Qualla: Maggie L. Walker Governor's School for Government and International Studies https://qualla.com/maggie-l-walker-governor-s-school-for-government-and-international-studies en-us © 2026 Bendyline Wed, 08 Jul 2026 02:40:07 GMT Qualla serial false Qualla support@bendyline.com yes https://qualla.com/_m/d/q/8/v/maggie-l-walker-governor-s-school-for-government-and-international-studies-wp/hero-small.webp Qualla: Maggie L. Walker Governor's School for Government and International Studies https://qualla.com/maggie-l-walker-governor-s-school-for-government-and-international-studies Maggie L. Walker Governor's School for Government and International Studies: Introduction https://qualla.com/maggie-l-walker-governor-s-school-for-government-and-international-studies/ Photo credit Masawchak, CC BY-SA 4.0. In 1903, a Black woman in Richmond named Maggie Lena Walker walked into a meeting and announced she was chartering a bank. The institution she founded, the St. Luke Penny Savings Bank, made her the first woman of any race to charter and serve as president of a bank in the United States. Walker had built her career through the Independent Order of St. Luke, a Black fraternal organization that grew under her leadership from near-bankruptcy to thousands of members and a newspaper and an emporium and a bank. When Richmond's segregated public school system opened a high school for African American students in the 1930s, they named it for her. The original Maggie L. Walker High School educated Black Richmond through the years of legal segregation; among the students who passed through its doors were the future tennis champion Arthur Ashe, the future civil rights lawyer and politician Henry L. Marsh, the future Pro Football Hall of Fame linebacker Willie Lanier, and the future NBA player Bob Dandridge.

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]]> Sun, 31 May 2026 00:00:00 GMT https://qualla.com/_m/d/q/8/v/maggie-l-walker-governor-s-school-for-government-and-international-studies-wp/dq8v-maggie-l-walker-governors-school-for-government-an-intro.mp3 0:06 1 full Maggie L. Walker Governor's School for Government and International Studies: The Long Vacancy https://qualla.com/maggie-l-walker-governor-s-school-for-government-and-international-studies/ Photo credit Masawchak, CC BY-SA 4.0. Desegregation eventually closed the original Maggie L. Walker High School as a city school, and the building stood vacant. Meanwhile, in 1991, Virginia's Governor's Schools program - one of the most respected gifted-education systems in the country - opened the Governor's School ...

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]]> Sun, 31 May 2026 00:00:00 GMT https://qualla.com/_m/d/q/8/v/maggie-l-walker-governor-s-school-for-government-and-international-studies-wp/dq8v-maggie-l-walker-governors-school-for-government-an-the-long-vacancy.mp3 0:06 2 full Maggie L. Walker Governor's School for Government and International Studies: Fourteen Jurisdictions, One School https://qualla.com/maggie-l-walker-governor-s-school-for-government-and-international-studies/ Photo credit Masawchak, CC BY-SA 4.0. What makes MLWGS work is that it isn't really a Richmond school - it's a regional one. Fourteen jurisdictions across central Virginia send students: the counties of Chesterfield, Henrico, Hanover, Goochland, Powhatan, Prince George, Charles City, King and Queen, New Kent, and Din...

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]]> Sun, 31 May 2026 00:00:00 GMT https://qualla.com/_m/d/q/8/v/maggie-l-walker-governor-s-school-for-government-and-international-studies-wp/dq8v-maggie-l-walker-governors-school-for-government-an-fourteen-jurisdictions-one-school.mp3 0:06 3 full Maggie L. Walker Governor's School for Government and International Studies: Academics and the Green Dragon https://qualla.com/maggie-l-walker-governor-s-school-for-government-and-international-studies/ Photo credit MTK4RVA, CC BY-SA 3.0. The school's reputation rests on its academics - dual enrollment with Virginia Commonwealth University lets students earn college credit and access the VCU library system - but the institution also takes athletics seriously. The mascot is the Green Dragon, kept from the original ...

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]]> Sun, 31 May 2026 00:00:00 GMT https://qualla.com/_m/d/q/8/v/maggie-l-walker-governor-s-school-for-government-and-international-studies-wp/dq8v-maggie-l-walker-governors-school-for-government-an-academics-and-the-green-dragon.mp3 0:06 4 full Maggie L. Walker Governor's School for Government and International Studies: Alumni https://qualla.com/maggie-l-walker-governor-s-school-for-government-and-international-studies/ Photo credit Masawchak, CC BY-SA 4.0. The current school's alumni list reflects what an academically intense, regionally drawn public school produces when it has been running for a generation. Emmanuel Pratt, class of 1995, became an urban designer and a 2019 MacArthur Fellow. Sara Schaefer, class of 1996, became an ...

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]]> Sun, 31 May 2026 00:00:00 GMT https://qualla.com/_m/d/q/8/v/maggie-l-walker-governor-s-school-for-government-and-international-studies-wp/dq8v-maggie-l-walker-governors-school-for-government-an-alumni.mp3 0:06 5 full