I'm about to give some newspaper examples out of research I've done. Note that I cannot say for sure the reasoning of these individuals.

It might have been that they believed that an actual separate but equal was the way to go (Georgia was in the middle of school equalization at the time of these examples). It might have been out of fear that retribution would happen if they as black citizens even hinted at wanting integration.

A few black citizens spoke out to their local newspapers.

As Brown vs. Board of Education was in its final days before the Supreme Court, educators in tiny Glascock County told the Augusta Chronicle they wanted to maintain separate schools. Glascock was in the midst of building them, one new one for black students, one new one for whites. Both opened in September.

The group issued a resolution, which was printed May 19, 1954:

“We go on record publicly as favoring separate schools for the white and colored races and we especially request that our schools be kept separate from the whites and that our children be taught by colored teachers in keeping with the traditions which have existed in Glascock county throughout all these years.”

Note that Georgia did not integrate any schools until the University of Georgia in January 1961 and no public schools until the Atlanta City system that September. In November 1954, voters approved Amendment 4, which gave the government the authority to shut down public schools if segregation was even attempted. Had Amendment 4 actually come into play, the state would have funneled money into setting up private schools, likely very similar to what Prince Edward County, Virginia, did from 1959-64.

Jones County's black teachers also expressed in 1956 (to the Jones County News) that they did not want integration. This was not quite a year after its county school building program was finished, one which provided three new schools and housed all black students.

It can be argued that black citizens valued the school improvements that highly. In 1950, more than half of Georgia's black schools were one-teacher shacks, as opposed to 9% of white schools. The average value of a black school in the state was $7,880 that year. (Stats courtesy of Georgia's Annual Reports on education from 1950.) To put that in a bit of perspective, Glascock's black school was built for $150,000 and contained in the neighborhood of 15 classrooms for 300 students and a lunchroom.

Even as late as 1965, there was a hint of fear of retribution, as seen when black men in Lincoln County put an end to student marching.

The Augusta Chronicle on October 29, 1965, reported that 30 young students were skipping school to march. The group was led by representatives of the SCLC. Approximately 50 men, referred to as mostly pulpwood workers, formed a blockade and refused to let the group by.

We don't know if the men were actually for Civil Rights or not, but its representative said to the SCLC leaders that "We want it just like it was before the marching started."

Would a fear of retaliation be legit?

Yes.

The last mass lynching in the state was in 1946, when four were killed in Walton County. This is only eight years prior to the Glascock group speaking out. The Klan was still very much a threat. A year after after Jones teachers spoke up, the Klan threatened a white movie theater owner in its county seat, Gray.

The state also controlled livelihoods.

In Burke County in 1955, the State Board of Education told black teachers they could not be a member of the NAACP. They had the opportunity to resign from the NAACP before any punishment was meted. That punishment was to lose their teaching licenses for life (Waynesboro True Citizen, Aug. 4, 1955). A month earlier, the State Board said that anyone teaching a class with white and black students would also lose their teaching licenses forever.

Jobs weren't exactly in abundance for black citizens and teaching was one of the few options out there in many counties.