Rappahannock Industrial Academy

How the Southside Rappahannock Baptist Association provided a high school education for African Americans students.

Like many motorists I have passed this memorial off Route 17 in the Dunnsville, Virginia area probably a hundred times, of not more, and never noticed it until I decided to pull over and read it. What little I read intrigued me, so I began another adventure, not on the highways but on the internet. What I discovered was fascinating.

The roadside memorial as it stands as of January 8, 2023.

The Rappahannock Industrial Academy was a combination of things - a private boarding school offering a high school education for African Americans that were denied that opportunity by local public schools. At that time Virginia's Constitution, from 1868 did not extend the opportunity for a public education beyond the seventh grade for African American children.

To overcome this, in 1897, the Southside Rappahannock Baptist Association, consisting of 38 churches primarily from Middlesex, Essex, and King and Queen counties, determined to create their own institution which would not only stress scholastic excellence, but stress Christian values and character development for African American children. A Site Committee was formed and by 1900 they had raised enough money ($1,200) to purchase a 159 acre farm in Dunnsville, Virginia.

Eventually separate dormitories were built - one for 45 female students, two teachers, a dining hall, chapel and an administrative office; and another for 30 male students, a library, a laboratory, three classrooms, and two teachers. In time the campus expanded to a total of 300 acres.

One of the dormitories. I haven’t been able to distinguish which dormitory was for the female. and which was for the male students.

The second image of the dormitories. Again at this time I don’t know which was for the girls and which for the boys.

The Rappahannock Industrial Academy existed from 1902 to 1948. The school closed in 1948, after a decision of the Virginia Supreme Court that established free transportation to high schools for students of all races. The Academy's records for its students were by Essex High School in Tappahannock, Virginia.

W. E. Robinson was the President of the Southside Rappahannock Baptist Association and instrumental in overseeing and raising the funds to start the project. He also served as Principal of the school from 1904 - 1933.

While the property still is owned by the Southside Rappahannock Baptist Association there is nothing left to remember RIA except a roadside memorial erected in 1982, and two displays that once held photographs of the buildings.

The memorial as it stood on January 8, 2023.

While the two displays behind the brick and concrete memorial still stand, they are devoid of photographs. I have been able to find images of how they looked, and what they displayed, in better days. Here are photographs I was able to find on the web.

And two brick columns that stand astride the road that would have lead back to the Academy. On them are bronze plaques that read "Rappahannock Industrial Academy, 1902 - 1948, Presented By Class of 1929."

Today there is a solar farm on the property where the Academy once stood.