Midlothian Elementary School

O-75

First African Baptist Church of Coalfield, which stood about a mile southeast of here, opened a school for African Americans in 1866. After a fire in 1877, the congregation moved here and renamed itself First Baptist Church of Midlothian. Church trustees conveyed land to the local school board for the construction of Midlothian Elementary School on this site. The first frame schoolhouse was replaced in 1925-1926 with the assistance of the Julius Rosenwald Fund, which helped build more than 5,000 schools and supporting structures for black students between 1917 and 1932. The school occupied a new brick building here in 1948; it closed in 1969 as Chesterfield County desegregated its schools.

Department of Historic Resources, 2018

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References/Bibliographic Citation:

Chesterfield County Deed Book 75:49. Freedmen’s Bureau Field Office Records, letter dated 11 Sept. 1866. Richmond Daily Dispatch, 17 Apr., 9 Nov. 1877. Richmond Times-Dispatch, 20 Nov. 1947, 27 April 1948, 22 Feb. 1961, 15 Sept. 1968, 9 Feb. 1970. Fisk University Rosenwald Fund Card File Database (http://rosenwald.fisk.edu) First Annual Report of the Superintendent of Public Instruction (Richmond, 1871). “Remembering the Past, Honoring the Present, and Envisioning the Future: 168th Church Anniversary” (First Baptist Church of Midlothian, 2014). Bettie Woodson Weaver, Midlothian: Highlights of its History (Midlothian, VA, 1994). Barbara Irene Burtchett, “A History of the Village of Midlothian, Virginia, Emphasizing the Period 1835-1935,” (MA Thesis, University of Richmond, 1983).