Prince Edward Board of Supervisors Approves Updated County Seal

PRINCE EDWARD CO. – A new flag flies over the newly renovated front lawn of the Prince Edward County Courthouse. At its October 25, 2022 meeting, the Prince Edward County Board of Supervisors unanimously approved an amendment to add the former Robert Russa Moton High School to the official County Seal. The former high school is now a National Historical Landmark and museum and the birthplace of America’s student-led Civil Rights Revolution. 

“Our seal and flag are symbols of pride,” said Board Chair Odessa H. Pride, Ed.D. “Prince Edward County is so very blessed with this rich heritage that embraces both agriculture and education. Our community is also proud and enlightened by the historic role the students at R.R.  Moton High School had in ending public school segregation in the United States. The amendment to the county seal was an overdue opportunity for the Board to commemorate the importance of civil rights in education in the County’s history.” 

The original county seal, which was adopted by the Board of Supervisors on February 12, 2002, was created in anticipation of the County’s 250th Anniversary in 2004. It was designed by County resident and artist, Richard C. McClintock, Ph.D., who is well-known for his interest in local history and architecture. In designing the original seal, Dr. McClintock incorporated images that depict both the past and the present of Prince Edward County. Dr. McClintock also assisted the County with this recent design update. 

At the center of the seal is an abundant sheaf of wheat, representing the importance of agriculture in the county’s past. The stylized image of the wheat was borrowed from neighboring Amelia County’s seal, and thus serves also as a reminder that Prince Edward County was formed from Amelia County in 1754.  

The domed structure directly to the left of the sheaf of wheat is the Rotunda at Longwood University. Dating to the 1880s, the Rotunda was rebuilt after a 2001 fire. Longwood, which was founded in 1839 as the Farmville Female Seminary Association, had a series of names over its early history before becoming Longwood College in 1949 and Longwood University in 2002.  It is the third-oldest public university in Virginia and one of the hundred oldest institutions of higher education in the United States. 

Just below the Rotunda is the cupola (bell tower) that rests atop the Prince Edward County Courthouse, constructed in 1939. On July 21, 2008, the Light of Reconciliation was illuminated in the Courthouse Bell Tower by the Board of Supervisors of Prince Edward County in honor of Barbara Rose Johns and the students of the Robert Russa Moton High School, and all the children of our county for their historic role in ending public school segregation in the United States, and with sorrow for closing schools. And, when we raise our eye to see this light, may we also include our hearts and minds to shine our own light of reconciliation toward all people.  

Directly below the wheat on the newly adopted seal is the former Robert Russa Moton High School. Constructed in 1939, Moton was the all-black high school in Prince Edward County. In April 1951, the students, led by then 16-year-old Barbara Johns, staged a walkout in protest of inadequate and unsafe school conditions. Those conditions were a direct result of the county’s policy to resist desegregation and made Farmville one of the early battlegrounds of the fight for equality that eventually became the landmark Brown v. Board of Education Supreme Court decision. In 1995, the school was retired from service by the Prince Edward County School Board. In 1996, the citizen-led Martha E. Forrester Council of Women saved the historic Moton High School from demolition. It became a National Historic Landmark in 1998 and a museum in 2001. 

Prior to its amendment, the County seal included the Old Prince Edward County Clerk’s Office at Worsham, the third to serve the county and a relic of the period when the settlement of Worsham was the county seat, which was moved to Farmville in 1874.  

To the right of Moton is a likeness of Prince Edward Augustus, Duke of York and Albany, the County’s namesake. He was born March 25, 1739 to Frederick, Prince of Wales, and Princess Augusta of Saxe-Gotha and was the younger brother of King George III. He died September 17, 1767 in Monaco. After his death, his body was returned to London and is interred in Westminster Abbey.  

Just above Prince Edward is the Watkins Bell Tower at Hampden-Sydney College. Still used today to summon students to class, the Watkins Bell Tower was erected in 1934. Bricks to build the bell tower were secured from the homes of men instrumental in founding the College, from the homes of Charter Trustees, College Presidents, members of the faculty, other Trustees and many distinguished alumni. In continuous operation since November 10, 1775, Hampden- Sydney College is the tenth oldest college in the United States and the last American college founded in British Colonial America.