Related Research Articles
Jackson, officially the City of Jackson, is the capital and most populous city of the U.S. State of Mississippi. It is one of two county seats of Hinds County, along with Raymond, Mississippi. The city of Jackson also includes around 3,000 acres (12.1 km2) comprising Jackson-Medgar Evers International Airport in Rankin County and a small portion of Madison County. The city had a population of 153,701 at the 2020 census, down from 173,514 at the 2010 census. Jackson's population declined more between 2010 and 2020 (11.42%) than any major city in the United States. The city sits on the Pearl River and is located in the greater Jackson Prairie region of Mississippi.
Newton County is a county located in the U.S. state of Mississippi. As of the 2010 census, the population was 21,720. Its county seat is Decatur.
Lauderdale County is a county located on the eastern border of the U.S. state of Mississippi. As of the 2010 census, the population was 80,261. The county seat is Meridian. The county is named for Colonel James Lauderdale, who was killed at the Battle of New Orleans in the War of 1812. Lauderdale County is included in the Meridian, MS Micropolitan Statistical Area.
Meridian is the seventh largest city in the U.S. state of Mississippi, with a population of 41,148 at the 2010 census and an estimated population in 2018 of 36,347. It is the county seat of Lauderdale County and the principal city of the Meridian, Mississippi Micropolitan Statistical Area. Along major highways, the city is 93 mi (150 km) east of Jackson, Mississippi; 154 mi (248 km) southwest of Birmingham, Alabama; 202 mi (325 km) northeast of New Orleans, Louisiana; and 231 mi (372 km) southeast of Memphis, Tennessee.
Clarksdale is a city in and the county seat of Coahoma County, Mississippi, United States. It is located along the Sunflower River. Clarksdale is named after John Clark, a settler who founded the city in the mid-19th century when he established a timber mill and business.
Belzoni is a city in Humphreys County, Mississippi, United States, in the Mississippi Delta region, on the Yazoo River. The population was 2,235 at the 2010 census. It is the county seat of Humphreys County. It was named for the 19th-century Italian archaeologist/explorer Giovanni Battista Belzoni.
Marion is a town in Lauderdale County, Mississippi, United States. It is a northeastern suburb of Meridian, the county seat. The population of Marion was 1,479 at the 2010 census.
Canton is a city in Madison County, Mississippi, United States. The population was 13,189 at the 2010 census. It is the county seat of Madison County, and situated in the northern part of the metropolitan area surrounding the state capital, Jackson.
Cleveland is a city in Bolivar County, Mississippi, United States. The population was 11,199 as of the 2020 United States Census.
Greenwood is a city in and the county seat of Leflore County, Mississippi, United States, located at the eastern edge of the Mississippi Delta region, approximately 96 miles north of the state capital, Jackson, and 130 miles south of the riverport of Memphis, Tennessee. It was a center of cotton planter culture in the 19th century.
The murders of Chaney, Goodman, and Schwerner, also known as the Freedom Summer murders, the Mississippi civil rights workers' murders, or the Mississippi Burning murders, refers to events in which three activists were abducted and murdered in the city of Philadelphia, Mississippi, in June 1964 during the Civil Rights Movement. The victims were James Chaney from Meridian, Mississippi, and Andrew Goodman and Michael Schwerner from New York City. All three were associated with the Council of Federated Organizations (COFO) and its member organization, the Congress of Racial Equality (CORE). They had been working with the Freedom Summer campaign by attempting to register African Americans in Mississippi to vote. Since 1890 and through the turn of the century, southern states had systematically disenfranchised most black voters by discrimination in voter registration and voting.
Alton Wayne Roberts was a Klansman convicted of depriving slain activists Michael Schwerner, Andrew Goodman and James Chaney of their civil rights in 1964. He shot two of the three civil rights workers before his accomplices buried their bodies in a dam.
The Meridian Star is formerly a daily newspaper. Beginning Tuesday, April 7, 2020, the paper is published triweekly on Tuesday, Thursday, and Saturday mornings. It publishes in Meridian, Mississippi, United States, covering Lauderdale County and adjoining portions of West Alabama and East Mississippi. It is owned by Community Newspaper Holding, Inc.
Charles L. Young Sr. was an American businessman, veteran of the Korean War who earned a Bronze Star, and politician in Mississippi. He advanced in the family business started by his father, becoming president in 1969 and expanding the sale of E.F. Young Jr. Manufacturing Company products into markets in Canada and the Caribbean. In 1980 he was elected to the Mississippi State Legislature, and was repeatedly re-elected, serving nearly three decades from Meridian, Mississippi until his death.
The history of Meridian, Mississippi begins in the early 19th century before European-American settlement. Originally settled by the Choctaw Indians, the land was bought by the United States according to the Treaty of Dancing Rabbit Creek in 1830. The city grew around the intersection of the Mobile and Ohio Railroad and the Southern Railway of Mississippi and developed a largely rail-based economy. Although much of the city was burned down in the Battle of Meridian during the American Civil War, the city was rebuilt and entered a "Golden Age." Between about 1890 and 1930, the city was the largest in Mississippi and a leading center for manufacturing in the Southern United States. After the decline of the railroading industry in the 1950s, the city's economy was devastated, resulting in a slow population decline. The population has continued to decline as the city has struggled to create a new, more modern economy based on newer industries. In the past 20 years or so, Meridian has attempted to revitalize the city's economy by attracting more business and industry to the city, most specifically the downtown area.
The Meridian race riot of 1871 was a race riot in Meridian, Mississippi in March 1871. It followed the arrest of freedmen accused of inciting riot in a downtown fire, and blacks' organizing for self-defense. Although the local Ku Klux Klan (KKK) chapter had attacked freedmen since the end of the Civil War, generally without punishment, the first local arrest under the 1870 act to suppress the Klan was of a freedman. This angered the black community. During the trial of black leaders, the presiding judge was shot in the courtroom, and a gunfight erupted that killed several people. In the ensuing mob violence, whites killed as many as 30 blacks over the next few days. Democrats drove the Republican mayor from office, and no person was charged or tried in the freedmen's deaths.
Toomsuba is a census-designated place (CDP) and unincorporated community in Lauderdale County, Mississippi, United States. Its population was 778 as of the 2020 census. Its ZIP code is 39364.
Alamucha is an unincorporated community in Lauderdale County, Mississippi, United States.
The United States Civil Rights Trail is a heritage trail in the Southern United States that provides visitors civil rights movement stories at various American landmarks. The Civil Rights Trail links historically important Black churches, school museums, civil rights leaders’ residences, courthouses, and other landmarks which describe how descendants of enslaved people advanced freedom and social justice in the 1950s and 1960s and claimed their rights as American citizens as promised by the U.S. Constitution’s 13th, 14th and 15th amendments.
References
- 1 2 Koelker, Gena (19 February 2017). "Meridian's civil rights trail" . Meridian Star. Meridian, Mississippi. Retrieved 30 April 2020.
The trail is a two-hour, self-guided tour that takes participants on a journey through the history of the Civil Rights Era as it winds through Meridian and Lauderdale County.