Tunica County schools organized in April 1846. The county seat was moved from Commerce to Austin because of flooding, and the former courthouse in Commerce was repurposed as a schoolhouse. During the civil war, school funds were redirected to funding the Confederate army. Public schools did not reopen until 1870. By 1988 there were 16 white and 19 black schools in operation. From 1872 through 1875, Edward Carter, a black man served as superintendent, but was not allowed to enter the property of the white schools. In 1905, $925 was appropriated for white schools, and $1,455 for black schools, although over 80% of the population was black and many of the white elite sent their children away for their education. Rosenwald Fund dollars allocated to build schools for black students were misappropriated to fund white students instead. Even after a pair of equalization programs to make funding more equitable, in 1962 the funding was $172.80 per white student and $5.99 per black student, which was the highest inequity in the state of Mississippi.