Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: WEDNESDAY, August 25, 1993 TAG: 9308250190
SECTION: VIRGINIA PAGE: C-3 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: Associated Press
DATELINE: FARMVILLE LENGTH: Medium
"The majority of the students are in public school. I think he could have done something other than put his money in a very small, elitist school," said Bob Rogers, a Hampden-Sydney College religion professor.
J.B. Fuqua on Monday announced his gift to Prince Edward Academy, which has been renamed Fuqua Academy in his honor. The 600-student academy was founded for white students in 1959 after the county stopped funding its public schools rather than integrate them. Minority students were admitted to the school in 1986, and 22 were enrolled in the last school year.
The Prince Edward County public schools have 2,640 students, about 58 percent of them black, said James M. Anderson Jr., school superintendent. The schools were 93 percent black two decades ago, he said.
"It's an excellent school system," Anderson said. "Mr. Fuqua is a product of the public schools of Prince Edward County. He is living testimony of the fact that public education can produce a truly educated person of the highest quality."
Fuqua, 75, was raised on a tobacco farm in the county and went on to make a fortune as chairman of two financial investment firms, The Fuqua Companies and Vista Resources Inc.
He said he chose to endow the academy "because in a private school you can make changes, get things done. You don't have a bureaucracy."
James E. Ghee Jr., a black lawyer who attended high school outside Virginia when the Prince Edward schools were closed, said he urged Fuqua to donate to public schools as a way of "removing the blemish" on the county.
by CNB