[7] Like other segregation academies, the Hammond's name was chosen to buttress the lost cause myth in support of historical revisionism.

[18] One parent told that Los Angeles Times that she enrolled her children at Hammond Academy because "integration had turned the public schools upside down"[19] In 1972, Hammond Academy's tax exemption was revoked by the IRS when it refused to document that it had a racially nondiscriminatory admissions policy.

"[4] The school initially eschewed extracurricular activities in order to emphasize education in "basic subjects".

[21] The school quickly grew to 1,200 students, but in the 1980s enrollment dwindled so low that policy changes were required.

[6] The school stopped flying the Confederate flag in 1984 and began recruiting minority students with scholarships.

[23] By the 1990s, the resulting admission of more than just a token number of minority students moved Hammond into what Jason Kreutner described as class-based segregation.

[9] According to Tom Turnipseed, the name was changed in order to "moderate the shameful sensuality and radical racism of its namesake.

NBA player Alex English, who sent his children to Hammond, said they experienced racism at the school, including from other parents who ostracized white students for dating black classmates.