“Boy, you better be good!”

Paul Keggington

October 12, 2007
At a School Advisory Council meeting last night we had two guest speakers from a new school that opened its doors this Fall in Greenwood, the Delta of Mississippi. The school is a college prep school The school also had the goal to be an integrated school in the Delta. The headmaster explained that the first week of school the Blacks sat at one table, the whites at another and the Hispanice floated in between the two. Now after nine weeks of school there is only one group. They  know they have made progress as a school.  When the guests left the Advisory Council President said that is the school the Delta needs. I am from Biloxi, (which is on the coast). When I grew up I lived with white neighbors a few doors down. Some of them were my friends. When I got my degree in education and told my Dad I wanted to work in the Delta he said, “Boy, you better be good.” The Delta is where integration had not happened and was the birthplace of the Civil Rights Movement. Our Advisory Council President told the Council,  My Dad was right. The sad part is, that the Delta has not changed. It is still behind the rest of Mississippi. Integration has not happened and we are behind because of it. We have to be the agents of change in the Delta. St. Francis School is one of those agents of change. We have some Hispanics and Chinese children at our school. There are no divided groups. All play well together. Hopefully, they are agents of change in their families and neighborhoods so they can help move the Delta ahead into accepting all.

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