African American education in Columbia County began during Reconstruction when the first school for freed people of color in the county was established in 1866. In 1906, the Lake City School for Colored Students was created under Principal Henon Richardson and assistant Annie Mattox. Richardson served from 1905 to 1913, and by 1908 the faculty had expanded to eight teachers. In 1909, the school term was extended to three months, and in 1913, with the help of trustees B.J. Jones, Horace Mattox, and J.N. Norwood, the school expanded from grades 1 through 6 to grades 1 through 9. John L. Hopps then served as principal from 1913 to 1920, followed between 1920 and 1928 by E.J. Madison, Annie Mattox, and Thomas D. Everett. In 1925, Lake City's black citizens and taxpayers petitioned for a new site for a modern school, and after the board agreed, African American trustees raised $2000 for the project. A new brick high school was built on the site of Agnes Jones' Boneyard. Richardson Academy opened in 1928 with 300 students under Principal Herman Tunsil in a two-story block building with 11 rooms, a library, an auditorium, and an office. E.R. Rolfe became principal at the end of that year and served until the end of the twenties. In 1930, grades 11 and 12 were added under Principal H.L. Roundtree, and the school graduated its first class that year. Later principals were R.R. Kenon, A.L. Greene, C.W. Banks, G.W. Ellis, and M.L. Ferguson, who became principal in 1960. The school had competitive sports teams, and its 1967-68 basketball team won the state championship. Its mascot was the wolves and its colors were green and orange. After the desegregation of U.S. public schools, it was integrated with the previously white-only Columbia High School in 1970-71, then used as a 9th grade center from 1971 to 1976. For much of the 20th century, Richardson served both the educational and social needs of Lake City's black community. It closed in 1976, much of the building was later demolished, and the gym and cafeteria now serve as a community center for the surrounding neighborhood.