Prince Edward County is located in the

Commonwealth A commonwealth is a traditional English term for a political community founded for the common good. Historically, it has been synonymous with "republic". The noun "commonwealth", meaning "public welfare, general good or advantage", dates from the ...

Virginia Virginia, officially the Commonwealth of Virginia, is a state in the Mid-Atlantic and Southeastern regions of the United States, between the Atlantic Coast and the Appalachian Mountains. The geography and climate of the Commonwealth are ...

. As of the 2020 census, the population was 21,849. Its

county seat A county seat is an administrative center, seat of government, or capital city of a county or civil parish. The term is in use in Canada, China, Hungary, Romania, Taiwan, and the United States. The equivalent term shire town is used in the US ...

is Farmville.

History

Formation and county seats

Prince Edward County was formed in the Virginia Colony in 1754 from Amelia County. It was named for Prince Edward, second son of

Frederick, Prince of Wales Frederick, Prince of Wales, (Frederick Louis, ; 31 January 170731 March 1751), was the eldest son and heir apparent of King George II of Great Britain. He grew estranged from his parents, King George and Queen Caroline. Frederick was the fa ...

, and younger brother of

George III of the United Kingdom George III (George William Frederick; 4 June 173829 January 1820) was King of Great Britain and of Ireland from 25 October 1760 until the union of the two kingdoms on 1 January 1801, after which he was King of the United Kingdom of Great Br ...

. The original

housed the courthouse and was called Prince Edward Courthouse; it is now the village of Worsham. Near the headwaters of the

Appomattox River The Appomattox River is a tributary of the James River, approximately long,U.S. Geological Survey. National Hydrography Dataset high-resolution flowline dataThe National Map, accessed April 1, 2011 in central and eastern Virginia in the United S ...

, the Town of Farmville was formed in 1798, and was incorporated in 1912. The county seat was moved from Worsham to Farmville in 1871.

Railroads

In the 1850s, the Southside Railroad between Petersburg and Lynchburg was built through Farmville between Burkeville and Pamplin City. The route, which was subsidized by a contribution from Farmville, required an expensive crossing of the Appomattox River slightly downstream which became known as the High Bridge. The Southside Railroad was heavily damaged during the

American Civil War The American Civil War (April 12, 1861 – May 26, 1865; also known by Names of the American Civil War, other names) was a civil war in the United States. It was fought between the Union (American Civil War), Union ("the North") and t ...

. The High Bridge played a key role during Confederate General

Robert E. Lee Robert Edward Lee (January 19, 1807 – October 12, 1870) was a Confederate general during the American Civil War, towards the end of which he was appointed the overall commander of the Confederate States Army. He led the Army of Nor ...

's final retreat from Petersburg to Appomattox Courthouse, where the surrender to Union General

Ulysses S. Grant Ulysses S. Grant (born Hiram Ulysses Grant ; April 27, 1822July 23, 1885) was an American military officer and politician who served as the 18th president of the United States from 1869 to 1877. As Commanding General, he led the Union A ...

took place in April 1865. After the Civil War, under the leadership of former Confederate General William "Billy" Mahone, the Southside Railroad was rebuilt. In 1870, it was combined with the Norfolk and Petersburg Railroad and the Virginia and Tennessee Railroad to form Mahone's Atlantic, Mississippi and Ohio Railroad (AM&O), which extended 400 miles across the southern tier of Virginia from

Norfolk Norfolk () is a ceremonial and non-metropolitan county in East Anglia in England. It borders Lincolnshire to the north-west, Cambridgeshire to the west and south-west, and Suffolk to the south. Its northern and eastern boundaries are the Nor ...

Hampton Roads Hampton Roads is the name of both a body of water in the United States that serves as a wide channel for the James, Nansemond and Elizabeth rivers between Old Point Comfort and Sewell's Point where the Chesapeake Bay flows into the Atlantic ...

Bristol Bristol () is a City status in the United Kingdom, city, Ceremonial counties of England, ceremonial county and unitary authority in England. Situated on the River Avon, Bristol, River Avon, it is bordered by the ceremonial counties of Glouces ...

