Tunica Academy

Last updated
Tunica Academy
Location
Tunica Academy
Tunica
,
(Tunica County)
,
Mississippi

United States
Coordinates 34°40′51″N90°23′23″W / 34.6807°N 90.3898°W / 34.6807; -90.3898
Information
Type Private School, high school
Established1964
GradesK–12
Number of students234 (2014)
Color(s)Blue, White
Team nameBlue Devils
Website website

Tunica Academy is a K-12 non-denominational Christian private school located in unincorporated Tunica County, Mississippi, near Tunica. [1] [2] The school was founded in 1964 and has been described as a segregation academy. [3] Tunica Academy is an accredited member of the Mississippi Private School Association.

Contents

History

The school was originally established by white parents in 1964 by the name Tunica Institute of Learning as a segregation academy in response to the court ordered desegregation of Tunica public schools. The name was later changed to Tunica Academy. [4] [5] The first class to graduate was the class of 1970. The tuition of this school is $5200 per year. [6] The mascot of the school is the Blue Devils.

For the 1965–1966 school year, 67% of the Tunica Academy's tuition revenue came from grants provided by the state of Mississippi. In 1969, a federal court ruled that, since, in the court's opinion, Tunica Academy would refuse to admit qualified black students, the tuition grant program violated the equal protection clause of the fourteenth amendment. [7]

In 1969, the Clarion-Ledger reported that Tunica Academy enrolled about 225 students, or one-third of the white students in Tunica County. [8]

In 1970, the IRS suspended the school's non-profit status due to its policies of racial discrimination. [9]

In 1973, Tunica Academy was named in the Norwood v. Harrison decision by the US Supreme Court. The court held that any program that provides aid to schools that discriminate on the basis of race is unconstitutional. In its ruling, the high court noted that, as of 1971, Tunica Academy declined to attest to a racially non-discriminatory admissions policy. [10]

Demographics

As of 2010, 97% of the students were white. This differed from Tunica's public high school, Rosa Fort High School, where 98% were black. [11] In 2014 there were 16 African-American students out of a total student population of 234, or 7%, while the Tunica Public Schools student body was 97% African-American. [12] [13]

Notable faculty

Related Research Articles

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Louisville, Mississippi</span> City in Mississippi, United States

Louisville is a city in Winston County, Mississippi. The population was 6,631 at the 2010 census. It is the county seat of Winston County.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Jackson Academy (Mississippi)</span> Primary and secondary independent school in Jackson, Mississippi

Jackson Academy is a private school in Jackson, Mississippi founded by Loyal M. Bearrs in 1959. Bearrs claimed he established the school to teach using an accelerated phonics program he developed, but the school remained completely racially segregated until 1986, even forgoing tax exemption in 1970 to avoid having to accept Black students.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Segregation academy</span> Segregationist private schools in the US

Segregation academies are private schools in the Southern United States that were founded in the mid-20th century by white parents to avoid having their children attend desegregated public schools. They were founded between 1954, when the U.S. Supreme Court ruled that segregated public schools were unconstitutional, and 1976, when the court ruled similarly about private schools.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Benton Academy</span> School in Benton, Mississippi

Benton Academy is an independent, co-educational college preparatory school in Benton, Mississippi. It is a member of the Mississippi Association of Independent Schools. It was founded as a segregation academy in 1969, and still did not enroll a single black student as of 2010. The school is located in Yazoo County, Mississippi.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Jackson Preparatory School</span> Independent school in Flowood, Mississippi, United States

Jackson Preparatory School is a private school in Flowood, Mississippi, a suburb of Jackson, with a controversial history as a segregation academy. The school is coedicational and serves preschool through grade 12.

The Tunica County School District is a public school district based in Tunica, Mississippi (USA). The district's boundaries parallel that of Tunica County.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Madison-Ridgeland Academy</span> Independent school in Madison, Mississippi, United States

Madison-Ridgeland Academy is a private, co-educational school in Madison, Mississippi, for students from K-3 through 12th grade. It was founded in 1969 as a segregation academy. There are 4 divisions; the Kindergarten (K3-K5), the Elementary, the Middle School, and the High School (9th–12th).

