Fuqua School is a

private Private or privates may refer to: Music * "In Private", by Dusty Springfield from the 1990 album ''Reputation'' * Private (band), a Denmark-based band * "Private" (Ryōko Hirosue song), from the 1999 album ''Private'', written and also recorded ...

primary Primary or primaries may refer to: Arts, entertainment, and media Music Groups and labels * Primary (band), from Australia * Primary (musician), hip hop musician and record producer from South Korea * Primary Music, Israeli record label Work ...

and

secondary school A secondary school, high school, or senior school, is an institution that provides secondary education. Some secondary schools provide both ''lower secondary education'' (ages 11 to 14) and ''upper secondary education'' (ages 14 to 18), i.e., b ...

located in

Farmville, Virginia Farmville is a town in Prince Edward County, Virginia, Prince Edward and Cumberland County, Virginia, Cumberland counties in the U.S. state, Commonwealth of Virginia. It is the county seat of Prince Edward County, Virginia, Prince Edward County. ...

. Founded in 1959 as Prince Edward Academy, a whites-only

segregation academy Segregation academies are private schools in the Southern United States that were founded in the mid-20th century by white parents to avoid having their children attend Racial segregation in the United States, desegregated public schools. They ...

, the school was renamed after businessman J. B. Fuqua made a large contribution to the school in 1993.

History

After the

United States Supreme Court The Supreme Court of the United States (SCOTUS) is the highest court in the federal judiciary of the United States. It has ultimate appellate jurisdiction over all U.S. federal court cases, and over state court cases that turn on question ...

ruled in ''

Brown v. Board of Education ''Brown v. Board of Education of Topeka'', 347 U.S. 483 (1954), was a landmark decision of the United States Supreme Court that ruled that U.S. state laws establishing racial segregation in public schools are unconstitutional, even if the ...

'' that public education must be racially integrated, the Prince Edward County school board closed all of its schools, appropriating no funds whatsoever for public schooling in Prince Edward County for the fall of 1959. Fuqua School was initially founded in 1959 as Prince Edward Academy in response to pending integration, part of a strategy known as massive resistance. Classes began at Prince Edward Academy on September 14, 1959. Over the next few years essentially all of the white children in the district were attending the academy. According to Lino Graglia, the rural nature of Prince Edward County meant that, unlike in Washington D.C., white parents seeking segregated education were forced to build a private school instead of moving to the suburbs. The public school system in Prince Edward County remained closed between 1959 and 1964. The United States Supreme Court decision '' Griffin v. County School Board of Prince Edward County'' with a vote of 7-2 outlawed the allocation of public funds through tuition grants to fund race-discriminating institutions. When public schools were reopened in 1964 and integrated, Prince Edward Academy stood as an option for families who did not want to participate in integration, thus continuing racial tension among citizens. Because Prince Edward Academy did not accept non-white students, it lost its tax-exempt status in 1978 and began to suffer financially. In a 1982 interview with the ''

Los Angeles Times The ''Los Angeles Times'' is an American Newspaper#Daily, daily newspaper that began publishing in Los Angeles, California, in 1881. Based in the Greater Los Angeles city of El Segundo, California, El Segundo since 2018, it is the List of new ...

'', headmaster Robert Woods said that the school had an open admissions policy, but that no blacks had been admitted since they were less intelligent than whites. Woods added that the school did not "teach segregation or integration" because that was "for the parents to do". It was not until the late 1980s that it ended its policy of

discrimination Discrimination is the process of making unfair or prejudicial distinctions between people based on the groups, classes, or other categories to which they belong or are perceived to belong, such as race, gender, age, class, religion, or sex ...

and admitted students of other races. Its association with "

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" and discrimination in the past still causes some tension in the Farmville community, especially among non-whites and students of the local public schools. By the early 1990s, with aging technology, a very small

alumni Alumni (: alumnus () or alumna ()) are former students or graduates of a school, college, or university. The feminine plural alumnae is sometimes used for groups of women, and alums (: alum) or alumns (: alumn) as gender-neutral alternatives. Th ...

