Sir Richard Spirit
Superstar
This. If you can afford to send them off you can afford the best schools near you. There’s no way to make boarding schools normal.
America's Four Black Boarding Schools
- Thread starter DrBanneker
- Start date
This. If you can afford to send them off you can afford the best schools near you. There’s no way to make boarding schools normal.
#BOTHSIDES
Superstar
I have been meaning to write about these for a bit ever since I did my (lately not updated) thread on the best private schools for Black kids. There are four Black boarding schools left in the US down from about 80-100 before World War II. Not all of those were big but there were some famous ones like Gilbert Academy in New Orleans who had as alumni Andrew Young (UN Ambassador and Atlanta Mayor) and Ellis Marsalis (father of Wynton and Brandon), the Palmer School in Sedalia, NC and the Mather School in Beaufort, SC.
Now there are four profiled below. It seems all except Redemption Christian Academy only offer Grades 9-12 and are co-ed but tend to do a great job in educating students, even disadvantaged ones, and help them become college bound. Maybe they will get strengthened and multiply depending on how this anti-Black anti-DEI etc. blowback goes.
The Piney Woods School
Piney Woods, Mississippi
Student:Teacher ratio: 10:1
% of Students that attend 4-Year Colleges: 90%
Boarding+Tuition:
Based on need, sliding scale up to $40,000 per year
Total Students: 147
Piney Woods was established in 1909 by Laurance C. Jones and was for a time combined with a school for the blind for Blacks. The school has 2,000 acres of land including 65 acres for the main campus and 250 acres for a demonstration farm. Students can also play on the basketball team or run track & field.
Laurinbug Institute
Laurinburg, NC
Student:Teacher ratio: N/A
% of Students that attend 4-Year Colleges: 83%
Tuition+Boarding:
$16,000-20,000 per year
Total Students: 20-30
In the early 1900s the Blacks of Laurinbug, NC did not have any schools based elementary school and wrote Booker T. Washington asking for help starting a school. Booker T. contacted Emmanuel and Tinny McDuffie, graduates of the Black boarding school Snow Hill, also in North Carolina, and they founded the Laurinburg Institute in 1904. Over time it grew to perhaps the biggest Black private/boarding school in the country. It also was flexible in tuition since the area was so poor 20 bushels or corn or collard greens were often accepted as payment.
Laurinburg had an outstanding basketball program and produced many early great Black NBA players like Sam Jones and Spider Bennett as well as famous non-pro player Earl “the Goat” Manigault. Dizzy Gillespie attended on scholarship and one of its most recent alumni is Joe Budden.
Redemption Christian Academy
Troy, NY
Student:Teacher ratio: 8:1
% of Students that attend 4-Year Colleges: 95%
Boarding+Tuition:
$28,000 per year
Total Students: 100
Redemption Christian Academy is the only K-12 school but obviously only the 9-12 grade students are boarding. It also is the only school to be established post Jim Crow having been founded in 1979 by Pastor John Massey, Jr. It offers a series of unique programs besides the regular curriculum including a STEM/Maker program and a culinary arts program. It also has open/rolling enrollment and the opportunity for high school students to take college level classes at local universities in the Albany area.
Pine Forge Academy
Pine Forge, PA
Student:Teacher ratio: 12:1
% of Students that attend 4-Year Colleges: 98%
Boarding+Tuition: $20,500
Total Students: 148
Pine Forge Academy is a co-ed boarding school in Pennsylvania affiliated with the Seventh-Day Adventist Church. Started in 1946, it combines religious and college prep education. A Tribe Called Quest member Phife Dawg is an alum. Many students end up going to the Seventh Day Adventist affiliated HBCU Oakwood University.
@invalid @MostReal @Originalman @#1 pick @Ziggiy @SupaVillain @Tug life @Idaeo @get these nets @MostReal @Bryan Danielson @Rollie Forbes @Sonic Boom of the South @staticshock @Charlie Hustle @BigAggieLean. @Optimus Prime @How Sway? @DropTopDoc @Anerdyblackguy @EndDomination @murksiderock
Isn’t there one in the DMV area? I’ll try to find the video
Edit: it’s the seed school. Starts at 11:53
Last edited:
UncleTomFord15
Veteran
Why do these schools only have a few dozen to barely over 100 kids at them? Are all boarding schools like that?
YES!
So luckily I previously attended more of mixed private school, still had my network, and I have a big family. But when I switched to this one my literal school day hours and extracurriculars were white white white and dreadful.
It’s a great school with a great name and connections. I went to a good university and people are more impressed with my prep school than my college LMAO
I have been meaning to write about these for a bit ever since I did my (lately not updated) thread on the best private schools for Black kids. There are four Black boarding schools left in the US down from about 80-100 before World War II. Not all of those were big but there were some famous ones like Gilbert Academy in New Orleans who had as alumni Andrew Young (UN Ambassador and Atlanta Mayor) and Ellis Marsalis (father of Wynton and Brandon), the Palmer School in Sedalia, NC and the Mather School in Beaufort, SC.
Now there are four profiled below. It seems all except Redemption Christian Academy only offer Grades 9-12 and are co-ed but tend to do a great job in educating students, even disadvantaged ones, and help them become college bound. Maybe they will get strengthened and multiply depending on how this anti-Black anti-DEI etc. blowback goes.
The Piney Woods School
Piney Woods, Mississippi
Student:Teacher ratio: 10:1
% of Students that attend 4-Year Colleges: 90%
Boarding+Tuition:
Based on need, sliding scale up to $40,000 per year
Total Students: 147
Piney Woods was established in 1909 by Laurance C. Jones and was for a time combined with a school for the blind for Blacks. The school has 2,000 acres of land including 65 acres for the main campus and 250 acres for a demonstration farm. Students can also play on the basketball team or run track & field.
