Mound Bayou -- Churches and Schools

Date: 1887 [unknown]
Location: Mound Bayou, Bolivar, Mississippi, United States
Surnames/tags: Mound Bayou Mound Bayou One Place Study

Free Space Page to collect notes on Mound Bayou Churches and Schools from various sources

Contents 1 Churches 1.1 Green Grove Baptist Church / First Baptist Church 1.2 Bethel African Methodist Episcopal (A.M.E.) Church 1.3 Lakeview Missionary Baptist Church 1.4 Mount Olive Missionary Baptist Church 1.5 Wesley United Baptist Church 1.6 Jerusalem M B Church 1.7 First Christian Church 1.8 Lampton Street Church of Christ 1.9 Walk of Faith Ministry 2 Schools

Churches

• The Standing on the Shoulders of Giants "Teach & Learn" Black History Curriculum, Unit 7: Post-Reconstruction (1877 – 1935), Class 1: Mound Bayou: One of the First All-Black Towns Founded by Formerly Enslaved Blacks PART 1, Inspiration Behind Mound Bayou cont.

Source: https://www.educationforlifeacademy.com/mound-bayou-5

The early settlers of Mound Bayou expressed an abiding faith in religion, and quite early organized by the Green Grove Baptist Church in the home of one of the settlers. By 1891 Montgomery and a small band of colonists had organized the African Methodist Episcopal Church, and within the next ten years the number of churches multiplied rapidly, there being three Baptist, one A.M.E., one Christian, and one Methodist Church as well as several smaller Baptist churches in the surrounding vicinity. Green Grove Baptist, which eventually became the First Baptist Church, and the A.M.E. church were the first to erect permanent structures, in 1904 and 1905 respectively, and they were the town leaders in organizing youth groups for religious instruction and civic betterment. The strong moral sentiment evident in these early churches may have been responsible for Mound Bayou's reputation as an orderly community due to its remarkably low crime rate.

• National Register of Historic Places Registration Form (NRHP)

https://www.apps.mdah.ms.gov/nom/dist/235.pdf, page 24-25

As in many African American communities, religion has played a central role in Mound Bayou. As early as 1888, the community met for worship in a brush arbor. Green Grove Baptist Church built its first sanctuary in 1891. When the congregation completed a new building located about a block north of the historic district in 1964, the congregation became the First Baptist Church. Bethel AME Church was organized in 1895. The congregation completed a new building in 1919, described as “the most elaborate church in the community with a modern pipe organ and central heating plant.”20 By 1971, the congregation determined that the building had served its useful life and a new building (Inv. 23), dedicated in October 1973, was built on the site. Mount Olive Missionary Baptist Church was organized in 1915. Their building burned in 1939 and they were able to construct their current building (Inv. 38, Photo 5) in December 1950. Wesley United Baptist Church, organized in 1887 and purchased its site in 1903. A small frame church served the community for many years, but after it burned, the current church (Inv. 35, Photo 7) was built in 1972.

Green Grove Baptist Church / First Baptist Church

First church organized in Mound Bayou

National Historic Register:
As early as 1888, the community met for worship in a brush arbor. Green Grove Baptist Church built its first sanctuary in 1891. Erected a permanent structure in 1904. When the congregation completed a new building located about a block north of the historic district in 1964, the congregation became the First Baptist Church.

History of The Churches of Mound Bayou, Miss. (page 54) Among the early settlers responsible for the founding of the Green Grove Baptist Church are Mrs. Sallie Ramsay and Mrs. Matilda Davis, mothers of the Church; Mrs. Patsey Seals, Mrs. L. T. M. Brooks, Mrs. Mack Slate, church workers; George Kinkaid, Calvin Ramsay, Mathew Slate, Ridley Walker, Jackson Washington, and Marcus Anderson, trustees. Rev. Charlie Blackston was the first pastor.

The Green Grove Baptist Church is now known as the First Baptist Church, later erected on its property purchased from Montgomery and Green one of the first brick churches in the county and a parsonage. The First Baptist Church has at present a membership of 175. Rev. A. D. Purnell is pastor. ^[1]

Bethel African Methodist Episcopal (A.M.E.) Church

Name: Bethel AME Church
Address: Northwest corner of Edwards Avenue and Montgomery Street
Construction Date: c.1973
Element No.: 24

Brief Description One-story brick church building with gable roof and tall spire. The west elevation is primarily plain brick with a centered multi-pane vertical window. The entrance is offset to the south under a porch. There is a single-leaf wood door with sidelights.