. After the

Financial Panic of 1873 The Panic of 1873 was a financial crisis that triggered an economic depression in Europe and North America that lasted from 1873 to 1877 or 1879 in France and in Britain. In Britain, the Panic started two decades of stagnation known as the " ...

, the AM&O fell into default on its debt; it was purchased in the early 1880s by new owners who renamed it the Norfolk and Western (N&W). In 1982, it became part of the current

Norfolk Southern Railway The Norfolk Southern Railway is a Class I freight railroad in the United States formed in 1982 with the merger of Norfolk and Western Railway and Southern Railway. With headquarters in Atlanta, the company operates 19,420 route miles (31 ...

system. Due to the high cost of maintaining the High Bridge over the Appomattox River, the line through Farmville was downgraded and eventually abandoned, in favor of the Farmville Belt Line, which had been built on a more direct line between Burkeville and Pamplin City, as had originally been envisioned in the planning for the Southside Railroad. Another railroad formerly served Farmville. In the late 19th century, the

narrow gauge A narrow-gauge railway (narrow-gauge railroad in the US) is a railway with a track gauge narrower than standard . Most narrow-gauge railways are between and . Since narrow-gauge railways are usually built with tighter curves, smaller structu ...

Farmville and Powhatan Railroad In 1886, Randolph Harrison, of the Virginia department of Agriculture, cited Cumberland Mining Company, stating that businessmen would soon open a hotel at Lithia Springs, Farmville, VA for people seeking the healing waters. The Brighthope railway ...

was built from Farmville through

Cumberland Cumberland ( ) is a historic counties of England, historic county in the far North West England. It covers part of the Lake District as well as the north Pennines and Solway Firth coast. Cumberland had an administrative function from the 12th c ...

, Powhatan, and Chesterfield counties to reach Bermuda Hundred on the navigable portion of the

James River The James River is a river in the U.S. state of Virginia that begins in the Appalachian Mountains and flows U.S. Geological Survey. National Hydrography Dataset high-resolution flowline dataThe National Map , accessed April 1, 2011 to Chesap ...

near its confluence with the

at City Point. It was later renamed the

Tidewater and Western Railroad The Farmville and Powhatan Railroad went bankrupt in 1905 and became the Tidewater and Western Railroad. The line survived until 1917 when it was pulled up and sent to France for the World War I effort. The Tidewater and Western Railroad carried ...

, but was dismantled in the early 20th century.

Desegregation

Prince Edward County is the source of '' Davis v. County School Board of Prince Edward County'', a case incorporated into '' Brown v. Board of Education,'' which ultimately resulted in the U.S. Supreme Court decision that racially segregated public schools were unconstitutional. This ultimately led to the desegregation of all U.S. public schools. Among the five cases decided under ''Brown'', Davis was the only one initiated by students, after they walked out in 1951 to protest overcrowding and poor conditions at their segregated school under

Jim Crow laws The Jim Crow laws were state and local laws enforcing racial segregation in the Southern United States. Other areas of the United States were affected by formal and informal policies of segregation as well, but many states outside the S ...

. The all-black R.R. Moton High School, named after

Robert Russa Moton Robert Russa Moton (August 26, 1867 – May 31, 1940) was an American educator and author. He served as an administrator at Hampton Institute. In 1915 he was named principal of Tuskegee Institute, after the death of founder Booker T. Washington, ...

, a noted educator from neighboring Amelia County, did not have a gymnasium, cafeteria, or teachers' restrooms. Due to overcrowding, three plywood buildings had been erected, and some students had to take classes in a school bus parked outside. Teachers and students did not have desks or blackboards. The school's requests for additional funds were denied by the all-white school board. On Monday, April 23, 1951,

Barbara Johns Barbara Rose Johns Powell (March 6, 1935 – September 28, 1991) was a leader in the American civil rights movement. On April 23, 1951, at the age of 16, Powell led a student strike for equal education at R.R. Moton High School in Farmville ...

