^{This page is part of © FOTW Flags Of The World website}

Prince Edward County, Virginia (U.S.)

image by Daniel Rentería, 2 December 2022
based on image located by Dave Fowler, 29 November 2022

Description of the flag
Earlier version
Seal

- indicates flag is known.
- indicates it is reported that there is no known flag.

Municipal flags in Prince Edward County:

See also:

Description of the flag

The flag of Prince Edward County is flown outside the county office building in Farmville. It consists of the county seal on a background which is the identical color to that used in the Commonwealth of Virginia flag.
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Image:Prince_Edward_County_va_seal.jpg
Ron Lahav, 6 December 2008

County seal and flag have been updated.
https://cardinalnews.org/2022/11/28/prince-edward-countys-updated-flag-pays-tribute-to-the-birthplace-of-student-led-civil-rights-movement/

Prince Edward County’s new seal includes an image of the former Robert Russa Moton High School, which is considered the birthplace of America’s student-led Civil Rights revolution.
In 1951, at the height of the segregation of public schools in Virginia, a group of students led by then-16-year-old Barbara Rose Johns staged a walkout in protest of inadequate and unsafe school conditions. The NAACP took up their case after the students agreed to seek an integrated school rather than improved conditions at their Black school, setting the stage for the landmark decision by the U.S. Supreme Court in Brown vs. Board of Education, which found establishing racial segregation in public schools unconstitutional.

Last month, more than 70 years after the walkout, the Prince Edward County Board of Supervisors unanimously approved an amendment to add the former school – now a national landmark and home of the Moton Museum – to the official county seal.
The original county seal, which was adopted by the Board of Supervisors 20 years ago, was created in anticipation of the county’s 250th anniversary in 2004. It was designed by county resident and artist Richard C. McClintock, who is well-known for his interest in local history and architecture. In designing the original seal, McClintock incorporated images that depict both the past and the present of Prince Edward County.

Two decades later, he also assisted the county with this recent design update. At the center of the new seal is an abundant sheaf of wheat, representing the importance of agriculture in the county’s history. 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. Just below the Rotunda is the cupola (bell tower) that rests atop the Prince Edward County Courthouse, constructed in 1939. The former Robert Russa Moton High School is directly below the wheat on the newly adopted seal. Constructed in 1939, Moton was the all-black high school in Prince Edward County.

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.

Dave Fowler, 29 November 2022

The image above uses a seal from the county government's website.
Daniel Rentería, 2 December 2022

Earlier version

image located by Ron Lahav, 6 December 2008

Seal

image by Paul Bassinson, 30 March 2019

Source: http://co.prince-edward.va.us
Paul Bassinson, 30 March 2019

Information about the seal, according to the page giving information about the county's seal:
The original seal was adopted by the county's Board of Supervisors on February 12, 2002, in anticipation of the county's 250th anniversary which occurred in 2004. The seal's designer is Richard C. McClintock, a resident of the county.

The bundle of wheat represents the importance of agriculture in the county's past. The wheat was borrowed from Amelia County's seal, symbolizing how Prince Edward County was formed from Amelia County's land.

The building with a dome is The Rotunda, home to the third oldest public university in Virginia. Below it is a bell tower, which rests at the top of the Prince Edward County Courthouse.

The person on the seal is Prince Edward Augustus, Duke of York and Albany, whom the county is named after. Above him is the Watkins Bell Tower at Hampden-Sydney College, built in 1934, which still summons students to this day.

As for what was changed in the seal, it is the building directly below the bundle of wheat. The new seal appears to be colored as well, it seems. The building in the current seal is the Robert Russa Moton High School (now a museum.) It was an all-black high school, in which a walkout was performed in 1951 because of the school's terrible conditions, caused by the county government being unwilling to desegregate. Before the change, it used to feature the old Prince Edward County Clerk's Office.
Daniel Rentería, 2 December 2022

Old Seal

image by Paul Bassinson, 30 March 2019
Source: http://co.prince-edward.va.us
Paul Bassinson, 30 March 2019