Wilcox Academy

Prior to 1970, public education in Wilcox County was primarily populated by White students, while black students were educated mostly at private schools run by Presbyterian organizations, including Camden Academy. When the county's public schools were forced to integrate in 1970, Wilcox Academy was one of three segregation academies that were founded in response, along with Catherine Academy and Stokes Academy.{{cite news | url= http://www.al.com/specialreport/birminghamnews/index.ssf?blackbelt/blackbelt16.html | title=Private white academies struggle in changing world | newspaper=The Birmingham News | date=October 27, 2002 | author=Carla Crowder| archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20121115072320/http://www.al.com/specialreport/birminghamnews/index.ssf?blackbelt/blackbelt16.html | archive-date=November 15, 2012 }}{{cite web |url=https://etd.auburn.edu/bitstream/handle/10415/8176/AmberlySheffield%20Thesis.pdf?sequence=2|title=Segregation Academies in Rural Alabama:White Resisters' Final Stand Against School Integration in Wilcox County|author=Amberly Sheffield|date=May 7, 2022|publisher=Auburn University}}

The Wilcox Educational Foundation held a meeting in February 1970 about opening a school, which they initially named Camden Private School. Local businesses had already purchased 400 desks. Within a month, 119 families had joined the foundation, secured a 16 acre plot, and secured sponsors for a football team. The first year produced a graduating class of 13 (all white) students. The school's enrollment boomed in the 1970s as white parents withdrew their children from public schools.{{cite news|first=Alvin| last=Benn|date=June 16, 1991|title=Wilcox county SAT scores at bottom of heap |newspaper=Advertiser |location=Montgomery, Alabama |page=1}}

By 1972, the school system was reported to once again be completely segregated, with the public schools all Black, and all Whites attending private schools, including Wilcox Academy.{{cite news|title=Wilcox trouble|newspaper=Anniston Star|date=March 25, 1972|via=newspaperarchive.com}} That same year, the IRS revoked Wilcox Educational Foundation's tax deductibility because the school had declined to adopt racially non-discriminatory admissions policies.{{cite news|newspaper=Baltimore Afro American Newspaper Archives|date=May 2, 1972|title=Four schools struck from deductible list|via=newspaperarchive.com}}

In 1973 there were allegations that the County school board had tried to discourage White students from attending public schools and to attend Wilcox Academy instead, and that public school property had been transferred to Wilcox Academy.{{cite news |newspaper=Decatur Daily News|date=September 9, 1973|title=Wilcox educator denies complaint|location=Selma, Alabamavia=newspaperarchive.com}} While the superintendent denied the charges, others admitted that some property had been taken and later returned. Other charges included that the Wilcox County School Board was deliberately trying to destroy the public schools, in order to redirect all White children to the academy, including such actions as haphazard teacher assignment and designing the school transportation system to disrupt schools.{{cite news|newspaper=Selma Times-Journal|location=Selma, Alabama|date=September 9, 1973|via=newspaperarchive.com|title=Try to kill wilcox schools charged|last=Maute|first=Nikki Davis|pages=1,2|volume=146|number=153}}

By the early 2000s, some White parents were beginning to send their children to public schools because they were dissatisfied with Wilcox Academy's ability to provide quality academic programs with shrinking enrollment. The Wilcox Academy chairman declined comment on academic performance comparisons with public schools, stating that he "see[s] no advantage for us revealing any information for public consumption." As of 2022, it is the only school remaining of the segregation academies formed in 1970.

As of 1990, no black students had ever attended the school.{{Cite news |title=Funeral Home Awards 3 Scholarships| date=September 9, 1990 |first=Alvin| last=Benn|newspaper=Advertiser |location=Montgomery, Alabama |page=15}} In 2015–16, no black students attend.{{cite web|title=Private School Universe Survey| url=https://nces.ed.gov/surveys/pss/privateschoolsearch/school_detail.asp?Search=1&SchoolName=Wilcox+Academy&NumOfStudentsRange=more&IncGrade=-1&LoGrade=-1&HiGrade=-1&ID=01925943 |accessdate=November 18, 2017| publisher=National Center for Education Statistics}}

Of 278 non-prekindergarten students enrolled in the 2011–2012 school year, 276 were white.{{cite web | url=http://nces.ed.gov/surveys/pss/privateschoolsearch/school_detail.asp?ID=01925943 | title=Wilcox Academy | work=Private School Universe Survey | publisher=National Center for Education Statistics}} The 2012 demographic profile of Wilcox County, showed the population as 27.4% white and 71.8% black.{{cite web | url=http://quickfacts.census.gov/qfd/states/01/01131.html | title=Wilcox County, Alabama | work=People QuickFacts | publisher=United States Census Bureau}} As of the 2019-2020 school year, there were 247 students, of whom 243 were White, 1 Asian, 2 Black, and 1 Hispanic.{{cite web|url=https://nces.ed.gov/surveys/pss/privateschoolsearch/school_detail.asp?ID=01925943|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20230818184506/https://nces.ed.gov/surveys/pss/privateschoolsearch/school_detail.asp?ID=01925943|archive-date=August 18, 2023|publisher=NCES|title=Wilcox Academy}}

Wilcox Academy has a six hundred plus member organization which holds two benefit hunts each year. The Turkey Hunt, normally held the end of March or early April, began in 1971 and was followed by the Gun Deer Hunt in 1985, which is held in early January.{{cite news | url=https://www.newspapers.com/clip/113520649/wilcox-academy-turkey-hunt/ | title=Wilcox Academy Turkey Hunt | newspaper=The Montgomery Advertiser | date=October 12, 1997 | page=48 }}{{cite web | url=http://www.wilcoxwebworks.com/wa/ | title=Deer and Turkey Hunts}}

• Mike Stewart, novelist.

{{reflist}}

• [http://www.ahsfhs.org/sports/teampage.asp?Team=Wilcox%20Academy Wildcats Sports History]
• [http://www.wilcoxwebworks.com/wa/ Deer and Turkey Hunts]

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Category:Educational institutions established in 1970

Category:Segregation academies in Alabama

Category:Private high schools in Alabama

Category:Schools in Wilcox County, Alabama