Rosedale, Mississippi facts for kids
Quick facts for kids
Rosedale, Mississippi
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City
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Motto(s):
The Delta City of Brotherly Love
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Location of Rosedale, Mississippi
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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)
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• 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
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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
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 | |||
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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 |
2020 census
Race | Num. | Perc. |
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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
In Spanish: Rosedale (Misisipi) para niños