Leflore County, Mississippi facts for kids
Quick facts for kids
Leflore County
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Leflore County Courthouse
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Location within the U.S. state of Mississippi
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 Mississippi's location within the U.S. |
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| Country |  United States |
| State |  Mississippi |
| Founded | 1871 |
| Named for | Greenwood LeFlore |
| Seat | Greenwood |
| Largest city | Greenwood |
| Area | |
| • Total | 606 sq mi (1,570 km2) |
| • Land | 593 sq mi (1,540 km2) |
| • Water | 14 sq mi (40 km2) 2.3% |
| Population
(2020)
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| • Total | 28,339 |
| • Density | 46.76/sq mi (18.056/km2) |
| Time zone | UTC−6 (Central) |
| • Summer (DST) | UTC−5 (CDT) |
| Congressional district | 2nd |
Leflore County is a county located in the U.S. state of Mississippi. As of the 2020 census, the population was 28,339. The county seat is Greenwood. The county is named for Choctaw leader Greenwood LeFlore, who signed a treaty to cede his people's land to the United States in exchange for land in Indian Territory. LeFlore stayed in Mississippi, settling on land reserved for him in Tallahatchie County.
Leflore County is part of the Greenwood, MS Micropolitan Statistical Area. It is located in the Mississippi Delta region, with its southern border formed by the Yazoo River. Its riverfront lands were developed before the Civil War as cotton plantations. More inland areas were developed in the later 19th century.
Leflore County, which is still largely rural, is noted for having the highest level of child poverty of any county in the United States. Mechanization of agriculture reduced jobs available for many workers in the 20th century, and there are few opportunities. The population has declined dramatically since its peak in 1930 as people continue to leave for opportunities elsewhere.
Contents
History
Leflore County was formed in 1871 during the Reconstruction era from portions of Carroll, Sunflower and Tallahatchie counties. It was named for Greenwood Leflore, a Choctaw chief. During the period of Indian Removal in the 1830s, he was one of the chiefs who signed the Treaty of 1830, by the terms of which the Choctaw sold to the US their remaining lands east of the Mississippi River. Most Choctaw migrated to the Indian Territory (now Oklahoma), but Leflore and some others remained in Mississippi. He became a state and US citizen, a planter owning African-American slaves, and at times served as a politician.
Following the American Civil War, during Reconstruction the majority-black population of freedmen in the county gained emancipation and suffrage, participating for the first time in formal politics. They supported the Republican Party, as President Abraham Lincoln had gained their freedom. In the mid-1870s, the paramilitary Red Shirts developed chapters in Mississippi. They worked to disrupt Republican meetings, suppress the black vote, and turn Republicans out of office so that white Democrats could regain control of the state legislature.
In 1890 the state legislature passed a new constitution that had a variety of devices to disenfranchise blacks; they developed ways around court cases that tried to dismantle these, and kept blacks excluded from the political system and racially segregated into the 1960s. In the first half of the 20th century, many blacks left rural counties such as Leflore, in the Great Migration to northern and midwestern industrial cities in search of jobs and education: many people went north by train to Chicago, taking their music with them and changing the big city forever.
As with other parts of the majority-black Delta, Leflore County was a major site of activism and violence during the Civil Rights Movement.
In 1963, the county had more than 13,000 blacks of legal voting age, and fewer than 270 were registered because of discrimination and suppression by whites. Blacks had been essentially disfranchised since implementation of Mississippi's new constitution in 1890, establishing poll taxes, literacy tests and other registration barriers. Meanwhile, 95% of eligible white voters were registered.
The Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee had moved its headquarters to Greenwood in early 1963, and by late March of that year, eight SNCC members were arrested while trying to register voters. The United States Department of Justice Civil Rights Division filed suit against the city of Greenwood and Leflore county to obtain their release. The petition was denied by a local court, but the city of Greenwood entered into a voluntary agreement to release the students. In June 1963, 45 residents of Itta Bena were arrested in Leflore County while protesting an attack on churches where voter registration drives were being held. The Civil Rights Division filed suit against the county to obtain their release as well, but to no avail. Passage of civil rights legislation by Congress in 1964 and 1965 began to change the ground rules.