contribution base, and an increasing debt, Prince Edward Academy was nearing financial collapse. In 1992, former

local Local may refer to: Geography and transportation * Local (train), a train serving local traffic demand * Local, Missouri, a community in the United States Arts, entertainment, and media * ''Local'' (comics), a limited series comic book by Bria ...

resident and businessman J. B. Fuqua donated about $10 million to pay off debts and install necessary improvements to the school, such as

air conditioning Air conditioning, often abbreviated as A/C (US) or air con (UK), is the process of removing heat from an enclosed space to achieve a more comfortable interior temperature, and in some cases, also controlling the humidity of internal air. Air c ...

and

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. The school was transformed at that point with a new administration, a new mascot and school colors, in addition to the school's changed name. Fuqua said that his donation was intended to "close the door" on Prince Edward County's history of racial division and earmarked a portion of his gift to minority scholarships. J. B. Fuqua's support for and interest in the private school did not end with his initial contribution; until his death in 2006, Fuqua donated thousands of dollars to the school each year and regularly visited the school and its students. In 2008, in order to improve its reputation in Farmville, Fuqua School offered African-American high school football player Charles Williams a full scholarship to the school if he would agree to promote it in the town's black community.Fuqua School looks to African American football star to shatter racist legacy
(

Washington Post ''The Washington Post'', locally known as ''The'' ''Post'' and, informally, ''WaPo'' or ''WP'', is an American daily newspaper published in Washington, D.C., the national capital. It is the most widely circulated newspaper in the Washington m ...

, December 11, 2011) As of the 2015–16 school year, 15 of Fuqua's 344 students were black. Fuqua's administration and students have also been actively involved with recent community efforts to commemorate the 1951 R.R. Moton High School student walkout, a major event in the struggle to end public and private segregation in the U.S.Joining Hands with History: PECHS, Fuqua Students Walk and Stand Together
( Farmville Herald, April 24, 2014)

Academics

The Fuqua campus is organized into three smaller schools, each with their own faculty, staff and daily schedules: * Upper School: 7th to 12th grade * Lower School: Pre-K to 6th grade

Accreditation

The school is fully accredited by the Virginia Association of Independent Schools, and the

Southern Association of Colleges and Schools The Southern Association of Colleges and Schools (SACS) is a regional educational accreditor recognized by the United States Department of Education and the Council for Higher Education Accreditation. As of 2022, the organization oversees ap ...

.AdvancED – Institution Summary
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Extracurricular Activities

The Upper School at Fuqua currently features the following student clubs and activities: * Battle of the Brains, Ecology Club, Debate Team, Model United Nations (sponsored by

Hampden-Sydney College Hampden Sydney is a census-designated place (CDP) in Prince Edward County, Virginia, United States. The population was 1,450 at the 2010 census. Hampden Sydney is the home of Hampden–Sydney College, a private all-male college that is the tenth ...

), Readers Club, Student Organization for Developing Attitudes (S.O.D.A.), Youth For Christ, Youth and Government

Athletics

The Falcons organize their student athletes mostly into Junior Varsity (6th-8th grade) and Varsity (9th-12th grade) teams. Most teams have a boys and a girls team, but a few are organized only as co-ed teams. Fuqua School typically competes with other Virginia private schools like the Fishburne Military School and Isle of Wight Academy. Fuqua School athletes (as of the 2022–2023 school year) compete on the following schedule: * Fall Sports: Varsity and Junior Varsity Boys Football, Varsity and Junior Varsity Girls Volleyball, Middle School Girls Volleyball, Varsity Co-ed Cross Country, Varsity and Junior Varsity Cheerleading * Winter Sports: Varsity and Junior Varsity Boys Basketball, Middle School Boys Basketball, Varsity and Junior Varsity Girls Basketball, Middle School Girls Basketball, Varsity and Middle School Co-ed Swimming, Varsity and Junior Varsity Cheerleading * Spring Sports: Varsity and Junior Varsity Boys Baseball, Varsity and Junior Varsity Girls Softball, Boys Lacrosse, Girls Lacrosse, Varsity Co-ed Soccer, Varsity Co-ed Golf

References

External links

Fuqua School
{{authority control Private K–12 schools in Virginia Schools in Prince Edward County, Virginia Educational institutions established in 1959 Segregation academies in Virginia 1959 establishments in Virginia