The Nation - News from April 20, 1986

The Indianola, Miss., school board planned to reopen schools Monday for the first time in a week after Willie Spurlock, a black leader of the group coordinating a boycott protesting the appointment of a white superintendent, said he would help bring students back. School officials said the support of Spurlock, chairman of the Indianola Concerned Citizens Group, was essential because 80% of the system’s students were honoring the boycott. The school boycott and picketing began March 26, after a 3-2 board vote--split along racial lines--to hire a white educator as superintendent of the overwhelmingly black district.