Editing Columbia, Mississippi (section)

==Education==
[[File:Columbia High School MS.jpg|thumb|[[Columbia High School (Mississippi)|Columbia High School]]]]
Almost all of the city of Columbia is within the [[Columbia School District (Mississippi)|Columbia School District]],<ref name=MarionCoSDMap2020>{{cite web|url=https://www2.census.gov/geo/maps/DC2020/PL20/st28_ms/schooldistrict_maps/c28091_marion/DC20SD_C28091.pdf|title=2020 CENSUS - SCHOOL DISTRICT REFERENCE MAP: Marion County, MS|publisher=[[U.S. Census Bureau]]|access-date=2024-09-27}} - [https://www2.census.gov/geo/maps/DC2020/PL20/st28_ms/schooldistrict_maps/c28091_marion/DC20SD_C28091_SD2MS.txt Text list]</ref> with [[Columbia High School (Mississippi)|Columbia High School]] as the public high school. Prior to January 1970, black students were [[School integration in the United States|educated in a separate system]] with sub-par facilities, including John J. Jefferson High school, which became the middle school in January 1970 when the schools were integrated. White politicians called for a public boycott of the school system.<ref>{{Cite news|url=https://www.newspapers.com/clip/74549882/school-boycott-expected-in-marion-county/|title = School boycott expected in Marion County, Mississippi. Columbia Academy|newspaper = Hattiesburg American|date = 3 January 1970|page = 1}}</ref> At that time, around 100 white students left the public school system to attend the newly founded whites-only [[Columbia Academy (Mississippi)|Columbia Academy]], which was created in September 1969 as a [[segregation academy]] to avoid racial integration.<ref name="Integration along the Pearl">{{cite news |last1=Batten |first1=James K |title=Integration comes quietly along the Pearl |url=https://www.newspapers.com/clip/74548831/columbia-academy-segregation-integration/ |access-date=March 28, 2021 |newspaper=Miami Herald |date=January 7, 1970}}</ref> A few students also left to attend Improve Academy, another segregation academy founded by the Improve Baptist Church.<ref>{{Cite news|url=https://www.newspapers.com/clip/74550024/|title = Clipped from Hattiesburg American|newspaper = Hattiesburg American|date = January 3, 1970|page = 6}}</ref>

A small portion of the city limits is within the [[Marion County School District (Mississippi)|Marion County School District]].<ref name=MarionCoSDMap2020/> There are also two other public schools that are in the county, [[East Marion High School]] and [[West Marion High School]]. Both of these schools are under the Marion County School District. East Marion High school is located just outside of the Columbia city limits on the East side of the [[Pearl River (Mississippi–Louisiana)|Pearl River]], and it has a Columbia postal address, while West Marion is located on the West side of the Pearl River next to [[Foxworth, Mississippi|Foxworth]]. East Marion is one largely connected building that houses grades K-12, but West Marion has a primary school as well as a high school.

Marion County is in the service area of [[Pearl River Community College]].<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.prcc.edu/files/catalogs/Catalog%202014-2016%20-%20Spring.pdf|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20150807053926/https://prcc.edu/files/catalogs/Catalog%202014-2016%20-%20Spring.pdf|archive-date=2015-08-07|title=2014-2016 Catalog|publisher=Pearl River Community College|accessdate=2022-04-13}}</ref>