, the sixteen-year-old niece of Reverend Vernon Johns, a civil rights activist, led students who staged a walkout protesting the conditions. The

NAACP The National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP) is a civil rights organization in the United States, formed in 1909 as an interracial endeavor to advance justice for African Americans by a group including W. E.&n ...

took up their case when the students agreed to petition for an integrated school rather than improved conditions at their black school. This vote passed by one count.

Howard University Howard University (Howard) is a Private university, private, University charter#Federal, federally chartered historically black research university in Washington, D.C. It is Carnegie Classification of Institutions of Higher Education, classifie ...

-trained attorneys Spottswood W. Robinson and Oliver Hill filed suit against the county school system on behalf of the students. As in other Southern states, since the turn of the twentieth century black voters in Virginia had been largely disenfranchised, which resulted in their lacking political power. In ''Davis v. County School Board of Prince Edward County'', a state court rejected the suit, agreeing with defense attorney T. Justin Moore that Virginia was vigorously equalizing conditions in black and white schools. The state verdict was appealed to the U.S. District Court, which ruled for the plaintiffs, a decision the school district and the state appealed. Subsequently, it was one of five cases incorporated into ''Brown v. Board of Education'', the landmark case in which the U.S. Supreme Court in 1954 ruled that segregated public schools were unconstitutional.

Massive Resistance

In 1956, the

Virginia General Assembly The Virginia General Assembly is the legislative body of the Commonwealth of Virginia, the oldest continuous law-making body in the Western Hemisphere, the first elected legislative assembly in the New World, and was established on July 30, 16 ...

passed a series of laws (the Stanley Plan) to implement

Massive Resistance Massive resistance was a strategy declared by U.S. Senator Harry F. Byrd Sr. of Virginia and his brother-in-law James M. Thomson, who represented Alexandria in the Virginia General Assembly, to get the state's white politicians to pass laws and ...

, a policy promoted by the

Byrd Organization The Byrd machine, or Byrd organization, was a political machine of the Democratic Party led by former Governor and U.S. Senator Harry F. Byrd (1887–1966) that dominated Virginia politics for much of the 20th century. From the 1890s until the ...

led by U.S. Senator Harry F. Byrd, to avoid compliance with the Supreme Court ruling in ''Brown'' and its direction to integrate public schools. The state legislature (overwhelmingly dominated by whites since disfranchisement of African Americans in the state in the early 1900s) created a program of "tuition grants," which could be given to students so they could attend a private school of their choice. In practice, this meant state support of all-white schools that were developed as a way to evade integration of public schools. These newly formed schools became known as the " segregation academies". As a result of the ''Brown'' decision, and changes in Virginia laws, in 1959, the Board of Supervisors for Prince Edward County refused to appropriate ''any'' funds at all for the County School Board. It effectively closed all public schools rather than integrate them. The Prince Edward County Public Schools remained closed for five years. While other Virginia and some southern school systems resisted integration, Prince Edward County was the only school district in the country to resort to such extreme measures. During the interruption in access to Prince Edward County's public schools, white parents established the Prince Edward Foundation. It founded a series of private schools restricted to white children. These schools were supported by the tuition grants from the state and tax credits from the county. Collectively they became known as " Prince Edward Academy", one of Virginia's "segregation academies". Prince Edward Academy operated as the ''

de facto ''De facto'' ( ; , "in fact") describes practices that exist in reality, whether or not they are officially recognized by laws or other formal norms. It is commonly used to refer to what happens in practice, in contrast with '' de jure'' ("by l ...

'' school system and enrolled K-12 students at a number of facilities throughout the county. From 1959 to 1964, black students in Prince Edward County had to go to school elsewhere or forgo their education altogether. Some got schooling by living with relatives in nearby communities or at makeshift schools the community created in church basements. Others were educated out of state with funds raised by groups such as the

Quakers Quakers are people who belong to a historically Protestant Christian set of denominations known formally as the Religious Society of Friends. Members of these movements ("theFriends") are generally united by a belief in each human's abili ...

