Tunica Academy is a K-12 non-denominational Christian

private school A private school or independent school is a school not administered or funded by the government, unlike a State school, public school. Private schools are schools that are not dependent upon national or local government to finance their fina ...

located in unincorporated Tunica County,

Mississippi Mississippi ( ) is a U.S. state, state in the Southeastern United States, Southeastern and Deep South regions of the United States. It borders Tennessee to the north, Alabama to the east, the Gulf of Mexico to the south, Louisiana to the s ...

, near Tunica. The school was founded in 1964 and has been described as a

segregation academy 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 Racial segregation in the United States, desegregated public schools. They ...

. Tunica Academy is an accredited member of the Mississippi Private School Association.

History

The school was originally established by white parents in 1964 by the name Tunica Institute of Learning as a

in response to the court ordered desegregation of Tunica public schools. The name was later changed to Tunica Academy. The first class to graduate was the class of 1970. The tuition of this school is $5200 per year. 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 The Equal Protection Clause is part of the first section of the Fourteenth Amendment to the United States Constitution. The clause, which took effect in 1868, provides "nor shall any State... deny to any person within its jurisdiction the equal pr ...

of the fourteenth amendment. In 1969, ''

The Clarion-Ledger ''The Clarion Ledger'' is an American daily newspaper in Jackson, Mississippi. It is the second-oldest company in the state of Mississippi, and is one of the few newspapers in the nation that continues to circulate statewide. It is an operating ...

'' reported that Tunica Academy enrolled about 225 students, or one-third of the white students in Tunica County. In 1970, the IRS suspended the school's non-profit status due to its policies of racial discrimination. In 1973, Tunica Academy was named in the '' Norwood v. Harrison'' decision by the

US Supreme Court The Supreme Court of the United States (SCOTUS) is the highest court in the federal judiciary of the United States. It has ultimate appellate jurisdiction over all Federal tribunals in the United States, U.S. federal court cases, and over Stat ...

. 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.

Demographics

, 97% of the students were white. This differed from Tunica's public high school, Rosa Fort High School, where 98% were black. In 2014 there were 16 African-American students out of a total student population of 234, or 7%, while the

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

student body was 97% African-American.

Notable faculty

* Johnny Parker, strength and conditioning coach coached linebackers at Tunica

References

External links

Tunica Academy
Private K–12 schools in Mississippi Schools in Tunica County, Mississippi Segregation academies in Mississippi {{mississippi-school-stub