Ingram, the interim superintendent, says she plans to focus on improving teacher morale and student achievement this year. She also hopes to encourage the community to put more emphasis on education.

But some people believe it will take more to make a significant difference.

Thompson said he believes the federal government should take more of a proactive role.

“We have not provided a level playing field to the children who attend public schools because we have taken our hands off,” Thompson said. “That’s the government’s attitude toward public education. There has never really been a real stomach at the Department of Education or Department of Justice to pursue what some of us believe is constitutional guarantee to a free and equal education.”

Delaware and others have doubts that Trump’s administration, including DeVos, have any idea what it’s like attending school in rural black America.

“This was within a lot of people's minds,” said Jacob Sheriff, Yazoo County’s aptly named sheriff, who is black. Trump’s slogan was “making America great again. A lot of people were saying, ‘Are you really saying that? Do you really mean it, or are you talking about making America white again?’”

The Department of Education did not respond to a list of questions sent from the Center for Public Integrity.

Each state has the authority to determine how much money will be spent on schools and how it will be divvied up.

In Mississippi, the current funding structure was approved by the legislature in 1997 and it was amended in 2006. The formula gives school districts a 5 percent bump in funding for each low-income student enrolled — which research shows is not nearly enough to meet the educational needs of students living in low-income homes and communities, said McGraw of the Winter Institute.

Lawmakers commissioned a study in recent years by consultants, who called for a new formula that would provide a 25 percent boost to districts for each low-income student enrolled, but it would have reduced the number of students qualified for the financial bump. Regardless, the legislature hasn’t been able to pass any bills that would adopt the consultants’ recommendations, McGraw said.

The lawsuit filed by the Southern Poverty Law Center calls on the state to provide more of an equal playing field for schools around the state, but it faced a major setback earlier this year when a judge decided the state couldn’t be sued. The nonprofit has asked him to reconsider.

Even if he does, it will likely take years to resolve the case. For the foreseeable future, Yazoo City and other school districts around the state will remain segregated.

“There are several examples of schools and school districts that have successfully integrated and preserved integration,” McGraw said. “Where we see segregation, we see the continuation of all of the things that keep Mississippi 50th in education and wealth and health and everything else across the board.”

Joe and Sharon Freeman, the parents who educate their daughter, Sharonique, at home, have no plans to send her back to Yazoo City public schools.

“She needs to be at the top of her game,” Joe Freeman said.

Sharonique is getting all A’s on her report card. She wants to become a doctor and has her eyes on Harvard.

Joe Yerardi contributed to this report.