. In the final year (1963–1964), the NAACP-sponsored Prince Edward Free School picked up some of the slack by educating some of the black youth who had been unable to leave the county to attend public schools elsewhere. In 1963, federal district courts ordered the public schools to open; Prince Edward County appealed to the U.S. Supreme Court. Ruling in '' Griffin v. County School Board of Prince Edward County'', the Court unanimously agreed in May 1964 that Prince Edward County's actions violated the

Equal Protection Clause The Equal Protection Clause is part of the first section of the Fourteenth Amendment to the United States Constitution. The clause, which took effect in 1868, provides "''nor shall any State ... deny to any person within its jurisdiction the equal ...

of the 14th Amendment. At that point, county and state supervisors gave in rather than risk prosecution and prison, ending the era of Massive Resistance in Virginia. The same summer, following the Griffith ruling, 16 students from Queens College (New York) ventured south to Prince Edward County during their "Student Help Project" Program, a precursor to the 1964 Mississippi Freedom Summer. The students served as teachers to the many African-American children who had been denied an education. These volunteers worked with the students to prepare them to resume classes when schools reopened that fall. The volunteers from Queens College were housed among leading African-American families in the county that summer. They used local churches as school houses during the week. Many of the students involved in the program have since donated their archives to the Queens College Department of Special Collections and Archives. As a result of Prince Edward County's actions, some students missed part or all of their education for five years. This group has been called the "Lost Generation" of Prince Edward County's youth.

Private education since 1964

Even after the re-opening of the public schools, Prince Edward Academy remained segregated. Many of the segregated academies in Virginia eventually closed; others changed their missions and eliminated discriminatory policies. Some yielded on integration only after the

Internal Revenue Service The Internal Revenue Service (IRS) is the revenue service for the United States federal government, which is responsible for collecting U.S. federal taxes and administering the Internal Revenue Code, the main body of the federal statutory t ...

(IRS) revoked the tax-free status of non-profit discriminatory private schools. Prince Edward Academy was one of the latter and lost its tax-exempt status in 1978. In 1986, the school began to accept all students regardless of race or ethnicity. It was renamed the

Fuqua School Fuqua School is a private primary and secondary school located in Farmville, Virginia. It was founded as Prince Edward Academy in 1959 as a ( Whites only) segregation academy and renamed after businessman J. B. Fuqua made a large contribution t ...

in 1992, in honor of

J. B. Fuqua John Brooks Fuqua (pronounced ) (June 26, 1918 – April 5, 2006) was a businessman, philanthropist, airport creator and chairman of The Fuqua Companies and Fuqua Enterprises. The Fuqua School of Business at Duke University is named after him, as i ...

, a wealthy businessman who was born in Farmville and was a strong supporter of the school in its early years. Fuqua remains the only large private school in Prince Edward County, but a few other smaller private schools have been opened in recent decades.

Robert Russa Moton Museum

The former R.R. Moton High School building in Farmville has been recognized as a nationally significant community landmark. In 1998, it was designated a

National Historic Landmark A National Historic Landmark (NHL) is a building, district, object, site, or structure that is officially recognized by the United States government for its outstanding historical significance. Only some 2,500 (~3%) of over 90,000 places liste ...

. It now houses the Robert Russa Moton Museum, a center for the study of

civil rights Civil and political rights are a class of rights that protect individuals' freedom from infringement by governments, social organizations, and private individuals. They ensure one's entitlement to participate in the civil and political life ...

in education.

Geography

According to the

U.S. Census Bureau The United States Census Bureau (USCB), officially the Bureau of the Census, is a principal agency of the U.S. Federal Statistical System, responsible for producing data about the American people and economy. The Census Bureau is part of the ...

, the county has a total area of , of which is land and (1.1%) is water. Most of the county's streams drain into the Appomattox River, a tributary of the James River, but in the southeastern corner of the county, streams drain via the Nottoway River into the Chowan River and thence into Albemarle Sound in North Carolina. The highest point in the county is the top of Leighs Mountain at 714 feet above sea level.

Adjacent counties

Cumberland County Cumberland County may refer to: Australia * Cumberland County, New South Wales * the former name of Cumberland Land District, Tasmania, Australia Canada *Cumberland County, Nova Scotia United Kingdom *Cumberland, historic county *Cumberla ...

