Wade Hampton Academy, headed by local chemical manufacturer T. Elliott Wannamaker, and Head Upper School Teacher Sara T. Shuler, was such a segregation academy, founded in the fall of 1964 at the moment public schools in Orangeburg were ordered to desegregate.

"[2] A group of Orangeburg parents concluded that "separate private school facilities must be provided...[to] avoid the pernicious 'experiment' being foisted upon the people of this state and nation.

[5] In 1970, Wannamaker also led the establishment of Orangeburg's second independent school, Willington Academy, less than a mile from the Wade Hampton campus.

Wannamaker also played a pivotal role in helping to establish other segregation academies throughout the southeastern United States during the 1960s and 1970s.

Tom Turnipseed was the first executive director of the South Carolina Independent Schools Association and wrote about the strategy of the period: "Since we were following a longstanding Southern tradition of being racists in denial, we simply denied race had anything to do with our motives.

Dr. Wannamaker and I often discussed how we should discreetly downplay race when asked by the media about the sudden flurry of private school activity, particularly in counties with large populations of blacks.

"[9] The Globe story stated that "[o]ne black student, the son of a physician, studied at Orangeburg Prep until his family moved back to Ohio recently."

Orangeburg Prep, which is ranked Class AAA by the South Carolina Independent Schools Athletic Association, fields 34 athletic teams for girls and boys of the middle and upper school in football, basketball, volleyball, wrestling, cheerleading, tennis, chess, golf, track, bowling, baseball, softball, soccer, and cross country.