Timothy Coon was Polk County's first Black judge, a retired Air Force Reserve officer, an avid golfer, a married man of 48 years and father.

Many of these private schools are known as “segregation academies” because they opened for white children while the federal courts were forcing districts across the South to desegregate.

Abolishing segregation in public schools sent shockwaves through our education system. But in response to that decision, the South saw an increase in the founding of mostly white private schools ...