Rappahannock Industrial Academy

Rappahannock Industrial Academy was a private school for African American students that operated between 1902 and 1948, near Dunnsville in Essex County, Virginia, U.S..

After the Civil War and Reconstruction, Virginia's Constitution adopted in 1868 provided for public education, but that for African Americans did not extend beyond seventh grade.

[1] In 1897, the Southside Rappahannock Baptist Association (which consisted of 38 churches, all but two in Essex, King and Queen or Middlesex Counties)[2][3] decided to establish an institution to provide Christian education and stress character development for African American children.

[4] Jennie Dean had established the Manassas Industrial Academy a few years earlier, which provided higher education (and boarding opportunities) for African American children, but which was too far for most students from the Middle Peninsula.

By 1900, the Site Committee had raised enough money to purchase a 159-acre farm for $1,200, some of which was provided by the Women's Baptist District Missionary Convention, which received 25 acres to establish a home for the aged.