Macon Road Baptist School was a

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Baptist Baptists form a major branch of Protestantism distinguished by baptizing professing Christian believers only (believer's baptism), and doing so by complete immersion. Baptist churches also generally subscribe to the doctrines of soul compete ...

Christian school A Christian school is a school run on Christian principles or by a Christian organization. The nature of Christian schools varies enormously from country to country, according to the religious, educational, and political cultures. In some countr ...

with several locations in the

Memphis, Tennessee Memphis is a city in the U.S. state of Tennessee. It is the seat of Shelby County in the southwest part of the state; it is situated along the Mississippi River. With a population of 633,104 at the 2020 U.S. census, Memphis is the second-mos ...

area.

Overview

Macon Road's main campus, which housed grades K–12, was originally located in the Berclair neighborhood of Memphis. The school eventually opened locations in the Memphis suburbs of Arlington, Lakeland, and Oakland (Fayette County). In the 2010s, Macon Road had around 500 K3–12 students, around 200 of which in the 7–12th grades. The school mascot was the Kingsmen and the colors were blue, black, and white.

History

Macon Road Baptist Church opened the school in 1973 in the church's Berclair Road campus. The school was part of a wave of private schools formed by white parents seeking to avoid sending their children to racially integrated public schools. Dr. Wayne Webb headed the school from 1974 to 2021. In March 2014, Macon Road became accredited through the

Southern Association of Colleges and Schools The Southern Association of Colleges and Schools (SACS) is an educational accreditor recognized by the United States Department of Education and the Council for Higher Education Accreditation. This agency accredits over 13,000 public and priv ...

Council on Accreditation and School Improvement (SACS CASI), an accreditation division of AdvancED. In 2014, the school closed its Berclair campus; both the school and Macon Road Baptist Church moved to Arlington. The Berclair campus then became a satellite campus for the Frayser-based charter school Memphis Business Academy. In 2023, the school announced plans to re-open.

Academics

Macon Road used the Abeka curriculum, which has been described as Christian Nationalist revisionism, even describing slavery as "black immigration". All students were required to take a Bible class from K3–12th grade; the school only accepted the

King James Version The King James Version (KJV), also the King James Bible (KJB) and the Authorized Version, is an Bible translations into English, English translation of the Christian Bible for the Church of England, which was commissioned in 1604 and publis ...

of the Bible. Elective courses included several Advanced Placement and dual enrollment courses, yearbook, personal fitness, Christian ethics, and various higher level sciences and math classes including anatomy and physiology, physics, and advanced math.

References

{{authority control 1973 establishments in Tennessee Christian schools in Tennessee Education in Fayette County, Tennessee Educational institutions established in 1973 Private K–12 schools in Tennessee Schools in Memphis, Tennessee Segregation academies in Tennessee Defunct Baptist schools in the United States Schools using the Abeka curriculum