Benton Academy is an independent, co-educational college preparatory school in Benton, Mississippi (United States). It is a member of the

Mississippi Association of Independent Schools The Midsouth Association of Independent Schools (MAIS) is a consortium of schools in Mississippi, Tennessee, Louisiana and Arkansas. It is responsible for accreditation of its member private schools as well as governing athletic competition for its ...

. It was founded 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 desegregated public schools. They were founded between 1954, when the U.S. ...

in 1969, and still did not enroll a single black student as of 2010. The school is located in

Yazoo County, Mississippi Yazoo County is a county located in the U.S. state of Mississippi. As of the 2010 census, the population was 28,065. The county seat is Yazoo City. It is named for the Yazoo River, which forms its western border. Its name is said to come from a ...

History

Benton Academy was founded in 1969 as a segregation academy in response to the court ordered racial desegregation of public schools. The school opened in January 1970 in the middle of the

school year A school is an educational institution designed to provide learning spaces and learning environments for the teaching of students under the direction of teachers. Most countries have systems of formal education, which is sometimes compulsor ...

. In 1977, the

NAACP The National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP) is a civil rights organization in the United States, formed in 1909 as an interracial endeavor to advance justice for African Americans by a group including W. E.&nb ...

called for the principal of Benton High School to resign since he was perceived to condone segregation by sending his children to Benton Academy. When the school opened in 1969, it enrolled 460 students, but attendance fall to about 210 students in the 1970s and 1980s. In the early 1990s, the headmaster looked forwards to increasing enrollment after the opening of the Yazoo City federal prison.

Demographics

For the 20192020 school year, the school enrolled 216 students in grades PK-12, all of whom were white.

Athletics

Benton Academy athletic teams compete in the

league.

Notable alumni

Ben Beckwith Benjamin Wyatt Beckwith (born December 27, 1991) is a former American football Guard. He played college football for Mississippi State, where he began his career as a walk-on, but wound up starting in the 2013 and 2014 seasons. 2015 East-West Sh ...

, football player *

Wes Shivers Wesley Davis Shivers (born March 8, 1977) is an American professional mixed martial artist. He was a cast member of SpikeTV's '' The Ultimate Fighter: Heavyweights''. Shivers also played in three National Football League games with the Atlant ...

, Class of 1995 – Former

NFL The National Football League (NFL) is a professional American football league that consists of 32 teams, divided equally between the American Football Conference (AFC) and the National Football Conference (NFC). The NFL is one of the major ...

offensive lineman In gridiron football, a lineman is a player who specializes in play at the line of scrimmage. The linemen of the team currently in possession of the ball are the offensive line, while linemen on the opposing team are the defensive line. A numbe ...

and

MMA Mixed martial arts (MMA), sometimes referred to as cage fighting, no holds barred (NHB), and ultimate fighting, and originally referred to as Vale Tudo is a full-contact combat sport based on striking, grappling and ground fighting, incorp ...

fighter.

References

External links