Is it truly the 100th anniversary of Fuquay Varina High School? According to our Victory Bell shirts, our school opened in 1925, but upon investigation last week, this was not true. Our Victory Bell doesn’t have a date on it, so the mystery is, where did the 1925 date come from?
I began last week writing an article about plans for the 100th anniversary of FVHS. I interviewed multiple people about it, but the most important was my interview with Assistant Principal Eric Thomas. When I went to interview him about any plans for the 100th year, I was informed that we had missed it and are celebrating the 50th year of being an integrated school instead.
This information led me to begin researching the actual history of FVHS. While researching, I discovered one thing: the history of FVHS is extremely confusing. Many different sources say several different things, which could have led to the misconception about the school opening in 1925 due to numerous different dates that are given on Google.
“We found the year online in the FVHS listing,” said Georgina Consolo, teacher of the sports marketing class that designed the shirt.
If you Google “Fuquay Varina High School” a listing on the right-hand side of the screen will appear including the date founded, which Google says is 1925.
However, according to “A History of Fuquay Varina” by Shirley Hayes, the original Fuquay Springs High School opened in 1918.
“When completed in 1918, the three-story building known as the ‘Old Red Building’ opened on Academy Street. Three elementary schools, the Academy, Cardenas, and Oakwood were combined to form Fuquay Springs High School,” according to “A History of Fuquay Varina.”
In the school library, a copy of all the yearbooks from previous years is kept. I decided to go talk to one of the librarians, Allison McAuley, about the history because she may have more information on it than I do. Since then, McAuley and I have been on a hunt for the correct history of FVHS.
“If you Google ‘Fuquay Varina High School founded,’ we get the number 1925, but that is not correct,” said McAuley.
Due to this misconception about the opening date of FVHS, I began to wonder whether our date about the 50th year of being an integrated school was correct as well. I decided to ask McAuley about this too, wondering if she had found anything on this topic when researching. It was found that the first Black student graduated from FVHS in 1966, even though we weren’t integrated fully, by signing papers that allowed her to attend FVHS.
The school officially integrated in 1971 which had me wondering, why are we celebrating integration now?
I found that we had moved to our current location in 1975. Here, is where we officially all gathered under one building, with one mascot and new colors, which is the reason we believe we are celebrating now.
Though the history has been confusing, we are still working to uncover the truth about FVHS and its long and important history to our community.
Virginia Shearon Bergstrom • Mar 2, 2024 at 8:30 am
Outstand digging! You may find back issues if the Independent helpful for more accurate details available at the FV History Museum. As for the integration history Commissioner Bill Harris can be reached by phone most easily as a student prior to integration and life long resident and parent of students post integration eye witness experience by he and his wife may give greater particulars and texture. Keep digging and documenting so the whole story gets corrected. Google is only as good as the accuracy of the content of its 111’s and 000’s. Ones and zeros still need us. Correct the record. Outstanding journalism!!!