Bayou Academy


Bayou Academy is a non-profit segregation academy located in unincorporated Bolivar County, Mississippi, near the City of Cleveland on Highway 8. The school serves about 500 students in grades Pre-Kindergarten through 12.
The school is accredited by the Mississippi Association of Independent Schools.

History

Bayou Academy was founded in 1964 as a segregation academy. In 1966, the all-white school board sold Skene Attendance Center to a white group called Skene Civic Improvement Society, Inc. for $1.00. The property was then leased to Bolivar Academy, achieving a transfer of public property to the segregationist group. After the United States Supreme Court decided Alexander v. Holmes in 1969, ordering the desegregation of public schools in the South, the all-white Bayou Academy doubled its enrollment for the 1970 school year. In 2009, the old Skene school building burned to the ground.
It is notable that in the 2010 census, the City of Cleveland was 47.5 percent white, and Bolivar County was 33.5 percent white. Demographic data for Bayou Academy shows that of the 372 students who attended in the 2011–2012 school year, 99 percent were white.

Sports

Bayou academy Elementary hosts several sports for different grades including: cross country, swim, peewee basketball, peewee cheer, peewee football. The sports in Bayou Academy high school register in grades starting at 7th grade and ends with 12th grade. The following sports are played by both male and female: Track, cross country, basketball, golf, soccer, swimming, tennis. The next few sports are male only: Football, baseball. The following sports are female only: Cheer, softball