For the Methodist institution in Birmingham, Alabama of the same name that existed 1866-1923 see Sherman Industrial Institute
| Central Alabama Academy | |
|---|---|
| Location | |
 | |
| Coordinates | 32°20′22″N 86°12′28″W / 32.33958°N 86.20774°W / 32.33958; -86.20774 |
| Information | |
| Type | Private |
| Established | 1970 (1970) |
| Principal | H. J. Nick, Jr |
Central Alabama Academy was a segregation academyinMontgomery, Alabama in 1970.[1][2] The school opened at 3152 Debby Drive, Montgomery and subsequently moved to 6010 Vaughn Road, Montgomery. The site was taken over by Saint James School.
The school adopted the name of a Methodist institution in Birmingham of the same name that existed 1866-1923.[3] There is no evidence that this school was associated with the Methodist Church.
National desegregation policy had been set by Brown v. Board of Education in 1954. Alabama, like Mississippi, largely ignored the ruling at first. In Montgomery, conflict over school segregation has triggered an effort to integrate public parks. In December 1958 the Montgomery Improvement Association (MIA) sued the city of Montgomery to force an end to racial segregation in the city's public parks. Rather than accede to this demand the city closed down all of its parks, including the Montgomery Zoo, effective on January 1, 1959.[4] In response to this, Martin Luther King Jr. on behalf of the MIA, announced that the Association would attempt to end racial segregation in Montgomery public schools by having large numbers of black children apply for admission to white schools in order to provide test cases which might allow a judge to declare the Alabama Pupil Placement Act unconstitutional.[4] Governor John Patterson threatened to shut down the public schools to prevent their integration[5] and the[6] Ku Klux Klan leader Robert Shelton promised that the Klan was prepared to prevent integration by violent means if necessary.[5]
The first major lawsuit affecting Montgomery schools was Lee v. Macon County Board of Education in 1963. A three-judge panel issued a blanket desegregation order in 1967.[7] Later, federal moves against segregation academies in Alabama switched from the courts to the IRS, addressing their non-profit status.[8]
Four private schools in Montgomery would use city parks for football, basketball and baseball: Stephens-Spears (which had a published segregation policy), Central Alabama Academy (which had no published segregation policy), Montgomery Academy, and St. James which had "declared" open enrollment policies. Their use of the city facilities was defended by the city in Gilmore v. City of Montgomery (1972).[9] The court found the schools' use of the facilities unconstitutional. The sitting judge was Frank M. Johnson whose son John was a student at the Montgomery Academy.[10] He enjoined the city from continuing this practice,[8] stating that "In allowing private academies to use city facilities, Montgomery is providing aid to private, segregated schools, thus facilitating their establishment and operation as an alternative for white students who in most instances are seeking to avoid desegregated public schools."[1]
Academics have since described segregation academies in three categories, reflecting the social and economic divisions within the white community: (a) lower-class 'rebel yell' academies; (b) white community schools; and (c) upper-class day schools.[11] It is unclear into which category Central Alabama Academy fell, but it did not last out the century.
Central Alabama Academy was founded in 1970 as a segregation academy.[11][5] The school operated at first near the Montgomery Mall, which opened the same year. Later, it moved east to 6010 Vaughn Road, near Montgomery Catholic High School. It gave up the property to Saint James School, which built its new campus there in 1990.
Montgomery had always offered good private education, but these new schools were shabby affairs, drastically underfunded. They could not attract students without athletic programs, and they lacked the money to build football fields. Four of them—the St. James School, the Stephens-Spears School, the Central Alabama Academy, and the Montgomery Academy—obtained permission to use the playing fields and sports facilities of Montgomery's public high schools.
More than Just an Education Five years ago, Central Alabama Academy was formed by a group of concerned parents who wanted more than just an average public school education for their children. Our staff is dedicated to this academic excellence and a total program of student development. Our job is helping to develop your children into. well-rounded, emotionally stable young adults. If you want a superior education and more for your child, call for information on Central Alabama Academy. Enrollment is limited.
King's announcement and the response to it badly frightened a great many white Montgomerians. Incoming governor John Patterson...warn[ed]...ominously that if 'these agitators continue at their present pace, in a short time we will have no public education at all. Our public schools, once destroyed and shut down, may not be reopened in your lifetime and mine.' The Ku Klux Klan's grand dragon, Robert Shelton of Tuscaloosa—a man of some influence in the new Patterson administration—promised that the Klan would use violence...The prospect of the total abolition of public schooling...therefore seemed very real. A group of white social leaders under the chairmanship of physician Hugh MacGuire scurried to meet the menace of school closure by establishing a private school, limited to 'boys and girls of white parentage,' the Montgomery Academy; it opened in September [1959]
One may speak of three classes of segregation academy, roughly corresponding to the social and economic divisions within the white community: (a) lower-class 'rebel yell' academies; (b) white community schools; and (c) upper-class day schools. Poor white families have organized irregular 'rebel yell' academies which provide only rudimentary education ... By contrast, a small number of post-desegregation schools, located primarily in urban centres, offer complete academic programs, competent staffs recruited largely from the public school system, accreditation by state and regional authorities, modern physical plants, and amenities such as guidance counselling, language and science laboratories, and airconditioning [sic]. These 'segregation academies second generation' aspire to the same elite status as traditional upper-class day schools in the rest of the nation. Most have announced 'open enrollment' policies as required by the Internal Revenue Service...but in practice, their student bodies contain neither blacks nor low-income whites...Examples include... Montgomery (Ala.) Academy...(subscription required)
