FAMU Village, the 800 bed co-ed student housing building which open in 2014, has been renamed in honor of the Lt. James R. Polkinghorne Jr. Village, in honor of the FAMU former Tuskegee Airman and FAMU senior who died in 1944 during World War II.
FAMU Village was constructed on the site of the original Polkinghorne Village a 148 unit on campus housing complex for married students which stood for six decades before being demolished in 2012 to make way for the new structure.
James Polkinghorne was a senior year at FAMU when he enlisted in the military. He became the first FAMUan accepted into the U.S. Army Air Corps and the first FAMUan to become a Tuskegee Airmen.
He earned his silver wings in February 1943 and became a combat pilot assigned to the 301st Fighter Squadron, one of four squadrons that made up the all black 332nd Fighter Group.
He was the flight leader of a squadron of fighter planes when he was shot down over Italy on May 5, 1944. He was later declared dead and posthumously awarded a Purple Heart medal.