SPELLING GOALS. GRADE SIX.

Book deaccessioned from a Lamar County-State of Alabama African American segregated school or school library. Poor condition. 86 pages. Hardcover: H 20.25cm x L 14.25cm. No dust jacket. Blue cloth heavily rubbed and soiled; cloth losses at spine ends and board edges. Interior pages well soiled and stained with tears, creased corners, edge-wear, etc.; pencil and ink writing/scribbling throughout (all the usual expected general abuse inflicted upon a library or school text); past owner's ink signature dated October 1989 on front free endpaper well past its deaccession. Ink stamps on front and rear pastedowns "Negro" and "This Book is the Property of | The State of Alabama | Lamar County" with latter stamp (and not the former) repeated on half-title. A poor copy but an interesting relic of Alabama's staunch support of segregated facilities. Lamar County, Alabama's primary segregated school - Todd High School - was located in Vernon (although some internet search results incorrectly indicate Millport) with there being several segregated elementary schools throughout the county as those were established by community need. As there is a lack of countervailing marks the book may well have been purchased directly by the state for segregated school distribution. This contrasts to Mississippi's practice which, with the few books encountered over the years, seems to have been to direct new book purchases to white schools leaving the black schools with dated "hand-me-down" texts.…