– north * Buckingham County – northwest * Amelia County – northeast * Appomattox County – west * Nottoway County – east * Charlotte County – southwest * Lunenburg County – southeast

Major highways

* (Farmville Rd; merges with US 460 to bypass Farmville. US Business 15 goes through the town of Farmville) * (Patrick Henry Hwy) * (Prince Edward Hwy) * (N. Main St in Farmville) * (Holly Farms Rd)

Demographics

2020 Census

''Note: the US Census treats Hispanic/Latino as an ethnic category. This table excludes Latinos from the racial categories and assigns them to a separate category. Hispanics/Latinos can be of any race.''

2000 Census

As of the

census A census is the procedure of systematically acquiring, recording and calculating information about the members of a given population. This term is used mostly in connection with national population and housing censuses; other common censuses inc ...

of 2000, there were 19,720 people, 6,561 households, and 4,271 families residing in the county. The

population density Population density (in agriculture: standing stock or plant density) is a measurement of population per unit land area. It is mostly applied to humans, but sometimes to other living organisms too. It is a key geographical term.Matt RosenberPopu ...

was 56 people per square mile (22/km²). There were 7,527 housing units at an average density of 21 per square mile (8/km²). The racial makeup of the county was 62.17%

White White is the lightest color and is achromatic (having no hue). It is the color of objects such as snow, chalk, and milk, and is the opposite of black. White objects fully reflect and scatter all the visible wavelengths of light. White ...

, 35.82%

Black Black is a color which results from the absence or complete absorption of visible light. It is an achromatic color, without hue, like white and grey. It is often used symbolically or figuratively to represent darkness. Black and white ha ...

African American African Americans (also referred to as Black Americans and Afro-Americans) are an ethnic group consisting of Americans with partial or total ancestry from sub-Saharan Africa. The term "African American" generally denotes descendants of ens ...

, 0.18% Native American, 0.55% Asian, 0.10%

Pacific Islander Pacific Islanders, Pasifika, Pasefika, or rarely Pacificers are the peoples of the Pacific Islands. As an ethnic/ racial term, it is used to describe the original peoples—inhabitants and diasporas—of any of the three major subregions of O ...

, 0.23% from other races, and 0.95% from two or more races. 0.94% of the population were

Hispanic The term ''Hispanic'' ( es, hispano) refers to people, cultures, or countries related to Spain, the Spanish language, or Hispanidad. The term commonly applies to countries with a cultural and historical link to Spain and to viceroyalties for ...

or Latino of any race. There were 6,561 households, out of which 29.00% had children under the age of 18 living with them, 46.50% were

married couples Marriage, also called matrimony or wedlock, is a culturally and often legally recognized union between people called spouses. It establishes rights and obligations between them, as well as between them and their children, and between ...

living together, 14.90% had a female householder with no husband present, and 34.90% were non-families. 28.90% of all households were made up of individuals, and 12.30% had someone living alone who was 65 years of age or older. The average household size was 2.43 and the average family size was 2.99. In the county, the population was spread out, with 20.20% under the age of 18, 23.50% from 18 to 24, 22.50% from 25 to 44, 19.60% from 45 to 64, and 14.20% who were 65 years of age or older. The median age was 32 years. For every 100 females there were 95.70 males. For every 100 females age 18 and over, there were 93.20 males. The median income for a household in the county was $31,301, and the median income for a family was $38,509. Males had a median income of $29,487 versus $21,659 for females. The

per capita income Per capita income (PCI) or total income measures the average income earned per person in a given area (city, region, country, etc.) in a specified year. It is calculated by dividing the area's total income by its total population. Per capita i ...

for the county was $14,510.

Poverty

About 14.6 percent of families and 18.9 percent of the population were below the

poverty line The poverty threshold, poverty limit, poverty line or breadline is the minimum level of income deemed adequate in a particular country. The poverty line is usually calculated by estimating the total cost of one year's worth of necessities for ...

, including 24.4 percent of those under age 18 and 15.9 percent of those ages 65 and over. Persons below poverty in the year of 2007 were 20.3 percent compared to 9.9 percent of Virginia. Native Americans accounted for 71.8 percent in 2000. There is a relatively large number of children between the ages of 12 and 17. This age group accounts for 27 percent of the poverty. Unemployment accounted for 10.3 percent in Prince Edward County compared to 7.2 in all of Virginia.

