Columbia, Mississippi

==Education==
[[File:Columbia High School MS.jpg|thumb|[[Columbia High School (Mississippi)|Columbia High School]]]]
The city of Columbia is served by the [[Columbia School District (Mississippi)|Columbia School District]], with [[Columbia High School (Mississippi)|Columbia High School]] as the public high school. Prior to January 1970, black students were [[School integration in the United States|educated in a separate system]] with sub-par facilities, including John J. Jefferson High school, which became the middle school in January 1970 when the schools were integrated. White politicians called for a public boycott of the school system.<ref>{{Cite news|url=https://www.newspapers.com/clip/74549882/school-boycott-expected-in-marion-county/|title = School boycott expected in Marion County, Mississippi. Columbia Academy|newspaper = Hattiesburg American|date = 3 January 1970|page = 1}}</ref> At that time, around 100 white students left the public school system to attend the newly founded whites-only [[Columbia Academy (Mississippi)|Columbia Academy]], which was created in September 1969 as a [[segregation academy]] to avoid racial integration.<ref name="Integration along the Pearl">{{cite news |last1=Batten |first1=James K |title=Integration comes quietly along the Pearl |url=https://www.newspapers.com/clip/74548831/columbia-academy-segregation-integration/ |access-date=28 March 2021 |publisher=Miami Herald |date=January 7, 1970}}</ref> A few students also left to attend Improve Academy, another segregation academy founded by the Improve Baptist Church.<ref>{{Cite news|url=https://www.newspapers.com/clip/74550024/|title = Clipped from Hattiesburg American|newspaper = Hattiesburg American|date = 3 January 1970|page = 6}}</ref> There are also two other public schools that are in Columbia, [[East Marion High School]] and [[West Marion High School]]. Both of these schools are under the same district called [[Marion County School District (Mississippi)|Marion County Schools]]. East Marion High school is located just outside of town on the East side of the [[Pearl River (Mississippi–Louisiana)|Pearl River]], while West Marion is located on the West side of the Pearl River in [[Foxworth, Mississippi|Foxworth]]. East Marion is one largely connected building that houses grades K-12, but West Marion has a primary school as well as a high school.