[1] In the post Brown v. Board of Education era, white Americans in the Indianola area planned to establish a segregation academy.

[4] In April 1969 the United States Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit ruled that the desegregation plan adopted by the Indianola Municipal Separate School District was constitutionally defective.

In the 1970-1971 school year the elementary classes continued to be held at the area Baptist and Methodist churches, while the students in grades 7-12 moved to the Educational Plant at U.S. Highway 82 East.

[12] An NAACP representative claimed that the school had paid the family of the black student to enroll to avoid losing its tax exempt status.

[14] In 1989 the Indianola Academy made national news with a plan to make drug testing mandatory for all students and employees of the school.

[16] Although the United States Supreme Court has ruled that mandatory testing of teachers and administrators in public schools is a violation of the Fourth Amendment to the United States Constitution, schools such as the Indianola Academy are exempt from scrutiny because they are privately run.

[1][20] A participant of the Sunflower County Freedom Project who had a younger brother who considered applying to the school stated in an article in The Atlantic that, as paraphrased by article author Sarah Carr, "Applicants have to be top students and submit multiple letters of recommendation".

[1] He explained that a "minority scholarship committee" reviews applications to get into the school and awards money to prospective students who "meet the qualifications".

Carr said that IA has, as shown by the IRS forms, "raised a modest amount for scholarships in recent years".

[1] Carr said "Tradition and history partly explain why the scholarships aren't more widely utilized: Black families know their children could be isolated and shunned at the academy, and those with the means and desire to avoid the public schools have long relied on other -- more historically welcoming -- private schools, including a tiny, nearly all-black Christian academy in Indianola.

[1] In a two-year period ending in 2012, according to officials of the Indianola School District, IA received $56,000 in Title II professional development funds.

Sarah Carr of The Atlantic said that Indianola residents told her that "apart from that exchange of money, there's little formal or informal interaction between the academy and the public school system".

Sarah Carr of The Atlantic said that the fence is "a stark reminder that outsiders should stay away" and that the logos are "like territorial markings.

Carr said that IA maintains control of the field "for reasons that remain the subject of urban legend in town".