In the late 19th and early 20th centuries, many churches helped meet African Americans’ need for schooling by raising money to build schools, sometimes with limited county aid, while parents provided much of the labor and materials and later maintained the land and buildings. Founded in 1890, Mizpah Presbyterian Church was part of this pattern, and in 1901 Mizpah School was built on the land where the church still stands. The school served local black children in grades one through seven. Teachers were poorly paid and often lived with students’ parents, moving from family to family, while also maintaining the school by sweeping, oiling floors to keep dust down, fueling the stove with coal or wood, and supervising the children. Despite these demands, they were highly respected as community leaders. Because the school was connected with the church, students learned the three r’s, memorized Bible verses, and sang hymns and songs. Many families depended on children for fieldwork, so the school year usually lasted only four or five months and absenteeism was high. In 1935 the school was converted into a community day care facility, one of the first in Southside Virginia. The Honorable William A. Kent, born in 1914, served for many years as a church elder and clerk of the session. In 1969 he became the first African American elected to public office in South Boston when he joined the city council, later serving eight years as vice-mayor and four years as the city’s first African American mayor before retiring as mayor in 1990. A mortician, he owned and operated Kent’s Funeral Service in South Boston.