Tuscaloosa Academy (TA) is a private school in

Tuscaloosa, Alabama Tuscaloosa ( ) is a city in and the seat of Tuscaloosa County in west-central Alabama, United States, on the Black Warrior River where the Gulf Coastal and Piedmont plains meet. Alabama's fifth-largest city, it had an estimated population of 1 ...

. It serves 452 students and has been described 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. ...

History

The school opened with grades one through seven in September 1967, the year Alabama public schools were forced to desegregate. In 1973, the first graduation exercises were held. In a 1979 interview, headmaster William Garrison denied that it was founded as a segregation academy, as did all other private schools in Tuscaloosa, and said the school was "actively recruiting for blacks". However, in 2021, Headmaster Bryan Oliver gave an interview acknowledging that the school was indeed founded as a

. In 2017, Tuscaloosa Academy serves students from preschool through 12th grade. It was initially housed in the Northington Army Hospital, in proximity to the University Mall, and had 113 students.HISTORY OF TUSCALOOSA ACADEMY

Archive
. Tuscaloosa Academy. Retrieved on March 4, 2015. The property was state-owned, which stimulated protest by opponents. In 2016, the school enrolled twelve black students (3%), in a community that is 47% black.

References

{{authority control 1967 establishments in Alabama Educational institutions established in 1967 Education in Tuscaloosa, Alabama High schools in Tuscaloosa, Alabama Schools in Tuscaloosa County, Alabama Private K-12 schools in Alabama Segregation academies in Alabama