Bethel AME Church was organized in 1895. The congregation completed a new building in 1919, described as “the most elaborate church in the community with a modern pipe organ and central heating plant.” By 1971, the congregation determined that the building had served its useful life and a new building, dedicated in October 1973, was built on the site. (NRHP)

http://northbysouth.kenyon.edu/1999/religion/denominations.htm

Profile of Mound Bayou A.M.E. Church

The Mound Bayou A.M.E. Church, founded by thirteen ex-slaves in 1895, owes its life to the vision of the first settlers who wanted to create a legacy in the midst of a swampy terrain (now Highway 61 South). Since the beginning of the century, the town of Mound Bayou has fostered the first Wonderbread factory, a Coca-Cola factory, banks, stores, oil mills, gins and restaurants. Mrs. Mamie Myers remembers a time when Mound Bayou had an ice cream shop and picture shows. Recently, however, the town of Mound Bayou has been emptying out since people are moving north for opportunity. With shops closing, a lack of resources, school funds and employment, the land is haunted by its past problems. Except for teaching, preaching or government employment, most people work the fields or mills. Driving into Mound Bayou, the land is barren and flat, apparently unpopulated. However, inside the church is another story. The children's rhyme, "Here's the church/ Here's the steeple/ Open it up/ And see all the people," immediately comes to mind. In Mound Bayou, Mississippi, everyone and their grandmother (literally) goes to church. People seem to appear from out of the woodwork; such is the transformation from a barren landscape to a warm, spiritual, family and social atmosphere found within the church.

During our visit to Mound Bayou A.M.E. Church, we met and talked with Reverend Fred D. Raggs and members of the congregation, including Mr. C. Preston Holmes, Mrs. Pauline Holmes and Mamie Myers. Without their stories, our study of the black Methodist church in the Delta would be incomplete. Mrs. Pauline Holmes, whose father organized the first meeting of NAACP in their area, explained the functions of the church as a community center and "reaching out" organization. The church has been involved in such projects as building a local hospital, serving as voting registration centers, community fund-raising, and hosting various organizations from the NAACP to the American Legion Organization and even the Boy Scouts. Recent projects within the church have included educational programs for children and young adults, such as Bible Bees, Bingo and Quizzes. Also, the church serves as a place for social gathering with events like the African Heritage Luncheon, fashion shows, square-dancing and gospel concerts.

Lakeview Missionary Baptist Church

https://www.facebook.com/LakeviewMBC/

Newspapers.com article: https://www.newspapers.com/image/907492072

Mount Olive Missionary Baptist Church

Mount Olive Missionary Baptist Church was organized in 1915. Their building burned in 1939 and they were able to construct their current building (Inv. 38, Photo 5) in December 1950.

Location Information
(for the Mt. Olive Missionary Baptist Church)
Name: Mt. Olive Missionary Baptist Church
Address: 102 Martin Luther King Drive, East
City/County: Mound Bayou, Bolivar County
Architectural Information
Construction Date: c.1950
Registration Information
NR District Name: Mound Bayou (2013)
NR Status: Contributing
Element No.: 39

Brief Description
One-story brick church building with intersecting gable roof clad in asbestos shingles. The primary elevation is north and presents as a gable and wing. The gable section is topped by a wood steeple. The gable apex is wood clapboards with a louvered vent. The lower walls composed of red bricks. A centered double-leaf glazed door is covered by a metal canopy supported by metal posts. The entry is flanked by 2/2 metal frame windows with metal awnings. The wing front extends to the west. A single-leaf glazed door with a metal canopy is flanked by 2/2 metal frame windows. The gable front of a south-projecting wing is seen above the roof line of this win

Wesley United Baptist Church

Wesley United Baptist Church, organized in 1887 and purchased its site in 1903. A small frame church served the community for many years, but after it burned, the current church (Inv. 35, Photo 7) was built in 1972.

Location Information
(for the Wesley United Methodist Church)
Name: Wesley United Methodist Church
Address: Southwest corner of Green Street, East and Montgomery Street
City/County: Mound Bayou, Bolivar County
Architectural Information
Construction Date: c.1972
No. of Stories: 1
Registration Information
NR District Name: Mound Bayou (2013)
NR Status: Non-Contributing
Element No.: 36

Brief Description
One-story T-shaped brick church building with intersecting asphalt shingle roof. The leg of the T extends to the north. The north face has a large applied cross. The west face has a single-leaf metal door and two 2/2 metal windows. The east elevation has two similar windows. The entrance is at the intersection of the cross wing and consists of double-leaf wood doors. A steeple rises above the entrance.

Jerusalem M B Church

First Christian Church

Lampton Street Church of Christ

Walk of Faith Ministry

Schools

• The Standing on the Shoulders of Giants "Teach & Learn" Black History Curriculum, Unit 7: Post-Reconstruction (1877 – 1935), Class 1: Mound Bayou: One of the First All-Black Towns Founded by Formerly Enslaved Blacks PART 1, Inspiration Behind Mound Bayou cont.

