Are there any predominant african american private schools in DFW (Dallas: chapel, credit)

[TexanAgain15]

Look for the best school you can afford; teach them AA history at home.

[MckinneyOwnr]

Originally Posted by NovCruisin

This comes off to me as racist...what would people say if your post read "I would like to send my children to a predominantly white school"...that would be racist, but this somehow is not.

How about just asking for a good private school, regardless of race?

I had the same thought, with the topic masquerading as an innocent inquiry as to where her sons could have a more robust AA history experience.

Considering that school districts have long been under fire by the black community to downplay racism and segregation, going so far as to ban books like Tom Sawyer and Huck Finn because they have the "N" word in them, and more recently, that schools should be teaching that slavery was a minor, side issue to the Civil War, I don't buy the notion that this mom wants her sons to learn more about that stuff.

If she did, she should be petitioning the school boards to put back all the stuff that has been taken out of the curriculum over the last 20-30 years.

[theloneranger]

Originally Posted by EDS_

1. I'm virtually certain your 5% maximum regarding black students at ND privates is wrong. I'll verify that tonight or tomorrow.

2. Bishop Dunne some years, most years, is predominantly black. The person above - whom you incorrectly corrected used the term just fine.

https://www.ahdictionary.com/word/se...?q=predominant

3. ESD probably deserves to be remembered as a school that sprang up in response to desegregation and bussing.

Grace, Lakehill, and some of the others I don't know enough about to comment.

Parish was started by a lady as a feature at a local Episcopal church - with something like 9 students, mostly K and 1st. Calling Parish a one time segregation academy is fairly silly.

Regarding TCA, my mom was an early supporter, meeting facilitator, fundraiser etc., of the notion of TCA. The first meetings that ultimately led to TCA occurred in the middle 1960s - one of the first I am certain was in November 1963. I'm sure some seriously racist people were involved. However, the school was absolutely not founded as a segregation academy.

We can split hairs about the definition of "predominant" but I don't think that most people would consider Dunne to be a mostly black school, which it seemed like the OP was looking for.

This DMN article (As Texans search for alternatives to underfunded public schools, they self-segregate | Dallas Morning News) says 6% of private students are black. That 5% number was a guess, and based more on Jesuit and Ursuline than the other privates, but I don't think I'm far off. Even if it's more like 10-20% at some of the schools, I would be very much surprised if a single North Dallas private school even offers Black History as an elective.

Parish Day was founded in 1972 (the first school year after the desegregation ruling) and was K-6 according to the school's own website. I wasn't trying to suggest that it was explicitly founded as a seg academy (at least not like those of the Deep South, perhaps I didn't word the original post as clearly as I should have) but I think it's pretty naive to think that desegregation had nothing to do with its ability to attract students.

Likewise, TCA opened to students in 1970, and may have been more a response to the abolition of school prayer than to impending busing, but desegregation was certainly hanging over Dallas at the time. All of the schools I mentioned were established in the early 1970s, and regardless of whether they were founded without segregatory intent, the primary reason they were able to take root was that busing began in 1971. Other already-existing Dallas privates (St. Mark's, Hockaday, Jesuit, Ursuline, Greenhill, BL, BD and Dallas Christian, off the top of my head) certainly benefited from white flight as well.

This is all only incidentally relevant now, because I don't think any of those schools are discriminatory in the slightest in this day and age, but I thought it was worth pointing out considering the criticism of the OP for asking if there were predominantly black privates.

[theloneranger]

Looking at the demographic data on Niche, which I would think is pretty accurate, BD is 36% black (as well as 32% Hispanic and 24% White). I would consider that "diverse." I would have difficulty considering that "predominantly black."

One very good majority black school I forgot about, which may be the best academic school south of Downtown (aside from TAG and SEM, that is), is Canterbury Episcopal School in DeSoto. It's very small but it's an incredibly good education. It's 53% black, though I don't know if they teach black history in the school.

