Abstract

A Star Shines From Alabama

The article presents information on Demopolis, Alabama. Demopolis, a black-belt city of 8,000 people, 49 percent black and 51 percent white, has what a staff member who works in community development at the University of Alabama has called "the only viable public school system in West Alabama." It is one of the few Deep South towns where most white families did not desert the public schools for private all-white academies established hastily when integration became a fact in the 1960s and 1970s. Indeed, enrollment at the all-white Demopolis Academy, founded in 1970, has declined from a peak of 330 to less than 200. T.E. Pearson, chair of the academy's board, concedes that it is having a tough time: "We have to keep tuition low because of competition from the public schools."