Laurinbug Institute
Laurinburg, NC
Student:Teacher ratio: N/A
% of Students that attend 4-Year Colleges: 83%
Tuition+Boarding:
$16,000-20,000 per year
Total Students: 20-30
In the early 1900s the Blacks of Laurinbug, NC did not have any schools based elementary school and wrote Booker T. Washington asking for help starting a school. Booker T. contacted Emmanuel and Tinny McDuffie, graduates of the Black boarding school Snow Hill, also in North Carolina, and they founded the Laurinburg Institute in 1904. Over time it grew to perhaps the biggest Black private/boarding school in the country. It also was flexible in tuition since the area was so poor 20 bushels or corn or collard greens were often accepted as payment.
Laurinburg had an outstanding basketball program and produced many early great Black NBA players like Sam Jones and Spider Bennett as well as famous non-pro player Earl “the Goat” Manigault. Dizzy Gillespie attended on scholarship and one of its most recent alumni is Joe Budden.
Redemption Christian Academy
Troy, NY
Student:Teacher ratio: 8:1
% of Students that attend 4-Year Colleges: 95%
Boarding+Tuition:
$28,000 per year
Total Students: 100
Redemption Christian Academy is the only K-12 school but obviously only the 9-12 grade students are boarding. It also is the only school to be established post Jim Crow having been founded in 1979 by Pastor John Massey, Jr. It offers a series of unique programs besides the regular curriculum including a STEM/Maker program and a culinary arts program. It also has open/rolling enrollment and the opportunity for high school students to take college level classes at local universities in the Albany area.
Pine Forge Academy
Pine Forge, PA
Student:Teacher ratio: 12:1
% of Students that attend 4-Year Colleges: 98%
Boarding+Tuition: $20,500
Total Students: 148
Pine Forge Academy is a co-ed boarding school in Pennsylvania affiliated with the Seventh-Day Adventist Church. Started in 1946, it combines religious and college prep education. A Tribe Called Quest member Phife Dawg is an alum. Many students end up going to the Seventh Day Adventist affiliated HBCU Oakwood University.
@invalid @MostReal @Originalman @#1 pick @Ziggiy @SupaVillain @Tug life @Idaeo @get these nets @MostReal @Bryan Danielson @Rollie Forbes @Sonic Boom of the South @staticshock @Charlie Hustle @BigAggieLean. @Optimus Prime @How Sway? @DropTopDoc @Anerdyblackguy @EndDomination @murksiderock
Repped
DrBanneker
Space is the Place
Average boarding school is 300-400 students so they are on the small side. Combination of lower endowment resources and also the population of kids they serve (hint theybarent mostly rich). In one of the articles I read during the 1980s Black boarding school populations dropped while overall Black boarding school attendance saw a large increase. In other words, integration and access to the elite schools.
Laurinburg has a couple dozen kids now but had like 700 in the late 70s and early 80s I think.
I love the idea of black education, but I never understood boarding schools. Parents get so little time with their kids anyway, not living in the same house seems crazy to me.
Could be beneficial to some parents/kids. Especially if they have a toxic home environment.
Could be beneficial to some parents/kids. Especially if they have a toxic home environment.
Hvacfdmg
Two north, two south.
Seed Public Charter School is located at 4300 C Street Southeast, Washington, DC 20019.
According to USNews.com, Seed PCS of Washington DC is ranked #46-61 in District of Columbia Middle Schools and #25-33 in District of Columbia Charter Middle Schools.
However, Seed PCS is ranked #177 out of 212 schools, which ranks it among the bottom 50% of public schools in the District of Columbia.
____
The problem with these type of rankings is that the vast majority of people see these schools like the mechanic.
"I'ma drop D'emontavious off at 8, and he better be smart by 3 when I come get him!"
The school itself might be safe.
Might be in a very safe area
It might have all the light, heating, ac, water, working toilets.
It might have a fully stocked library, computer lab, chemistry lab.
There might be a pool, basketball court, football field.
The teachers might be have great degrees, great track records, and be paid well.
They might use old school phonics along with whole language.
They might use some rote mathematics and then more critical thinking.
They could replace Charles dikkens and Mark Twain with Toni Morrison and Langston Hughes.
There could be extensive readings from the Slave Narratives..
Staff might not even be racist.
But that's not gonna raise test scores across the board.
For those that do get the scores, get the grades, get the extra-curriculars, get the letters of recommendations, get the reach out from local alumni to the ivy league, that go to Harvard etc, that work in Investment Banking, Big Law, Big Business, go into politics - then what?
At best, what we've done is funnel more of us into THEIR system. We're using our smarts, intelligence, talent, work ethic, and often style and cultural insight to make THEM more money, to give THEM more power. Lot of them can't even really put their own people on, once they get the job.
The best we can do is a David Stewart, a Robert Smith? Y'all don't claim Alex Karp and Obama, but if I included them, it doesn't make the picture any better.
Folks need to rethink what they're sending their children to, and why they're sending them there.
The Caribbean and the African send their best and brightest to Europe, to get European educations - and IF they come back home, it's working for European or other Multi-Nationals to exploit their own countries or their neighbors.
This is a worldwide psy-op.
#BOTHSIDES
Superstar
I’d argue that many kids need boarding schools. There have been countless posts about how bad these parents are
Gunz&Butta
All Star
Went to a boarding school. It's like sending your kids to the Military; you go in a civilian, you come out a marine. Would do it all over again if I could. 
Yes to more black boarding schools, with Black teachers.
Yes to more black boarding schools, with Black teachers.
get these nets
Veteran
Mar 2024
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DrBanneker
Space is the Place
That's awesome. I'll cop Hulu for a month just to check it out.