Education

Prince Edward County Public Schools operates the following schools, all located on the same multi-school campus in the Town of Farmville: * Prince Edward County Elementary School * Prince Edward County Middle School *

Prince Edward County High School Prince Edward County High School is a public high school located in Farmville community in Prince Edward County, Virginia. It is part of the Prince Edward County School Division. Athletic teams compete in the Virginia High School League's AA So ...

Also located within the multi-school campus is the Prince Edward County Career & Technical Education Center, offering a range of specialized courses, such as business law, carpentry, agriculture and automotive technology. The

, member of the Virginia Association of Independent Schools, is the primary K-12 alternative to the public schools for Prince Edward County, having been founded as a segregation academy. It, like each of the county's public schools, is located in Farmville. The private men's college Hampden-Sydney College is located in Prince Edward County, south of Farmville in the unincorporated community of

Hampden Sydney, Virginia 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 ...

Longwood University Longwood University is a public university in Farmville, Virginia. Founded in 1839, it is the third-oldest public university in Virginia and one of the hundred oldest institutions of higher education in the United States. Previously a college, Lo ...

, the third-oldest public university in Virginia, is located in Farmville.

Politics

Communities

Towns

* Farmville (northern part of town in

) * Pamplin City (mostly in Appomattox County)

Census-designated place

* Hampden Sydney

Unincorporated communities

* Green Bay * Meherrin *

Prospect Prospect may refer to: General * Prospect (marketing), a marketing term describing a potential customer * Prospect (sports), any player whose rights are owned by a professional team, but who has yet to play a game for the team * Prospect (minin ...

Rice Rice is the seed of the grass species '' Oryza sativa'' (Asian rice) or less commonly ''Oryza glaberrima'' (African rice). The name wild rice is usually used for species of the genera '' Zizania'' and '' Porteresia'', both wild and domesticat ...

* Tuggle

Notable people

, businessman, philanthropist, chairman of The Fuqua Companies and Fuqua Enterprises. He was a supporter of the Fuqua School until his death in 2006, and the school adopted his surname in his honor in 1992. * Joseph Eggleston Johnston,

Confederate Army The Confederate States Army, also called the Confederate Army or the Southern Army, was the military land force of the Confederate States of America (commonly referred to as the Confederacy) during the American Civil War (1861–1865), fighti ...

General * Henry Watkins Allen, (1820–1866),

officer, born in Prince Edward County. *

Blanche Kelso Bruce Blanche Kelso Bruce (March 1, 1841March 17, 1898) was born into slavery in Prince Edward County, Virginia, and went on to become a politician who represented Mississippi as a Republican Party (United States), Republican in the United States Sena ...

, the first black, full-term US Senator (1875 to 1881), Republican, born a slave in Prince Edward County. * Charles S. Venable,

officer, lawyer, served on the wartime staff of General

. Born in Prince Edward County. * Abraham Bedford Venable (1758–1811), a US Representative and Senator from Prince Edward County. He was a lawyer and a president of the Bank of Virginia. He died in a fire in Richmond in 1811

* Reverend

Vernon Johns Dr. Vernon Johns (April 22, 1892 – June 11, 1965) was an American minister based in the South and a pioneer in the civil rights movement. He is best known as the pastor (1947–52) of the Dexter Avenue Baptist Church in Montgomery, Alabama. He ...

, noted civil-rights leader *

James West James or Jim West may refer to: People * James West (Australian journalist) (born 1982), Australian journalist and author * James West (antiquary) (1703–1772), English politician and antiquary; president of the Royal Society * James E. West (poli ...

is an inventor with over 250 patents. (1931-presen

References

External links

Prince Edward County official website
{{Coord, 37.22, -78.44, display=title, type:adm2nd_region:US-VA_source:UScensus1990 Prince Edward County, Virginia, Virginia counties 1754 establishments in Virginia Majority-minority counties and independent cities in Virginia