Louisiana Independent School Association
{{short description|Louisiana private school athletic league}}
{{Use mdy dates|date=January 2025}}
The Louisiana Independent School Association (1970–1992), more commonly known as LISA, was an athletic association created to offer interscholastic sports at all-white segregation academies in the state of Louisiana.{{cite book|author=United States. Congress. House. Committee on Ways and Means. Subcommittee on Oversight|title=Tax-exempt status of private schools: hearings before the Subcommittee on Oversight of the Committee on Ways and Means, House of Representatives, Ninety-sixth Congress, first session ....|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=2vzUAAAAMAAJ|accessdate=6 September 2012|year=1979|publisher=U.S. Govt. Print. Off.|page=184}} The organization is no longer in existence.
In its ruling on Brumfield v. Dodd (1975), the U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of Louisiana described LISA as "an organization of private schools which publicly maintains a racist policy and has advised its members openly how to discourage black enrollment".
History
The organization was founded amid a wave of new private schools that were being opened in response to most Louisiana public schools being desegregated in the 1969-70 or 1970-71 school year.{{Cite web | url=https://coraweb.sos.la.gov/commercialsearch/CommercialSearchDetails.aspx?CharterID=21742_F7BBDE9480 | title=Search for Louisiana Business Filings }} Its public-school equivalent was the Louisiana High School Athletic Association. In 1970, LISA's secretary said in response to the loss of tax exemptions due to the refusal to include Black students, "We are not interested in an IRS exemption under those conditions".{{cite news | url=https://www.newspapers.com/article/the-shreveport-journal-tax-ruling-to-hav/132431724/ | title=Tax ruling to have little effect on private schools of louisiana | newspaper=The Shreveport Journal | date=20 August 1970 | page=21 }}
Its charter meeting was held in April 1970; it launched that fall with 20 member schools, a number that increased to 54 by the following school year.[http://www.14-0productions.com/l.i.s.a..html Louisiana Football Magazine, 1988, p. 131] LISA's logo, reflecting its segregated origins and location in what was formerly the Confederacy, featured an adaptation of the Confederate battle flag, which has been described as a White supremacist hate symbol.{{cite web |title=Hate on Display / Confederate Flag |url=https://www.adl.org/resources/hate-symbol/confederate-flag |publisher=Anti-Defamation League |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20230428005303/https://www.adl.org/resources/hate-symbol/confederate-flag|archive-date=April 28, 2023}} No Black athlete played in a LISA all-star game until 1991.{{cite news |last1=Byrd |first1=Jerry |title=Wiggins completing cycle |url=https://www.newspapers.com/clip/104958489/the-times/ |access-date=4 July 2022 |work=The Shreveport Times |date=8 January 1992 |pages=62}}
By the 1980s, as segregation academies closed or moved to the LHSAA, membership declined. In October 1991, LISA's members voted unanimously to merge into the equivalent association in Mississippi, the Mississippi Private School Association (now the Midsouth Association of Independent Schools.{{cite news |title=L.I.S.A., including Riverfield, joins Mississippi Association |url=https://www.newspapers.com/clip/104957492/the-richland-beacon-news/ |access-date=4 July 2022 |work=The Richland Beacon-News |date=10 October 1991 |pages=9}} LISA held its last competition in 1992 and ceased to exist as a corporate entity on November 17, 1997.
Organization
Schools competed in two divisions, A and AA, according to enrollment, with districts arranged by geography and traditional rivalries. Postseason all-star games were held in football and basketball.
LISA’s competitive sports programs included baseball, softball, basketball, cross country, track and field, and football.
Former member schools
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