Jefferson County is a county located in the U.S. state of Mississippi; its western border is formed by the Mississippi River. As of the 2020 census, the population was 7,260,[1] making it the fourth-least populous county in Mississippi. Until 1825, its first county seat was located at Old Greenville, which no longer exists,[2] before moving to Fayette.[3] The county is named for U.S. PresidentThomas Jefferson.[4] One of the first of two counties organized in the Mississippi Territory in 1798 along with Adams County, it was first named Pickering County and included what would become Claiborne County.[5] Originally developed as cotton plantations in the antebellum era, the rural county has struggled with a declining economy and reduced population since the mechanization of agriculture and urbanization of other areas. In 2020, its population of 7,260 was roughly one-third of the population peak in 1900. Within the United States, in 2009 rural Jefferson County had the highest percentage of African-Americans of any county. It was the fourth-poorest county in the nation.[6]
According to the U.S. Census Bureau, the county has a total area of 527 square miles (1,360km2), of which 520 square miles (1,300km2) is land and 7.3 square miles (19km2) (1.4%) is water.[7]
Jefferson County is overwhelmingly Democratic, and has supported Democratic candidates in presidential elections with at least 80% of the vote since Bill Clinton in 1992, who won 79%. Republicans have not garnered even 25% of the vote in presidential elections since 1972 (when Jefferson was one of only three counties in Mississippi to vote for George McGovern).
The last Republican to win the county was Barry Goldwater. Although Goldwater lost nationally in a landslide, he carried the state of Mississippi (and also Jefferson County) in a landslide, winning over 87% of the vote and carrying every county. [note 1] Jefferson County supported him with 95% of the vote. Goldwater's lopsided victory was the result of Mississippi's decades-long suppression of the voting rights of African Americans, which only began to be reversed with the passage of the Voting Rights Act of 1965.[note 2]
United States presidential election results for Jefferson County, Mississippi[17]
David Hunt, Antebellum planter who lived on Woodlawn Plantation in Jefferson County, and became one of 12 planter millionaires in the Natchez District before the American Civil War.
Zachary Taylor, U.S. president, planter, and soldier who often stayed on his plantation, Cypress Grove in Jefferson County, between 1840 and 1848.
↑ the statewide popular vote for Barry was 356,528, or 87.14%. Jefferson county saw 94.8% of its voters vote for Goldwater.'"`UNIQ--ref-00000037-QINU`"''"`UNIQ--ref-00000038-QINU`"'
↑ "Despite all of this progress, the South remained segregated, especially when it came to the polls, where African Americans faced violence and intimidation when they attempted to exercise their constitutional right to vote. Poll taxes and literacy tests designed to silence Black voters were common. Without access to the polls, political change in favor of civil rights was slow-to-non-existent. Mississippi was chosen as the site of the Freedom Summer project due to its historically low levels of African American voter registration; in 1962 less than 7 percent of the state's eligible Black voters were registered to vote."'"`UNIQ--ref-0000003A-QINU`"'
This page is based on this Wikipedia article Text is available under the CC BY-SA 4.0 license; additional terms may apply. Images, videos and audio are available under their respective licenses.
United States
Mississippi 
