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Briarcrest Christian School is an private, coeducational, college preparatory in Shelby County, Tennessee.

History

In 1973, 11 Baptist churches established the Briarcrest Baptist School System as a system of segregation academies in response to the court-ordered busing racial integration of public schools. The chairman of the school board stated that black students were "pressured into staying away, feeling they'd be Uncle Toms if they came." The headmaster explained that teachers left public schools for jobs at Briarcrest because they wanted to be "back among their own" with "less fear, less culture shock" and more "cultural homogeneity".

Programs for kindergarten through grade 8 began in 1973 and a program for grades 9–12 was added in 1974. In its early years, Briarcrest maintained as many as 12 locations in Southern Baptist churches throughout the Memphis area. In 1989 the school split from the founding church and re-chartered as an independent school with its current name, Briarcrest Christian School. Over the next 20 years, Briarcrest Christian School grew to 1,600 students and invested $43 million in building its campus.

In 1979, Memphis NAACP chair Maxine Smith noted that Briarcrest had never enrolled a black student and described the school as a "bastion of white segregation in a city with a 40% black population".

In 1984, W. Wayne Allen, the chairman of the school's board, was the defendant in the Supreme Court case Allen v. Wright. Allen was sued in his official capacity by black parents who felt that the IRS should revoke Briarcrest's tax-exempt status due to its alleged discriminatory policies. The court held that individual citizens did not have standing to challenge the IRS's determination that Briarcrest Christian School had a racially non-discriminatory admissions policy and was thus eligible for tax-exempt status. After the court issued its ruling, Allen told the UPI that he was glad the tax code could not be "used as a weapon" by those who disagreed with the school's "policies or politics."

In 2009, Briarcrest's reputation for racial segregation was the basis for the fictional Wingate Christian School portrayed in the film The Blind Side. Briarcrest officials said they did not permit the use of the school's real name because they felt that the script took excessive artistic license.

Facilities

The Memphis campus serves pre-k through grade 5 and the and Eads campus serves pre-k through grade 12.

Program

Briarcrest is a Non-denominational Christian. Christian values and biblical morals are taught and practiced throughout the program. All students attend weekly chapel services, study the Bible and are encouraged to have a personal relationship with Jesus Christ.

Briarcrest offers honors, advanced placement and dual enrollment classes. Fine arts programs begin in preschool and continue through grade 12 in visual arts, choral music, instrumental music, general music, and theater arts.

Accreditation and affiliations

The school has dual accreditation from the Southern Association of Independent Schools and the Southern Association of Colleges and Schools. Briarcrest is also a member of the Association of Christian Schools International, Tennessee Association of Independent Schools, Memphis Association of Independent Schools, and the College Board.

Sports

Briarcrest participates in Tennessee Secondary School Athletic Association (TSSAA) Division II West AA for large schools, competing with both private and public schools in the region. Since 1998, Briarcrest has won nine state championships (six of which, two in football and four in girls' basketball, were coached by former Ole Miss football coach Hugh Freeze). The school offers athletic programs, including marching band, football, baseball, basketball, wrestling, cross country, golf, bowling, swimming, trap shooting, softball, lacrosse, soccer, volleyball, track, tennis, and cheerleading.

Notable people

• James Edwards – host of The Political Cesspool radio talk show. Left after ninth grade.
• Hugh Freeze – coach who won four girls' basketball state championships and two boys’ football state championships at Briarcrest
• Greg Hardy – football player for the Dallas Cowboys and the University of Mississippi
• John Hemphill – comedian
• Nicole Jordan – Miss Tennessee 2010
• Jim Mabry – University of Arkansas football player; Associated Press First team All-American 1989
• Leslie McDonald – basketball player for the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill
• Austin Nichols – basketball player
• Michael Oher – football player; subject of the book The Blind Side: Evolution of a Game and the 2009 movie The Blind Side.
• Lisa Quinn – television personality, Emmy winner
• Leigh Anne Tuohy – interior designer, author

References

1. Kravitz, Mark R; Mutter, Carol A (1974). "Desegregation of Private Schools: Section 1981 as an Alternative to State Action". Georgetown Law Journal. 62: 1363. Retrieved 2018-05-01. The term "segregation academy" in the South has come to mean an institution which is one of "a system of private schools operated on a racially segregated basis as an alternative available to white students seeking to avoid desegregated public schools... Some private white schools are well-equipped and boast an excellent staff. For example, the Briarcrest Baptist School System, Inc., in Memphis, Tennessee, offers all the standard academic subjects in addition to religious training. {{cite journal}}: Cite has empty unknown parameter: |1= (help)
2. ^ Crespino, Joseph (2007). In Search of Another Country: Mississippi and the Conservative Counterrevolution. Princeton University Press. p. 248. ISBN 0691122091.
3. Nevin, David; Bills, Robert (1976). The schools that fear built: segregationist academies in the South. Washington: Acropolis Books. p. 54. ISBN 0874911796.
4. Wade, Don (February 3, 2010). "Briarcrest sees more growth in future". The Commercial Appeal. Archived from the original on October 17, 2012.
5. "Baptist School Groups Denies Racial Bias". Jet. Johnson Publishing Company. January 4, 1979. p. 7.
6. ^ Allen v. Wright, 468 US 737
7. "Parent calls decision 'Wrong' in tax exemption challenge". The Tennessean. July 5, 1984. p. 9 – via Newspapers.com.
8. Leonard, David J.; George, Kimberly B.; Davis, Wade (2016-10-14). Football, Culture and Power. Routledge. p. 85. ISBN 9781317410881.
9. Sexton, Jared (2017). Black Masculinity and the Cinema of Policing. Palgrave Macmillan, Cham. pp. 89–120. doi:10.1007/978-3-319-66170-4_4. ISBN 9783319661698.
10. Wade, Don (November 24, 2009). "Briarcrest opted out of feature role in 'The Blind Side'". Memphis Commercial Appeal. Retrieved 2018-05-02.
11. Holthouse, David (October 1, 2007). "Racist Memphis Radio Host Celebrated at Council of Conservative Citizens Conference". Southern Poverty Law Center. Retrieved 2018-05-02.
12. Cacciola, Scott (21 October 2014). "Hugh Freeze, Coach at Ole Miss, Follows an Unlikely Blueprint". NY Times. Retrieved 15 December 2017.
13. Greg Hardy. "Greg Hardy, DE for the Carolina Panthers at". Nfl.com. Retrieved 2012-12-26.
14. "409: Site not active". Suburbancommunitynews.com. Retrieved 2012-12-26.
15. Archived March 13, 2011, at the Wayback Machine
16. Borzello, Jeff (November 5, 2012). "Austin Nichols surprisingly chooses Memphis over Tennessee". CBS Sports. Retrieved October 24, 2015.
17. Michael Oher (1986-05-28). "Michael Oher, T for the Baltimore Ravens at". Nfl.com. Retrieved 2012-12-26.
18. Holmes, Linda (2011-02-08). "Beyond 'The Blind Side,' Michael Oher Rewrites His Own Story : Monkey See". NPR. Retrieved 2012-12-26.

External links

• Briarcrest Christian School
• "The Ballad of Big Mike", 2005 New York Times Magazine article on Michael Oher

• 1973 establishments in Tennessee
• Christian schools in Tennessee
• Educational institutions established in 1973
• Preparatory schools in Tennessee
• Private high schools in Tennessee
• Private middle schools in Tennessee
• Private elementary schools in Tennessee
• Segregation academies in Tennessee
• Schools in Memphis, Tennessee
• Schools in Shelby County, Tennessee