African Americans held worship services in a nearby railroad toolshed during the Civil War. Jesse Dungee, later a member of the Virginia House of Delegates, organized the congregation, now known as Mt. Nebo, in 1866. The Gothic-Revival style sanctuary was built in 1887. During a boycott of West Point's segregated schools in 1952, attorney Oliver W. Hill told a large audience here that challenging the separate-but-equal doctrine was "worth going to jail for." Eight parents were later convicted of violating Virginia's compulsory school attendance law. In 1957 the Virginia Supreme Court of Appeals ruled in Dobbins v. Commonwealth that this application of the law was unconstitutional.