Yellow buses pulled up to grassy curbs and carried students from the far reaches of Copiah County to school campuses in Crystal Springs and Wesson. For teachers, parents and students, the first day of the fall semester was an ordinary August day in central Mississippi. Hot, humid and long.
For administrators, it was the end of a probation that started over half of a century ago.
After 55 years, the Department of Justice lifted Copiah County School District’s desegregation order. The district had integrated to the agency’s satisfaction and can now forgo regular audits that check for inequity…