Bolivar County, Mississippi Facts for Kids

Quick facts for kids Bolivar County
U.S. county
Grover Hotel in Downtown Cleveland Historic District.
Location within the U.S. state of Mississippi
Mississippi's location within the U.S.
Country	United States
State	Mississippi
Founded	1836
Named for	Simón Bolívar
Seat	Rosedale and Cleveland
Largest city	Cleveland
Area
• Total	906 sq mi (2,350 km²)
• Land	877 sq mi (2,270 km²)
• Water	29 sq mi (80 km²) 3.2%
Population (2010)
• Total	34,145
• Estimate (2019)	30,628
• Density	37.688/sq mi (14.551/km²)
Time zone	UTC−6 (Central)
• Summer (DST)	UTC−5 (CDT)
Congressional district	2nd

Bolivar County ( BOL-i-vər) is a county located on the western border of the U.S. state of Mississippi. As of the 2010 census, the population was 34,145. Its county seats are Rosedale and Cleveland. The county is named in honor of Simón Bolívar, early 19th-century leader of the liberation of several South American colonies from Spain.

The Cleveland, Mississippi, Micropolitan Statistical Area includes all of Bolivar County. It is located in the Mississippi Delta, or Yazoo Basin, of Mississippi. This area was first developed for cotton plantations. Large industrial-scale agricultural operations have reduced the number of farm workers needed, and the population is half of its peak in 1930. Today, soybeans, corn, and rice are also commodity crops.

Geography

According to the U.S. Census Bureau, the county has a total area of 906 square miles (2,350 km²), of which 877 square miles (2,270 km²) is land and 29 square miles (75 km²) (3.2%) is water. It is the second-largest county in Mississippi by land area and fourth-largest by total area.

Major highways

Future Interstate 69
U.S. Route 61
Mississippi Highway 1
Mississippi Highway 8
Mississippi Highway 32

Adjacent counties

National protected area

Dahomey National Wildlife Refuge

Demographics

Historical population
Census	Pop.	%±
1840	1,356	—
1850	2,577	90.0%
1860	10,471	306.3%
1870	9,732	−7.1%
1880	18,652	91.7%
1890	29,980	60.7%
1900	35,427	18.2%
1910	48,905	38.0%
1920	57,669	17.9%
1930	71,051	23.2%
1940	67,564	−4.9%
1950	63,004	−6.7%
1960	54,464	−13.6%
1970	49,409	−9.3%
1980	45,965	−7.0%
1990	41,875	−8.9%
2000	40,633	−3.0%
2010	34,145	−16.0%
2018 (est.)	31,333	−8.2%
U.S. Decennial Census 1790-1960 1900-1990 1990-2000 2010-2013

2020 census

Bolivar County Racial Composition
Race	Num.	Perc.
White	9,946	32.1%
Black or African American	19,257	62.15%
Native American	22	0.07%
Asian	262	0.85%
Other/Mixed	704	2.27%
Hispanic or Latino	794	2.56%

As of the 2020 United States Census, there were 30,985 people, 12,111 households, and 7,719 families residing in the county.

2010 census

As of the 2010 United States Census, there were 34,145 people living in the county. 64.5% were Black or African American, 33.5% White, 0.6% Asian, 0.1% Native American, 0.9% of some other race and 0.6% of two or more races. 1.9% were Hispanic or Latino (of any race).

Life expectancy

According to the most recent data on U.S. life expectancy, published in 2010 by the Institute for Health Metrics and Evaluation, a male in Bolivar County could expect to live 65.0 years, the second shortest for any county in the United States, following McDowell County, West Virginia. The national average is 76.1 years for a male.

Senators Robert F. Kennedy and Joseph S. Clark, Jr. had visited "pockets of poverty" in the Mississippi Delta 40 years earlier. In Cleveland, they observed barefoot, underfed African-American children in tattered clothing, with vacant expressions and distended bellies. Kennedy stated that he thought he had seen the worst poverty in the nation in West Virginia, but it paled in comparison to the poverty he observed in Cleveland.

Communities

Cities

Cleveland (county seat)
Rosedale (county seat)
Mound Bayou
Shaw (small portion in Sunflower County)
Shelby

Towns

Unincorporated places

Ghost towns

Education

Colleges and universities

Delta State University (Cleveland)

The county is within the boundaries of two community college districts: Coahoma Community College and Mississippi Delta Community College. CCC's main campus is in rural Coahoma County outside of Clarksdale, and MDCC's campus is in Moorhead in Sunflower County.

History

As recently as the 1960s the school board of Bolivar County censored what black children were allowed to learn, and mandated that "Neither foreign languages nor civics shall be taught in Negro schools. Nor shall American history from 1860 to 1875 be taught.”

Public School Districts

School districts:

Cleveland School District (Cleveland)
North Bolivar Consolidated School District (Mound Bayou; previously in Shelby)
West Bolivar Consolidated School District (Rosedale, Shaw, and Benoit)

Former school districts:

Benoit School District (Benoit)
Mound Bayou School District (Mound Bayou)
Shaw School District (Shaw)

The five school districts, other than the Cleveland School District, are among the 20 smallest of the 152 school districts in the State of Mississippi. In the State of Mississippi, Bolivar County was the only county that had six school districts. Consolidation was urged to save money and facilitate cooperation. In 2012 the Mississippi Senate Education Committee passed a bill asking the State of Mississippi to consolidate the six school districts in Bolivar County to three or two. The Mississippi Senate passed the bill 37–11.

Private School

Bayou Academy (Cleveland)

Notable people

Mary Booze
Charles Capps
Charles Clark (governor)
Charles Clark (judge)
Medgar Evers
T.R.M. Howard
Amzie Moore
Peter B. Starke, state representative and state senator, Confederate general in the Civil War