Source: https://www.educationforlifeacademy.com/mound-bayou-5

The first school, headed by M.V. Montgomery, became the Mound Bayou public school. Though having an enrollment of 200 by 1910, this school was at the mercy of the county board of education, which was less than willing to appropriate money for its operation. Therefore, Montgomery and Green in 1892, donated several acres of land for the establishment of a school "designed to supplement the inadequate curriculum of the public schools.” This school, named the Mound Bayou Normal and Industrial Institute, was built via financial assistance from the American Missionary Association, and remained under the control of a local board of trustees. To these non-denominational schools was added a Baptist school in 1904. Organized under the Baptist State Convention, and founded by Mrs. A.A. Harris, the Mound Bayou Industrial College, commonly known as the "Baptist College," sported a school population of 200 by 1910, and with the other two schools, offered to Mound Bayou caliber of education unparalleled in most sections of the state. Montgomery may well have wanted to make Mound Bayou a "college town," for in 1887 he had helped found Campbell College. Affiliated with the A.M.E. Church, the college began holding classes in Vicksburg and Friar's Point in 1890. However, Montgomery induced the president of the L.N.O.T. Railroad to donate over 1,000 acres of land about 1 1/2 miles southeast of Mound Bayou to the college, in hopes of moving the college to the town. In 1892 Montgomery was elected president of Campbell College, and he revealed that he had plans for the land as a site of an agricultural education school. Unfortunately the plans never materialized, the school was moved to Jackson in 1898, and Montgomery resigned as president. Nevertheless, the college retained the lands for several years, and in fact began to build on the site some years later. A short drive beyond the co-op farm will reveal these buildings to an interested reader.

• National Register of Historic Places Registration Form

https://www.apps.mdah.ms.gov/nom/dist/235.pdf, page 24

Education played an important role in the development and growth of Mound Bayou. When the first children came to Mound Bayou in 1888, Virginia Montgomery, Isaiah T. Montgomery’s sister, began classes in the Montgomery home. This became the first public school in Mound Bayou. In the early years classes were held in the Green Grove Baptist Church (now First Baptist Church). By 1910 a public school with a local board of trustees enrolled 200 students.^[2]

Isaiah T. Montgomery and Benjamin Green donated land for the formation of the Mound Bayou Normal and Industrial Institute in 1892. Montgomery secured financial assistance from the American Missionary Association. The school offered a high school course and vocational instruction. The General Baptist Convention assisted in founding the Baptist College, also a secondary and vocational school, in 1904.^[2] The public school and the Mound Bayou Institute consolidated in 1920 to form a public school known as the Bolivar County Training School, a public school administered by a local board of trustees responsible to the County Superintendent of Education. The three-story brick school building was partially funded by the Rosenwald Fund and opened in 1921, serving African American students from an area of thirty square miles, with an average enrollment of 850. The building had sixteen classrooms and a 700 seat auditorium. By the late 1950s this building was in disrepair, and it was replaced in 1959 by the I.T. Montgomery Elementary School (Inv. 39a, Photo 6).The school continues to serve the Mound Bayou County community. The John F. Kennedy High School, located just to the north of the historic district, was completed in 1964.

• Congressional Record Volume 162, Number 64 (Tuesday, April 26, 2016) , Extensions of Remarks, Pages E584-E585

From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office

https://www.govinfo.gov/content/pkg/CREC-2016-04-26/html/CREC-2016-04-26-pt1-PgE584-3.htm

HONORING MOUND BAYOU PUBLIC SCHOOLS
______

HON. BENNIE G. THOMPSON
of Mississippi
in the house of representatives
Tuesday, April 26, 2016

