Nathanael Greene Academy

Private school in Siloam, Greene County, Georgia

Coordinates33°31′53″N 83°04′33″W / 33.531267°N 83.0757858°W / 33.531267; -83.0757858

TypePrivate

Religious affiliationNonsectarian

Established1969; 57 years ago (1969)

Nathanael Greene Academy
Location

Po Box 109 Siloam , Greene County , Georgia 30665
Coordinates	33°31′53″N 83°04′33″W / 33.531267°N 83.0757858°W / 33.531267; -83.0757858
Information
Type	Private
Religious affiliation	Nonsectarian
Established	1969; 57 years ago (1969)
NCES School ID	00297259^[1]
Faculty	20 (on an FTE basis)^[1]
Enrollment	101^[1] (2018)
Student to teacher ratio	4.8^[1]
Website	nathanaelgreeneacademy.com

Nathanael Greene Academy is a private PK-12 school in Siloam, Georgia, a small town in Greene County. The school had a controversial history related to its founding in response to the racial desegregation of Greene County public schools.

Nathanael Greene Academy was founded in 1969 as a segregation academy. Its original campus of five acres (2.0 ha) and three buildings was purchased from the town of Siloam for $100 and subsequently valued for tax purposes at $24,000. In its first year of operations it had no black students or teachers.^[2]

In 1970, the headmaster told a reporter that "no one would have come through those doors if it weren't for integration", although he insisted parents' main goal was quality education.^[3] The school however, employed teachers without college degrees, lacked a cafeteria and gymnasium, and instructed students in classrooms with "rickety desks" without central heating.^[3] The school did have a bus, which brought students from throughout Greene County.^[3] The civil rights activist Ruby Martin, observing the circumstances, argued that Greene Academy was "obviously" founded in response to school desegregation.^[4]

Tony Barnhart recalled that NGA was unable to establish a football team until 1973, leading some white students to stay in Green County public schools to follow family athletic traditions.^[5]

As of 2004, Nathanael Greene Academy had never admitted a black student and, the Atlanta Journal-Constitution reported, the local black community perceived the initials NGA to mean "nigger, go away".^[6]

Student body

In 2018, the school had three Black students, but no Asian or Hispanic students.^[1] Surrounding Greene County has a population that is about 40% Black.^[7] For the 2018–19 school year, the student body included a low percentage of minority students.^[8]

References

1 2 3 4 5 "Search for Private Schools – School Detail for Nathanael Greene Academy". National Center for Education Statistics. Institute of Education Sciences. Retrieved May 7, 2021.
↑ Select Committee on Equal Educational Opportunity, United States. Congress. Senate. (1970). Equal Educational Opportunity: Hearings Before the Select Committee on Equal Educational Opportunity, Ninety-first Congress, Second Session-92nd Congress, First Session, Volume 10. U.S. Government Printing Office. p. 2012,2018,2120. Retrieved January 14, 2018. No Negro students applied.
1 2 3 Bowler, Mike (August 6, 1970). "Private school issues a non-bias policy". Atlanta Journal-Constitution. p. B11.
↑ Bleck, Timothy (August 5, 1970). "Charges IRS Is Lax On School Bias Ruling". St. Louis Post Dispatch. p. A19.
↑ Barnhart, Greene (2023). The 19 OF Greene: football, friendship, and change in the fall of 1970. University of Georgia Press. p. 158. ISBN 978-0-8203-6566-4.
↑ Foskett, Ken; Suggs, Erinie (December 19, 2004). "Greene County Blues". Atlanta Journal-Constitution. p. A1. Nathanael Greene Academy, widely known as NGA, is still open and has yet to enroll its first black student. To many blacks in Greene County, NGA has long stood for "Nigger Go Away.
↑ "DP02 SELECTED SOCIAL CHARACTERISTICS IN THE UNITED STATES – 2006-2010 American Community Survey 5-Year Estimates". United States Census Bureau. Retrieved December 29, 2015.{{cite web}}: CS1 maint: deprecated archival service (link)
↑ Felton, Emmanuel (June 17, 2018). "'It's like a black and white thing': How some elite charter schools exclude minorities". NBCNews. The Hechinger Report. Retrieved May 31, 2019.

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