Organizers and marchers returned in 1966 to the county as part of the March Against Fear, initiated by James Meredith, who was shot and wounded by a white man two days into the march. Major civil rights leaders and marchers from a variety of organizations vowed to continue his march of more than 220 miles from Memphis, Tennessee to Jackson, Mississippi. By the time they reached Greenwood, several hundred persons were in the group. They worked to organize and register voters, as most blacks in the county still lived in fear and had not registered. After previous attempts, the white county board had cut off federal commodity subsidies to the black community, threatening the survival of numerous poor families. SNCC helped organize a national gathering of food for county residents to overcome the boycott.
In 1966, Stokley Carmichael, a new leader of SNCC, spoke in Greenwood for "Black Power", saying that blacks had to build their own bases of political and economic power, as had Irish, Italian and Jewish immigrants to the United States.
Blues musicians
L.C. Green was one of several notable blues guitarists who came from Leflore County, Mississippi. Other notable natives and one-time residents of the county were (in alphabetical order) David "Honeyboy" Edwards, Guitar Slim, Richard "Hacksaw" Harney, Luther Johnson (Guitar Junior), Robert Johnson, Rubin Lacey, Furry Lewis, Tommy McClennan, Dion Payton, Robert Petway, Brewer Phillips, Fenton Robinson, Hubert Sumlin, and Hound Dog Taylor.
Geography
According to the U.S. Census Bureau, the county has a total area of 606 square miles (1,570 km2), of which 593 square miles (1,540 km2) is land and 14 square miles (36 km2) (2.3%) is water.
Major highways
U.S. Route 49E
U.S. Route 82
Mississippi Highway 7
Mississippi Highway 8
Adjacent counties
- Tallahatchie County (north)
- Grenada County (northeast)
- Carroll County (east)
- Holmes County (southeast)
- Humphreys County (southwest)
- Sunflower County (west)
National protected area
- Mathews Brake National Wildlife Refuge
- Theodore Roosevelt National Wildlife Refuge (part)
Demographics
| Historical population | |||
|---|---|---|---|
| Census | Pop. | %± | |
| 1880 | 10,246 | — | |
| 1890 | 16,869 | 64.6% | |
| 1900 | 23,834 | 41.3% | |
| 1910 | 36,290 | 52.3% | |
| 1920 | 37,256 | 2.7% | |
| 1930 | 53,506 | 43.6% | |
| 1940 | 53,406 | −0.2% | |
| 1950 | 51,813 | −3.0% | |
| 1960 | 47,142 | −9.0% | |
| 1970 | 42,111 | −10.7% | |
| 1980 | 41,525 | −1.4% | |
| 1990 | 37,341 | −10.1% | |
| 2000 | 37,947 | 1.6% | |
| 2010 | 32,317 | −14.8% | |
| 2020 | 28,339 | −12.3% | |
| 2023 (est.) | 26,378 | −18.4% | |
| U.S. Decennial Census 1790-1960 1900-1990 1990-2000 2010-2013 |
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2020 census
| Race | Num. | Perc. |
|---|---|---|
| White (non-Hispanic) | 5,963 | 21.04% |
| Black or African American (non-Hispanic) | 20,809 | 73.43% |
| Native American | 15 | 0.05% |
| Asian | 205 | 0.72% |
| Other/Mixed | 507 | 1.79% |
| Hispanic or Latino | 840 | 2.96% |
As of the 2020 United States census, there were 28,339 people, 9,962 households, and 6,050 families residing in the county.
2010 census
As of the 2010 United States Census, there were 32,317 people living in the county. 72.2% were Black or African American, 24.9% White, 0.6% Asian, 0.2% Native American, 1.5% of some other race and 0.6% of two or more races. 2.3% were Hispanic or Latino (of any race).
Education
Colleges and Universities
Mississippi Valley State University is located 1 mile (1.6 km) northwest of Itta Bena in an unincorporated area.
Additionally the county is in the district for Mississippi Delta Community College. The main campus is in Moorhead in Sunflower County.
Primary and secondary schools
- Public School District: Greenwood-Leflore Consolidated School District, formed on July 1, 2019, from the consolidation of the Greenwood Public School District and the Leflore County School District The district is the only school district in Leflore County.
- Greenwood High School (formerly of the Greenwood District)
- Amanda Elzy High School (formerly of the Leflore Co. District)
- Leflore County High School (formerly of the Leflore Co. District)
- Private Schools
- Delta Streets Academy
- Pillow Academy — formerly a segregation academy.
Communities
Cities
Towns
Census-designated place
- Mississippi Valley State University
Unincorporated communities
Ghost town
See also
In Spanish: Condado de Leflore para niños
