Liberty Christian Academy

Liberty Christian Academy is a Christian school in Lynchburg, Virginia. Founded in 1967 by Baptist preacher Jerry Falwell as a ministry of Thomas Road Baptist Church, the school is recognized as an educational facility by the Commonwealth of Virginia through the Virginia State Board of Education, Southern Association of Colleges and Schools, and the Association of Christian Schools International. The academy consists of pre–K through grade 12.HistoryDuring the 1950s and 1960s, Falwell spoke and campaigned against the U.S. civil rights activist Martin Luther King, Jr. and the desegregation of public school systems by the U.S. federal government.Described in 1966 by the Lynchburg News as "a private school for white students," the school opened in 1967 as a segregation academy.Baptist preacher Jerry Falwell founded the school as Lynchburg Christian Academy and developed it as a ministry of Thomas Road Baptist Church. Unlike many similar segregation academies in the southern United States, the school became racially integrated two years after its opening.