Fort Valley State University began in 1895 when an interracial group of 18 founders — 15 Black men, many of them formerly enslaved, and 3 white men — chartered the Fort Valley High and Industrial School to advance the education of African Americans in Georgia. In 1939 it merged with the State Teachers and Agricultural College of Forsyth to become Fort Valley State College under its first president, Horace Mann Bond, and in the 1940s it was designated Georgia's 1890 land-grant institution. This short walk through the historic Georgian Revival core — much of it built by students' own hands — and out toward the agricultural heart of campus tells that story.
About this site
Fort Valley State University is a college & university in Fort Valley, Peach County. It is one of 36 historic sites cataloged in Peach County on Georgia Roam.
The site sits at 32.5340, -83.8948 near Fort Valley. The nearest cataloged historic site is Jean Leroy Bywaters Building (historic place), about 0.4 miles away. Others within a short drive include Collis Potter Huntington Hall, St. Luke’s Episcopal Church, and Confederate Dead.
This record is drawn from Georgia Roam. Use the map below for its exact position and turn-by-turn directions.
Fort Valley State University began on November 6, 1895, when a biracial group of trustees chartered the Fort Valley High and Industrial School to educate Black Georgians in the decades after emancipation. In 1939 it merged with the State Teachers and Agricultural College of Forsyth to form Fort Valley State College, with Horace Mann Bond serving as its first president. A historically Black institution, it is Georgia's only 1890 land-grant university, and it was renamed Fort Valley State University in 1996.
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