Mizpah Presbyterian Church

Mizpah Presbyterian Church. South Boston, Virginia. , Many churches in the second half of the 19th century and early part of the 20th century helped fill African Americans' need for schooling. Frequently, a church would raise funds to build a school, with county governments occasionally offering some financial assistance. Parents donated much of the building labor and materials, and were also largely responsible for land and building maintenance once the school was built. The Mizpah Church, founded in 1890, is an example of such a collaboration., In 1901 the Mizpah School was constructed on the land where the church still stands. The school served local Black children in grades 1-7. The school's teachers were poorly paid, often living with students' parents and moving from one family to another. For their board, they were expected to keep up the maintenance of the school building by sweeping, applying oil to the floors to keep the dust down, shoveling coal or putting wood in the stove, and simultaneously supervising the children. The teachers were, however, highly respected in the South Boston community and looked to for leadership., Because the school was connected with the church, students of the Mizpah School not only studied the "three R's" but also memorized Bible verses and sang hymns and other songs. Many families relied on their children to work the fields with them, though, so the school year was seldom more than four or five months long, and absenteeism was high., In 1935, the Mizpah School was converted to a community day care facility, one of the first at that time in southern Virginia., [Caption:] , The Hon. William A. Kent (1914-93) served for many years as a church elder and clerk of the session. He became the first African American elected to public office in South Boston when he joined the city council in 1969. He served eight years as vice mayor and four years as mayor. He retired in 1990 as mayor. He was also the owner/operator of Kent's Funeral Service in South Boston.