ACROSS THE COUNTRY

ImageA Mississippi Teacher Created a School in an Empty Storefront. Students Showed Up.

The desks came out of a dumpster, and the computers are hand-me-downs. But students say Abundance Academy is a haven from bullying and crowded classes.

ImageThe Abundance Educational Academy has about 50 students, ranging from prekindergarten to 12th grade. There is a growing waiting list as parents call nearly every day to ask about enrolling their children.Image

WHY WE’RE HERE

We’re exploring how America defines itself one place at a time. In the Mississippi Delta, education has long reflected the region’s socioeconomic struggles, but as history here shows, hardship has been a mother of invention.

By Rick Rojas

Photographs by Rory Doyle

Reporting from Yazoo City, Miss.

Dec. 7, 2024

Leora Hooper, as usual, had a busy school day ahead of her.

She would use a catchy cheer to teach her fourth and fifth graders to add and subtract fractions, and would introduce her high schoolers to critical race theory in a history lesson. The holiday show, a few days away, needed some direction. And the pipes in the bathroom were acting up again, so she had to track down a plumber.

But first, Ms. Hooper stood before the student body at Abundance Educational Academy in Mississippi and closed her eyes.

“I ask in Jesus’ name that our students supernaturally learn everything presented before them on today,” Ms. Hooper, a longtime teacher who founded the small private school about three years ago, said in a prayer on a recent morning, savoring that peaceful moment soon after everyone arrived.

“Amen!” the students replied.

ImageLeora Hooper was a public-school teacher, who gave up a modest but steady paycheck to start Abundance Educational Academy. ImageThe space occupied by Abundance was a neglected storefront on Main Street in Yazoo City, the threshold of the Mississippi Delta.ImageSome students have migrated to Abundance to escape bullying or feeling like they were invisible. Tell Us About Where You Live

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