 The school was originally affiliated with the First Christian Church, but became a separate organization in 1982.Franklin Road Academy was founded in 1971 as a segregation academy in response to the court ordered racial integration of public schools.FRA's leaders claimed the school was established to provide a sound, Christian, education in a safer environment, but the sociologist Jennifer Dyer has argued that the school's stated objectives were simply a "guise" for the school's actual objective of allowing parents to avoid enrolling their children in racially integrated public schools.