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.

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.