As far as the "North Dallas" private schools go, the 5% estimate was pretty good. FBA was the highest at 18% (though FBA isn't in North Dallas, many of its students come from the area). Dallas International School was next at 14%, followed by Greenhill, Carrollton Christian and Grace Academy at 8%, Hockaday and Lamplighter at 6%, BL, Lutheran and St. Mark's at 5%, Prestonwood at 4%, Jesuit at 3%, and Parish and ESD at 2%. There was no data on Niche for Ursuline or Cistercian. Among the parochial schools in the area, St. Paul's had the highest at 7%, followed by St. Pat's at 6%. St. Monica had 2% and St. Rita had 1%, and several schools, including St. Mark, POP, MIS and CKS, had 0%.

[EDS_]

thelongranger,

Those are good posts.

1. IMO the person above used predominantly to mean the largest cadre. If so s/he employed the word under one of it's acceptable definitions. That said I would tend to agree with your point that many people use the term to imply over 50% or similar.

2. We can agree it's too bad that many of the North Dallas area privates have so few AA and black students. As an aside, I don't know when the AA/black percentages per school your noted were time stamped......an AA kid was one of my son's best friends at POP, they both went on to Jesuit as well.

3. I'll ask my mom about Mrs. Blair's first classes, Mrs. Blair and my mom were friends for many years and my mom helped Mrs. Blair early on. While the school may have been founded as a K-6. I believe at opening the school didn't have any 5th or 6th graders.

Mary Loving Blair, founder of Parish Episcopal School of Dallas, dies | Dallas Morning News

4. Regarding DSID and the profusion of private schools from around 1970 de-segregation and racism, school prayer, middling and worsening academics, discipline problems, rapidly increasing populations, increasing wealth were all factors.

[EDS_]

Oh yea. Not that this counts as heavy emphasis on AA/Black studies but Jesuit has two strongly related classes:

1. Slavery, The Civil War and Reconstruction

2. Civil Rights, The Great Society and Vietnam - The Tumultuous Years.

[TheTXGuyHere]

Most successful people in this country including African Americans, did not succeed because of their interest in their racial history but because they sought excellence in Education, Arts and Sports.

Why make race a major part of one's life or kids life ?

Why is that African Americans always make race the focal point of their life while everyone else is making progress?

Chinese, Hispanics, Indians, Africans ( people who immigrated from Africa) , Pacific Islanders do not make race a focal point in their life.

[trc_everything]

It seems like this thread is veering off topic to some place ugly.

OP - have you been to BlacksInDallas.com | Where and Why African Americans choose Dallas ?

[Acntx]

I think a lot of people are taking the OPs post out of context. What I took from it was that she wanted her children to attend a school where there would be expanded opportunities to learn about African-American CULTURE in addition to regular instruction. I didn't see anything in that post asking for a private school with a strictly Afrocentric curriculum or one with militantly racist teachings against races other than African-Americans, though I doubt there are any in DFW or elsewhere.

My responses below are in red:

Originally Posted by TheTXGuyHere

Most successful people in this country including African Americans, did not succeed because of their interest in their racial history but because they sought excellence in Education, Arts and Sports. People of all backgrounds have an interest in learning about their culture (not race) and ancestry. This isn't exclusive to African-Americans or even "successful" people. Wanting to know "where one came from" is a human trait. An interested child will have to read, research, communicate with family members, etc., to find that out. Those qualities enrich education, not take away from it.

Why make race a major part of one's life or kids life ? Because even with all of the progress made, there are still race/racial issues in this country. I wish it didn't, but it does. Even if a parent wanted to try and "shield" their children from it, in time they are going find out about it one way or another.

Why is that African Americans always make race the focal point of their life while everyone else is making progress? Please don't make racial generalizations about all African-Americans as if we aren't individuals, but are instead a monolithic group sharing the same uniform thoughts. That may not have been your intent, but that's the way it came across.

Chinese, Hispanics, Indians, Africans ( people who immigrated from Africa) , Pacific Islanders do not make race a focal point in their life. Again, the matter is cultural, not racial. Immigrants from other countries don't totally abandon their culture and customs when coming to the United States. Some are retained, even while assimilating. The same goes for native-born citizens regardless of race. The scapegoating is unnecessary.

[Acntx]

Originally Posted by trc_everything

It seems like this thread is veering off topic to some place ugly.

OP - have you been to BlacksInDallas.com | Where and Why African Americans choose Dallas ?

I agree. It could definitely helpful in answering some of questions the OP may have.