“That's our Junior College”: Black Leadership and the Expansion and Integration of Mississippi Gulf Coast Junior College

Mississippi Gulf Coast Junior College (MGCJC), was a single-campus institution until the early 1960s, when it began plans to create two new White-enrolling, segregated campuses: the Jefferson Davis Campus in Harrison County, and the Jackson County Campus to its east. Plans for a third, Black-enrolling, segregated campus were abandoned, and when the two new campuses opened, the first students to register for classes were Black. Through the leadership of Black residents active in labor and civil rights organizations, the Black community of George, Harrison, Jackson, and Stone Counties successfully demanded expanded, integrated educational access in the deep south, some five years before the integration of K-12 schools. Extensive oral histories with campus and community leaders provide a foundation for understanding the changes that led to MGCJC becoming the first integrated, multi-county junior college district in the state.