[3] In an opinion article Wanda Jackson, a Washington, DC resident who originated from Sumter County, stated that there were earlier integrated schools.
In 2018 the Sumter County district board attempted to get an injunction against the opening of UCS.
[5] Prior to 1970s schools in Sumter County were by law, and later de facto, racially segregated.
Even though the Sumter County School District was ordered to de facto desegregate by the federal courts system in 1970, white families had immediately moved their children to Sumter Academy, a segregation academy, leaving the public schools majority black.
[6] Joe Nettles, the American football coach at Sumter Academy, stated that chatter about a proposed charter school convinced some prospective families that Sumter Academy was bound to decline and close anyway, so they chose not to enroll their children.