Union Academy (Bartow, Florida)

Union Academy was founded for the education of African Americans and named for the Union Academy, the fourth school founded in Florida for African Americans by the Freedmens Bureau in Gainesville. A.N. Ritchie was the school's first principal. A secondary education program added in 1923 to make it a high school. Union Academy merged with Summerlin Academy in 1969 and its students joined the white students on the Summerlin campus at what became known as Bartow High School. The Union Academy campus became a middle school. In 1991 it was proposed that Union become an elementary school, but after complaints from the black community, it was instead decided to make it a magnet middle school. Bartow Middle School became the only middle school, and Union became a magnet in the fall of 1992. In 2010 the I.B. program was adopted. ==Athletics==

Union Academy's teams were known as the Tigers. In 1957, coached by Forrest McKennie, Union won the FIAA basketball state championship with a 23-0 record. McKennie also coached Union to state championships in football in 1954, 1958, 1960, and 1963, McKennie was inducted into the Polk County Sports Hall of Fame in 2019. Several graduates went on to star at FAMU and several played in the NFL. ==Notable people==

• Andrew McCutchen, American baseball player for the Pittsburgh Pirates of Major League Baseball • Herbert Dixon, golfer, member of African American Golfers Hall of Fame as well as the National Black Golf Hall of Fame from FAMU • Major Hazelton, American NFL football player • Nat James, American NFL football player • Sam Silas, American football player for the Arizona Cardinals, New York Giants, and San Francisco 49ers. ==References==