved on July 2, 2017. Page 2 (PDF p. 3/6).
5. ^ "White Citizen's Councils Aimed to Maintain 'Southern Way of Life,'" Jackson Sun, Jackson, TN, 2003.
6. ^ "Morgan Freeman: Full Biography," All Movie Guide, via New York Times. Retrieved October 9, 2012.
7. ^ "Milbertha Tigue". Clarion-Ledger. July 9, 1995. Retrieved 23 May 2020.
8. ^ a b "High Schools in Greenwood, MS," HighSchools.com, Retrieved October 9, 2012.
9. ^ "Greenwood High: Student Body," U.S. News & World Report: Education, www.usnews.com/
10. ^ Greenwood High School official website Archived 2011-08-27 at the Wayback Machine, www.greenwood.k12.ms.us/ Retrieved October 9, 2012.
11. ^ Rubin, Richard. "Should the Mississippi Files Have Been Re-opened? No, because." The New York Times. August 30, 1998. Retrieved on March 25, 2012.
12. ^ Yerkey, Gary G. (2015-11-12). "T.Mac Howard opened a school for disadvantaged youths in a small Southern city". Christian Science Monitor. Retrieved 2018-09-17.
13. ^ Nossiter, Adam (2009). Of Long Memory: Mississippi and the Murder of Medgar Evers. Da Capo Press. p. 116\. ISBN 9780786748488.
14. ^ Biographical Directory of the United States Congress, 1774-2005. Government Printing Office. 2005. p. 1082\. ISBN 9780160731761.
15. ^ "Once Unwanted, Hull Anchors Line". Wilmington Morning Star. January 5, 1989.
16. ^ "Argos Bring In Some Lemon-Aid - Boatmen Sign QB Cleo Lemon". Our Sports Central. March 17, 2010.

## Further reading[edit]

* Charles C. Bolton, The Hardest Deal of All: The Battle over School Integration in Mississippi, 1870-1980. Jackson, MS: University Press of Mississippi, 2005.

## External links[edit]

* Greenwood High School official website

* v
* t
* e

Greenwood, Mississippi

Education|

* Greenwood-Leflore CSD
* Greenwood HS
* Delta Streets Academy
* Pillow Academy(*)
* Mississippi Delta Community College(**)

Transportation|

* Greenwood station
* Greenwood–Leflore Airport (outside the city and county, in Carroll County)

Media|

* The Greenwood Commonwealth

Landmarks|

* Delta Correctional Facility

Greenwood PSD merged into Greenwood-Leflore CSD effective July 1, 2019.
(*) Pillow Academy is in an unincorporated area near Greenwood and is not in the city limits.
(**) The main campus is not in Greenwood, but Greeenwood is within its service area

* v
* t
* e

Education in Leflore County, Mississippi

Public high schools

Greenwood-Leflore CSD|

* Greenwood HS
* Amanda Elzy HS
* Leflore County HS

Independent schools

Secular private
high schools|

* Delta Streets Academy
* Pillow Academy

Tertiary

Universities|

* Mississippi Valley State University

Effective July 1, 2019 the Greenwood PSD and Leflore County SD consolidated into Greenwood-Leflore CSD.
The county is in the service area of Mississippi Delta Community College.

Authority control databases

International|

* VIAF

Geographic|

* NCES

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