Talk:Briarcrest Christian School

Advert for Briarcrest? Actual history glossed
This whole article reads like a brochure to woo prospective students. It has been changed since the last time I read it, when it reflected Briarcrest's actual history as one of the church-sponsored private schools founded for white students to attend after a Memphis court mandated school busing to integrate the public schools in 1971-72. Winter Maiden (talk) 04:06, 15 December 2012 (UTC)
 * Yes, there was just one sentence about the reason for its establishment, and that sentence had been removed at some point. I restored it. I also moved the promotional content out of the lead section and into the body, and trimmed/reworded it. What do you think now? --Orlady (talk) 04:36, 15 December 2012 (UTC)

I would like to have some information in the article about when the school become 'integrated' since it started as a segregation academy. Did it only become 'integrated' by force or what? Is there any information as to how integrated it actually is?Mylittlezach (talk) 18:01, 30 January 2013 (UTC)

External links modified
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I have just added archive links to 1 one external link on Briarcrest Christian School. Please take a moment to review my edit. If necessary, add after the link to keep me from modifying it. Alternatively, you can add to keep me off the page altogether. I made the following changes:
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The lead
, can you post here the highest quality sources that say this was "founded in 1973 as a segregation academy"?

There seems to be some doubt about it. For example, Joseph Crespino writes that it was founded with an open admissions policy. But no black students went there. The local NAACP called it a "racist place" that no black student would go to regardless of its admissions policy. Then he quotes an education task force coordinator, commenting in 1973: "These days, Christian schools and segregation academies are almost synonymous." (In Search of Another Country: Mississippi and the Conservative Counterrevolution, Princeton University Press, 2007, p. 248.) SarahSV (talk) 20:35, 10 June 2018 (UTC)
 * I think Kravitz & Mutter and Nevin & Bills are strong sources supporting the conclusion that this school is a segregation academy. In particular, the central thesis of Nevin & Bills is that this school is a segregation academy. That being said, I think WP:ATTRIBUTEPOV may be appropriate for the lead. — BillHPike (talk, contribs) 20:56, 10 June 2018 (UTC)


 * Hi, according to Crespino, the Lamar Society ("a group of liberal southerners concerned about desegregation") funded a two-year study that culminated in the Nevin and Bills book, The Schools That Fear Built.


 * Is that book a disinterested source strong enough to support the point as a statement of fact? It seems that they are arguing that it was functionally equivalent to a segregation academy. But the lead says that it was actually founded as one.


 * What is the whole passage from Kravitz & Mutte? There are dots at a crucial point.


 * Given the ambiguity, should it not be removed from the lead and discussed lower down where you can present the arguments? SarahSV (talk) 21:14, 10 June 2018 (UTC)
 * The ommitted text in Kravitz & Mutte is a citation to Coffey v. State Educational Finance Commission. — BillHPike (talk, contribs) 23:52, 10 June 2018 (UTC)
 * There's a Time magazine article from 1975, "Segregated Academies", that tends to support what you're saying. SarahSV (talk) 21:27, 10 June 2018 (UTC)
 * Almost all sources that discuss this school in depth give great weight to the racial controversies associated with its history, so I feel that MOS:LEADREL obliges us to reference such controversies in the lead. — BillHPike (talk, contribs) 00:01, 11 June 2018 (UTC)
 * The issue is the accuracy of "was founded in 1973 as a segregation academy". Perhaps you could think of another way to express the point. I've done some of the reading now, and I can see this is too complex for me to be able to suggest anything quickly, so I'm going to leave you to it. Thank you for the replies. SarahSV (talk) 01:06, 11 June 2018 (UTC)

I do not think that there is a consensus to remove the racial controversies from the lead. The racial controversies have recieved great weight in multiple reliable sources over several decades. — BillHPike (talk, contribs) 23:56, 29 July 2018 (UTC)

I reverted edit 867733195. The IP editor claimed it was "speculative. As described above, the assertion that the school was a Segregation academy is well documented.  It has been discussed elsewhere that the lede does not have to be fully referenced if the topic is covered and referenced elsewhere in the article.  If the editor didn't like the paragraph, it should have been tagged, not deleted.  The next time this happens in this article, I'lnil just figure it is vandalism.  Rhadow (talk) 18:17, 7 November 2018 (UTC)


 * I requested page protection.
 * Protection was denied, likely correctly. Unfortunately, we're not allowed to call disruptive editing vandalism. It's my feeling that the Time magazine piece, along with the other sources, are plenty to state it was a segregation academy. The fact that the administration was aware it was going to be a de facto seg academy is enough to say it was founded as such, IMO. Obviously, that is a bit more contentious. And,, I concur with your bump up in quality rating. You guys have done some pretty impressive work on this and the other seg academy articles. It would be great (hint, hint) if you worked one up to GA or FA. That period is probably the most significant era in US education for the 20th century. John from Idegon (talk) 03:43, 8 November 2018 (UTC)

WSB-TV article
Perhaps worth incorporating: https://www.wsbtv.com/news/local/for-channel-2-anchor-sophia-choi-reporting-on-bullying-is-personal/875633874/

Recent NYT article
I feel that Elizabeth Spiers' commentary should be referenced by this article. I want to wordsmith it in, but I'm too busy, so I'm posting the link here if other editors want to try. — BillHPike (talk, contribs) 06:54, 19 October 2023 (UTC)