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Rosedale, Mississippi
City
WelcomeToRosedaleSign.jpg
Motto(s): 
The Delta City of Brotherly Love
Location of Rosedale, Mississippi
Location of Rosedale, Mississippi
Rosedale, Mississippi is located in the United States
Rosedale, Mississippi
Rosedale, Mississippi
Location in the United States
Country United States
State Mississippi
County Bolivar
Area
 • Total 5.48 sq mi (14.19 km2)
 • Land 5.42 sq mi (14.02 km2)
 • Water 0.06 sq mi (0.16 km2)
Elevation
151 ft (46 m)
Population
 (2020)
 • Total 1,584
 • Density 292.52/sq mi (112.95/km2)
Time zone UTC-6 (Central (CST))
 • Summer (DST) UTC-5 (CDT)
ZIP code
38769
Area code(s) 662
FIPS code 28-63720
GNIS feature ID 0676870

Rosedale is a city in Bolivar County, Mississippi, United States. The population was 1,873 at the 2010 census, down from 2,414 in 2000. Located in an agricultural area, the city had a stop on the Yazoo and Mississippi Valley Railroad, which carried many migrants north out of the area in the first half of the 20th century.

History

A Y Scott Residence, Rosedale, Mississippi (1920)
The A. Y. Scott Residence in Rosedale, 1920. Scott was a director of the Rosedale Oil Mill.

Rosedale was settled around 1838 and became one of the two county seats in 1872. This area was developed by European American planters for extensive cotton plantations, dependent on enslaved laborers. After the Civil War and emancipation, some freedmen managed to clear and buy land in the bottomlands, with many becoming landowners before the end of the nineteenth century. By 1910, a lengthy recession and declining economic and political conditions resulted in most blacks in the state losing their land. They could not compete with the financing gained by railroads, which were constructed in the area beginning in 1882 Many stayed in the area to work as sharecroppers and laborers. The railroad brought new business to Rosedale, which had a depot and shipped cotton to northern and other markets. Rosedale incorporated as a town February 2, 1882 and became a city in 1930.

Beginning in the early twentieth century, tens of thousands of blacks left the state of Mississippi as part of the Great Migration, north by railroad to Chicago and other Midwestern industrial cities. During and after World War II, others went to California to work in the defense industry. Others remained where their families had lived for generations, with strong local ties.

In 2007, the Mississippi Blues Commission placed a historic marker at Rosedale's former Yazoo and Mississippi Valley Railroad depot site, designating it as a site on the Mississippi Blues Trail. The marker commemorates the sites in the original lyrics of legendary blues artist Robert Johnson's song "Travelling Riverside Blues". He traced the railway route which ran south from Friars Point to Rosedale among other stops, including Vicksburg and north to Memphis. The marker emphasizes that a common theme of blues songs was riding on the railroad, which was seen as a metaphor for travel and escape from poverty and Jim Crow in the Delta. It also commemorates another common blues theme, life on the banks of a moody river bank, a theme heard in Charlie Patton's "High Water Everywhere".

Locals claim that Johnson sold his soul to the Devil at the intersection of Mississippi state highways 1 and 8, on the south end of town, and that he tells this story metaphorically in "Cross Road Blues." Other artists have referred to his songs. Johnson's deal with the Devil is mentioned as occurring in Rosedale in 1930 in an episode of the TV series Supernatural. However, a number of other Delta municipalities claim that the transaction took place in or near their boundaries.

Geography

Rosedale is located 19 miles (31 km) northwest of Cleveland.

According to the United States Census Bureau, Rosedale has a total area of 5.5 square miles (14.2 km2), of which 5.4 square miles (14.0 km2) is land and 0.08 square miles (0.2 km2), or 1.14%, is water.

Rosedale is situated on the eastern side of the Mississippi River, approximately midway between the mouths of the Arkansas and White rivers, which flow into the Mississippi from the Arkansas (western) side.

Demographics

Historical population
Census Pop.
1890 376
1900 622 65.4%
1910 1,103 77.3%
1920 1,696 53.8%
1930 2,117 24.8%
1940 2,063 −2.6%
1950 2,197 6.5%
1960 2,339 6.5%
1970 2,599 11.1%
1980 2,793 7.5%
1990 2,595 −7.1%
2000 2,414 −7.0%
2010 1,873 −22.4%
2020 1,584 −15.4%
U.S. Decennial Census
Grace Episcopal Church, Rosedale, MS
Grace Episcopal Church in Rosedale is listed on the National Register of Historic Places.

2020 census

Rosedale Racial Composition
Race Num. Perc.
White 140 8.84%
Black or African American 1,395 88.07%
Native American 1 0.06%
Other/Mixed 30 1.89%
Hispanic or Latino 18 1.14%

As of the 2020 United States Census, there were 1,584 people, 642 households, and 398 families residing in the city.

Education

Rosedale is served by the West Bolivar Consolidated School District (formerly West Bolivar School District). Children in Rosedale are assigned to West Bolivar Elementary School, West Bolivar Middle School, and West Bolivar High School.

The case of Gong Lum v. Rice, wherein the U.S. Supreme Court held that a Chinese student was ineligible to attend the school for white children, and instead, was required to attend the school for colored children, originated in Rosedale.

Notable people

  • Travarus Bennett, former professional basketball player
  • Dennis Binder, rhythm & blues musician and singer
  • Joseph Henry Bufford, state legislator
  • Redd Holt, jazz and soul music drummer
  • Percy Malone, Arkansas politician and pharmacist
  • Cliff Meely, professional basketball player
  • W. B. Roberts, lawyer, planter, banker, and legislative leader
  • Walter Sillers, lawyer and planter
  • Walter Sillers, Jr., segregationist, lawyer and legislative leader
  • Florence Sillers Ogden, columnist and segregationist
  • Florence Warfield Sillers, historian and socialite

See also

Kids robot.svg In Spanish: Rosedale (Misisipi) para niños

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