Mr. THOMPSON of Mississippi. Mr. Speaker, I rise today to honor a remarkable educational institution, the Mound Bayou Public School District in Mound Bayou, Mississippi.
The early settlers in Mound Bayou recognized the value of education in building a community. Early in 1888, I.T. Montgomery and his sister, Virginia Montgomery, began holding classes for children in his home. This school developed into the Mound Bayou Public School. Ms. Montgomery, the first principal, served until 1896. During the early years school was held in the first church, Green Grove, now First Baptist. Rev. J.L. Brandfort succeeded Virginia Montgomery as principal. As joint principals Professor R.J. Jarrett continued the school in Green Grove, while Professor James Wilson held classes in Bethel A.M.E. Church. Mrs. Gertrude Jones Bryant became the principal in 1904 and served until 1915. A local Board of Trustees ran the school, but it was responsible to a county board that was not so willing to appropriate money for the school, even though this school had an enrollment of 200 by 1910.
In 1892, Montgomery and Green donated a tract of land for educational purposes, ``designed to supplement the inadequate curriculum of the public schools. The Mound Bayou Normal and Industrial Institute was built on this tract of land, with the assistance of the American Missionary Association. The school was largely supported by tuition but continued to receive some financial assistance from the American Missionary Association, which was responsible for providing the first principal and teacher, Mrs. Annie Randolph. The second principal was Miss Mary E. Crump, who was succeeded by Miss Minnie S. Washington. A complete high school course was added under the leadership of Professor B.F. Ousley. Vocational instruction in music and domestic arts and science was offered. Professor Ousley served as principal for a period of 16 years. Upon his resignation, Professor F.M. Roberts became principal and was assisted by Professor Robert Ross.
In 1912, while working with Booker T. Washington, Montgomery and Charles Bank secured a $1000 donation from Julius Rosenwald to build a school. Andrew Carnegie was persuaded to donate $4000 for the construction of a library. Booker T. Washington said that Mound Bayou was ``not merely a town, but at the same time and in a very real sense of the word, a school. It is not only a place where a Negro may get inspiration . . . but a place, also, where he has the opportunity to learn some of the fundamental duties and responsibilities of social and civic life.'
In 1920 all of the public schools in the vicinity of Mound Bayou and the Mound Bayou Normal and Industrial Institute consolidated to form the Mound Bayou Consolidated Public School and County Training School. A local Board of Trustees administered the school with responsibility to the County Superintendent of Education. The members of the first Board were I.T. Montgomery, Chairman, B.W. Bryan and John W. Francis. The second Board included B.A. Green, Chairman, D.J. Hill, T.S. Morris, John Tharpe, Sr., Rev. Jim Jones, and P.M. Smith
The three-story brick structure was completed and the first classes started in 1921. It was located in Mound Bayou on about four acres of land. It served an area of thirty square miles with 16 classrooms and an auditorium with a seating capacity of 700. The average annual enrollment was 850. Classes were held nine months a year. This building served all the students of Mound Bayou and the surrounding vicinities until 1960, when I.T. Montgomery Elementary School was erected. The three-story brick building, Mound Bayou High School, was closed in the fall of 1964, when a new building, John F. Kennedy Memorial High School, was opened.
Principals who served the Bolivar County Training School were J.H. Moseley, J.H. Powell, A.R. Taylor, C.M. Green, Mrs. Olevia Holmes- Ryles, Richard Williams, Mrs. Richard Williams, Rev. Hardin, and B.T. Johnson. B.T. Johnson was the last administrator designated as a principal for the Bolivar County Training School. Mr. Calvin J. Jones was selected as the first superintendent of Bolivar County School District Number Six, following a county reorganization, after the 1954 Supreme Court decision overruling the practice of segregation in public schools. Others who have served as district superintendent are Arthur Holmes, Jimmy Langdon, Shelton Wilder, Linder Howze-Campbell, Linda Perry Robinson, and William Crockett. Principals who have served

Page E585

the elementary school since the county reorganization include Ruth Scott, O.W. Howard, Samuel McGee, Arthur Jackson, Arthur Holmes, Jr., Legora M. Norwood, Joe Jennings, Sammy Armstrong, Linda Perry Robinson, Willie E. Norwood, Sr., and Johnnie Vick. Montresia Cain is the current elementary school principal. Principals who have served the High School are A.L. Moore, Sr., Willie Gates, Eltea Lambert, Robert Latham, Shelton Wilder, Jackie Campbell, Dr. I.D. Thompson, and Dr. Wanda C. Stringer. Shaneequa Beal is the current high school principal. Mound Bayou Public School District was merged with North Bolivar School District in July, 2014, forming the new North Bolivar Consolidated School District. Mr. Johnnie Vick is the current Superintendent. Mound Bayou has a rich and strong educational history. It has had and continues to have dedicated administrators and teachers. The students demonstrate the ability to achieve at all levels, and graduates compete, globally, in a wide cadre of professional fields. The Mound Bayou Public School System was definitely a successful educational organization. It is anticipated to have a continued high level of achievement for the students at I.T. Montgomery Elementary School and John F. Kennedy Memorial High School.
Mr. Speaker, I ask my colleagues to join me in recognizing an extraordinary educational institution the Mound Bayou Public School District.

• See also: Souvenir program of the 50th anniversary of Mound Bayou, Mississippi, July 11-17, 1937, History of Schools, page 50. Has photos (https://ia802206.us.archive.org/30/items/moundbayousouv/moundbayousouv.pdf, page 105)