The school district's attendance boundary included Drew, Rome, and the employee residences of the Mississippi State Penitentiary (Parchman), located in an unincorporated area.

[2][3] In the 1960s, seven children of the family of Mae Bertha Carter were the first black students to attend white schools in Drew.

[4] According to Susan M. Glisson, author of The Human Tradition in the Civil Rights Movement, Ruth Carter, the oldest of the Carter children, encountered racial taunts involving the word "nigger", students avoiding her and moving out of her way, and students throwing spitballs.

John Thigpen, the president of the school board, stated that the district operated as if it had 1,200 students when in fact it had 650.

[13] According to Charles Bussey, author of the 2004 book Where We Stand: Voices Of Southern Dissent, the assistant superintendent of the North Sunflower Academy discussed with him high expulsion, suspension, and dropout rates in Drew High School, which at that time had become mostly black.