Central Delta Academy

Central Delta Academy (CDA) was a private high school in Inverness, Mississippi,[1] that operated from 1969 to 2010. It was founded as a segregation academy by white parents fleeing newly integrated public schools.[2][3] The school closed on May 21, 2010;[4] its building was to be auctioned off several weeks later.[5]

Central Delta Academy
Location
Inverness, Mississippi

United States
Coordinates33.3523426°N 90.5892573°W / 33.3523426; -90.5892573
Information
TypePrivate
Opened1969 (1969)
Closed2010 (2010)
Color(s)    Royal blue & gold
Team nameTigers (males)
Lady Tigers (females)

History
Further information: Education segregation in Mississippi Delta

The Central Delta Academy's athletic mascot was "The Tigers." As of 1990, the Central Delta Academy and Inverness High School women's basketball teams had never faced off against each other. They were in different systems.[6]

By the early 21st century, CDA and Inverness High School sponsored joint Homecoming weekends and events.[7]

In 1987[8] the school's parent teacher organization published The Sharecropper, a collection of area recipes.[9]

Campus

The building was constructed in 1922 as Inverness School, the town's public "white school," which housed white students in grades 1-12 until the end of the era of racial segregation.[10] Central Delta Academy was permitted to purchase the building and land from the public school system at the outset of mandatory desegregation, as nearly all of the parents of white students who attended the school when segregation was terminated refused to permit their children to attend school with black students, so they promptly established the all-white CDA for their children to attend. Since most of the white students who had formerly attended the school were no longer in the public schools which, in turn, diminished the public schools' infrastructure requirements, the facility was deemed excess to the public school system and title was transferred to CDA upon payment of a nominal price. This served to perpetuate racial segregation, albeit not thereafter government-sponsored segregation.[11] The school operated until 2010, when the property was sold and the building demolished.[12]

The school was situated on U.S. Highway 49, about 8 miles (13 km) south of Indianola and 15 miles (24 km) north of Belzoni.[1]

See also

References
  1. "Contacts Archived 2009-09-29 at the Wayback Machine." Central Delta Academy. Retrieved on August 17, 2010. Tripod version: "Driving Directions to Central Delta Academy From the north: Central Delta is located approximately 8 miles south of Indianola on Highway 49. Take the first Inverness sign and follow old Highway 49 until you see the large white two-story building on your left, which will be CDA. From the south: Central Delta is located approximately 15 miles north of Belzoni, MS, on Highway 49. Take the first Inverness sign and follow old Highway 49 until you see the large white two-story building on your left, which will be CDA."
  2. Moye, J. Todd. Let the People Decide: Black Freedom and White Resistance Movements in Sunflower County, Mississippi, 1945-1986. UNC Press Books, 2004. 243. Retrieved from Google Books on March 2, 2011. "Sunflower County's two other segregation academies— North Sunflower Academy, between Drew and Ruleville, and Central Delta Academy in Inverness— both sprouted in a similar fashion." ISBN 0-8078-5561-8, ISBN 978-0-8078-5561-4.
  3. Reed, Roy. "A Town's Luck Ends as Tornado Hits; A Town's Luck Ends as Tornado Hits." The New York Times. Tuesday February 23, 1971. Page 1. Retrieved on August 17, 2010. "closed the white public school and sent their children to a private school at..."
  4. "Home." Central Delta Academy. Retrieved on August 17, 2010. Archived September 28, 2009, at the Wayback Machine
  5. Ayres, Jeff. "Selling off to the highest bidder." The Clarion-Ledger. May 23, 2010. Business C5. Retrieved on August 17, 2010. "The company will auction off the Central Delta Academy building in Inverness next month."
  6. Dunbar, Anthony P. Delta Time: A Journey Through Mississippi. Pantheon Books, 1990. 181. Retrieved from Google Books on March 2, 2011. "It is sad that the Central Delta Academy Lady Tigers and the Inverness Hawkettes women's basketball teams never compete head-on, though both represent the same little cotton-gin town and seem equally endowed with grace and height." ISBN 0-394-57163-0, ISBN 978-0-394-57163-8.
  7. "News & Events." Central Delta Academy, 2003, Retrieved on March 2, 2011.
  8. Gerard C. Wertkin; Lee Kogan (2004). Encyclopedia of American Folk Art. Taylor & Francis. p. 321. ISBN 978-0-415-92986-8. Retrieved 10 July 2012.
  9. Zanger, Mark. The American Ethnic Cookbook for Students. ABC-CLIO, 2001. 18. Retrieved from Google Books on March 2, 2011. "The recipe appeared in The Share-Cropper, published by the Central Delta Academy PTO in Inverness, Mississippi, and was reprinted in A Gracious Plenty. Recipes and Recollections from the American South by John T. Edge." ISBN 1-57356-345-5, ISBN 978-1-57356-345-1.
  10. Stowers, Mark H. (October 13, 2017). "We were champions: 1977 Central Delta Academy Tiger Football". Clarion Ledger. Retrieved 14 November 2017.
  11. Let the People Decide: Black Freedom and White Resistance Movements in Sunflower County, Mississippi, 1945-1986
  12. Abandoned Mississippi: Central Delta Academy, Inverness
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