Her current project The Academy Stories/Ad missions publishes first-person accounts from students who took part of--o r ran away from-- school integration since its 1970 start in the South. Th e essays\, collected online\, are an opportunity for now-adult writers to examine how the school experience formed (or malformed) their racial consc iousness. The truth-telling project has been featured in the Washington Po st\, Slate\, Mother Jones\, The Hechinger Report\, Forbes and The American Conservative. Fentress is a graduate of Pillow Academy in Greenwood\, Mis sissippi.
\n&ldquo\;As the national conversation on racism intensifi es\, I hope our work is a model for more people to search their personal a nd community history\,&rdquo\; she said. \;
\nThe Academy Storie s side of the online project publishes alumni stories from the 4\,000-odd private academies started circa 1970 for white students to flee public sch ool integration. While many academies folded within a few years\, some sur vive still\, typically with small enrollments of Black students now as wel l. Taking part in the January 13 conversation will be Neely Tucker\, an al umnus of Starkville (Mississippi) Academy\, whose essay has been the site& rsquo\;s most viral. Tucker is a novelist\, journalist and author based in Washington\, D.C. Tucker&rsquo\;s memoir Love in the Driest Season was na med one of the 25 Best Books of 2004 on several lists.
\nIn addition to the digital Academy/Admissions project\, Fentress produced the 2016 do cumentary film on civil-rights journalist Wilson Minor\, Eyes on Mississip pi. The film explores milestones of the movement\, featuring local Mississ ippi TV footage unseen since its initial 1950s and 1960s broadcast.
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