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 Southside District in Region I.
Prince Edward County High School is known for the landmark cases Davis v. The Prince Edward County Board of Education and Griffin v. the Prince Edward County Board of Education. These two initial cases that challenged the concept of separate but equal doctrine, and championed by the NAACP were decided for the defendant. In 1951, the school, which was then called Moton High School, was all-black and very impoverished. At the time, white students would attend public all-white schools.
Davis v. The Prince Edward County Board of Education became one of five others forming the foundation of the landmark case, Brown Versus The Board of Education. By 1959, when the county schools were finally forced to integrate, Prince Edward County reacted by closing their public schools. The schools in Prince Edward County were closed from 1959 to 1964, making it the only county in the nation to close its public schools for an extended period to avoid desegregation.
Moton High School remained closed for several years, and black students who wanted an education were forced out of the county. In 1993, the building that formerly housed Moton High School was closed, but the school was declared a National Historic Landmark in 1998. The Moton School has now been turned into a museum commemorating the fight for civil rights in public education and features a permanent exhibit called “The Moton School Story: Children of Courage.”
Moton High was eventually reopened as Prince Edward High School and later renamed Prince Edward County High School.