Humphreys Academy is a private, nonsectarian, school in Belzoni, Mississippi.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Indianola Academy</span> Private school

The Indianola Academy is a K-12 private school in Indianola, Mississippi founded as a segregation academy. Indianola Academy comprises an elementary school, a middle school, and a college preparatory high school. Indianola Academy is a 501(c)(3) nonprofit institution. As of 2012 most white teenagers in Indianola attend Indianola Academy instead of the public high schools.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Pillow Academy</span> Private school in Greenwood, Mississippi, United States

Pillow Academy (PA) is an independent, co-educational college preparatory school in unincorporated Leflore County, Mississippi, near Greenwood. It was founded by white parents in 1966 as a segregation academy to avoid having their children attend school with blacks.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Heritage Academy (Mississippi)</span> Private school founded as a segregation academy

Heritage Academy is a private school in Columbus, Mississippi. It was founded in 1964 as a segregation academy.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Lamar School (Meridian, Mississippi)</span> Segregation academy in Meridian, Mississippi

Lamar School, is an independent coeducational school located in Meridian, Mississippi, United States founded in 1964 as a segregation academy. It consists of elementary, middle, and high school, and serves grades Pre-K through 12th.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Central Delta Academy</span> Private school in the United States

Central Delta Academy (CDA) was a private elementary and middle school in Inverness, Mississippi, that operated from 1969 to 2010. It was founded as a segregation academy by white parents fleeing newly integrated public schools. The school closed on May 21, 2010; its building was auctioned off several weeks later.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Education segregation in the Mississippi Delta</span>

The Mississippi Delta region has had the most segregated schools -- and for the longest time—of any part of the United States. As recently as the 2016–2017 school year, East Side High School in Cleveland, Mississippi, was practically all black: 359 of 360 students were African-American.

Starkville Academy (SA) is a private kindergarten through 12th grade school in Starkville, Mississippi, operated by the Oktibbeha Educational Foundation. It was founded in 1969 on property adjacent to Starkville High School as a segregation academy.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Central Academy (Mississippi)</span> Segregation academy in Mississippi, US

Central Academy (CA) was a private school in Macon, Mississippi, at 300 Hale Street. It was founded in 1968 as a segregation academy. Central closed in 2017, citing dropping enrollments. The population of Noxubee County had dropped in every decade since 1940.

East Holmes Academy (EHA) was a segregation academy in West, Mississippi. The school was founded in 1965 and closed in 2006. In 1989, EHA received national attention after two incidents involving alleged racial discrimination.

REBUL Academy is a private K-12 school in Learned, Mississippi, United States.

Canton Academy, is a private school in Canton, Mississippi which was established in 1970 to preserve racial segregation in schools.

Coffey v. State Educational Finance Commission (1969) was a federal case that addressed state support of segregation academies in Mississippi. More broadly, it established the standards the Internal Revenue Service would use to determine the tax-exempt status of private schools based on their segregation policies.

References

  1. ↑ "2020 CENSUS - CENSUS BLOCK MAP: Tunica town, MS" (PDF). U.S. Census Bureau . Retrieved 2022-07-31.
  2. ↑ "Welcome to Tunica Academy." Tunica Academy. Retrieved on March 2, 2011. "584 Academy Drive — Tunica, MS 38676"
  3. ↑ Wright Austin, Sharon D. (2006). The transformation of plantation politics: Black politics, concentrated poverty, and social capital in the Mississippi Delta. Albany, NY: State University of New York Press. p. 149. ISBN   0-7914-6801-1. OCLC   61461521.
  4. ↑ "History of Tunica Academy". TunicaAcademy.com. Retrieved 3 August 2016.[ permanent dead link ]
  5. ↑ Herbert, Bob (16 May 1999). "In America; Haunted by Segregation". New York Times. Retrieved 3 August 2016.
  6. ↑ "Tunica Academy 2017-18 Tuition" (PDF).[ dead link ]
  7. ↑ Coffey v. State Educational Finance Commission 296 F. Supp. 1389 (S.D. Miss. 1969)
  8. ↑ Fleming, George (15 July 1969). "School Racial Figures Given". Clarion-Ledger. p. 1.
  9. ↑ "School Tax-Break Rescinded by IRS". Montgomery Advertiser. 20 August 1970. p. 1.
  10. ↑ Norwood v. Harrison, 413 U.S. 455 (1973); pp. 468-470.
  11. ↑ Dellinger, Matt. Interstate 69: The Unfinished History of the Last Great American Highway. Simon and Schuster, August 24, 2010. ISBN   143917573X, 9781439175736. p. 147.
  12. ↑ "Tunica Academy" . Retrieved 3 August 2016.
  13. ↑ Harlan, Chico (11 July 2015). "An opportunity gamed away For a county in the Deep South that reaped millions from casino business, poverty is still its spin of the wheel". Washington Post. Retrieved 3 August 2016.
  14. ↑ Yarbrough, Steve (March 15, 2024). "Strength and Conditioning" . Retrieved 29 March 2024.



This page is based on this Wikipedia article
Text is available under the CC BY-SA 4.0 license; additional terms may apply.
Images, videos and audio are available under their respective licenses.