Editing Sheridan, Arkansas (section)

==Education==
[[File:Administration Building, Sheridan, Arkansas.jpg|thumb|right|The Sheridan School District Administration Building, formerly the Missionary Baptist College]]
Sheridan is provided public education from the [[Sheridan School District (Arkansas)|Sheridan School District]], including the [[Sheridan High School (Arkansas)|Sheridan High School]].

Sheridan had a [[racial segregation in the United States|segregated]] school for [[African-Americans]] until the ''[[Brown v. Board of Education|Brown v. Board]]'' decision. At the time, Sheridan had around 199 African American residents out of the town's total population of 1,898. On May 21, 1954, the local school board voted unanimously to integrate its 21 African-American students into its high school to avoid the $4,000 it would have cost the school board to send them to [[Jefferson County, Arkansas|Jefferson County]]. The white parents became upset and called another vote the next night. At that vote, the board voted unanimously to keep the local school segregated. Community members in the area, still not happy, petitioned and forced four school board members to step down.<ref>{{cite journal |last1=Kirk |first1=John A. |title=Not Quite Black and White: School Desegregation in Arkansas, 1954-1966 |journal=[[The Arkansas Historical Quarterly]] |date=2011 |issue=70 |pages=225–257}}</ref>

Next, Jack Williams, the largest employer of African-Americans in the area, told Black families that they could accept his offer to buyout their homes and move them, or he would burn their houses down.<ref name=":0" /> After the departure of the last African-American student from the city limits, the city bulldozed the African-American school; the remnants of the school were buried and the city no longer had a duty to integrate their schools.<ref name="NPR">"[https://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=100885469 A Minister Recalls The Pain Of Segregation]." ''[[National Public Radio]]''. Retrieved on February 24, 2009.</ref> This incident is recounted by former resident James Seawood on storycorps.<ref>Archived at [https://ghostarchive.org/varchive/youtube/20211205/ShdY37Dq5bE Ghostarchive]{{cbignore}} and the [https://web.archive.org/web/20181206063334/https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ShdY37Dq5bE Wayback Machine]{{cbignore}}: {{cite web| url = https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ShdY37Dq5bE| title = School's Out | website=[[YouTube]]| date = September 2016 }}{{cbignore}}</ref>

In March 2014, Sheridan High School principal Rodney Williams ordered the removal of student profiles from the student yearbook, rather than publish one of an openly gay student. In response, a human rights organization held a rally on the [[Arkansas State Capitol|State Capitol]] steps, and the principal received a petition with 30,000 signatures asking Williams to reverse the decision.<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.cnn.com/2014/03/19/us/arkansas-gay-student-yearbook/index.html|title=Gay Arkansas student says his profile was pulled from yearbook |first=Ray |last=Sanchez|date=March 19, 2014 |publisher=CNN|access-date=February 24, 2017}}</ref>