It’s no revelation that Dixie has long lagged other parts of the country—be it economically, educationally or otherwise—or that Mississippi has long been the region’s poster child for underachievement.

 

A defining feature of Mississippi’s past was its violent and persistent opposition to black civil rights. It’s where 14-year-old Emmett Till was lynched in 1955. It’s where segregationists rioted over black Air Force veteran James Meredith’s attempt to integrate the University of Mississippi in 1962. During Jim Crow, Mississippi’s black voter-registration rate was the lowest in the region.

 

The good news is that Mississippi, which is home to the highest percentage of black residents of any state, has made admirable strides, especially regarding educational achievement. Ten years ago, it ranked 49th among fourth-graders in reading proficiency on the National Assessment for Educational Progress. Currently, it ranks ninth. Among low-income students, it ranks first. Among black students, it ranks third. Bravo.

 

Mississippi is also home to the Piney Woods School, which was founded in 1909 to educate the descendents of former slaves and is now the nation’s oldest historically black boarding school. Located 20 miles south of Jackson in the Pine Belt region, the school enrolls about 100 students in grades 8 through 12. Around a third are Mississippi natives. The rest hail from other states (California, Texas, Illinois,Florida, Nebraska, Georgia) and other countries (Somalia, Rwanda, Canada, Brazil,Colombia).

 

“Some people think that if it’s all-black, there must be something wrong. It must be areform school of some kind,” Will Crossley, the school’s president, told me during arecent visit. In fact, Piney Woods exemplifies black education success, and Mr. Crossley is living proof. He grew up on the South Side of Chicago in the 1980s and was raised by his mother after his parents split. “I was approaching my teen years—I’m in seventh grade, this is Chicago—you’re confronting problems,” Mr. Crossley says. “I never joined a gang, but you’re confronting recruitment efforts. You get chased home enough times and you start looking for your group that’s going to offer you some love and protection."

 

His mother learned about Piney Woods from another member of their church, and Mr. Crossley enrolled in eighth grade. After graduating, he attended the University of Chicago and then taught in local public schools. Later he earned a master’s degree from Harvard and a law degree from the University of Virginia. Piney Woods, he’s convinced, was a lifeline, and he’s never taken his good fortune for granted. “I was bothered by the fact that some people like me got a Piney Woods opportunity, but many of my cousins and friends in Chicago didn’t. They weren’t in college. Some of them were incarcerated. That disparity in opportunity is what drove me as a college student and later as a graduate student." 

 

Mr. Crossley was working in the U.S. Education Department during the Obama administration when he was recruited back to Mississippi and became the first alumnus to lead the school. The Piney Woods approach is no-nonsense. Expectations are high. There’s a dresscode. Daily chapel attendance is mandatory. “The role of faith in what we do is important,” Mr. Crossley says. There are also mandatory chores: “Developing a work ethic is part of the curriculum, part of what we’re teaching kids.

 

”Piney Woods will never be mistaken for Phillips Exeter or Groton. Its gymnasium and dormitories need repairs and upgrades. According to Mr. Crossley, the typical student comes from a family headed by a single parent with a household income of around $40,000. More than 90% qualify for free lunch. Students attend on scholarships financed through family foundations, corporate sponsors, individual donors and a small endowment that covers about 10% of the school’s operating budget.

 

Raising money is a constant struggle, but Mr. Crossley hasn’t compromised the quality of education that Piney Woods provides. The school boasts a 100%graduation rate. College admissions test scores are above the state average and well above the average for other black students in Mississippi.

 

“Our four-year college graduation rate is double the rate of high-poverty students nationally,” says Mr. Crossley. “It doesn’t mean that all of the kids are going to a four-year college. We also look at community college as a good next step for somekids. We look at military service. And we look at trade schools. We count all of those as positive outcomes, because we get them on a good start.”

 

The Piney Woods experience upends much of the conventional wisdom on what’s needed to educate low-income black students. It has succeeded without fancy amenities, without large government subsidies, and without a “critical mass” of non black students to provide “diversity” in the classroom. It’s a model that should be replicated. Unfortunately, it’s mostly been ignored.

 

​Originally published in The Wall Street Journal on October 28, 2025.Article by Jason L. Riley. All rights belong to the publisher.