Madison-Ridgeland Academy

Madison-Ridgeland Academy was established in 1969 at a segregation academy,[1] to serve the communities of Madison, Ridgeland and other surrounding cities.[2] MRA was housed in a Madison church for its first year as a school; the following year the school relocated to their first facility on their 25 acre campus.[3] In 1971, MRA joined the Mississippi Private School Association, a group formed to legitimize segregation academies.[4]

In 2019, University of Mississippi chancellor Glenn Boyce was criticized because of his past affiliation with Madison-Ridgeland Academy.[5]

As of 1986, the school had never enrolled a black student, although it had a nondiscrimination policy and had received several inquiries. [6] As of 2012, 95 percent of the students were white, 2 percent were Asian and 2 percent were black.[7]

The school does not allow black hairstyles such as cornrows, dreadlocks or twists.[8] In 2019 Nicolas Rowan became the school's first African-American salutatorian.[9]

The school's sports programs, called the MRA Patriots, have won multiple MPSA football championships, the most recent being in 2020.[10]

MRA has four buildings; the kindergarten building, the elementary building, the middle school building, and the high school building. The newest of the four is the middle school building, which was built in 2019.

• Glenn Boyce, chancellor of the University of Mississippi coached football at MRA[5]
• Jack Carlisle, coached football at MRA[11]
• Saahdiq Charles, football tackle, Washington Football Team
• Tate Ellington, actor
• Dallas Walker, football player
• Ruston Webster, scout for the Atlanta Falcons, former general manager of the Tennessee Titans[12]