Greenville, Mississippi facts for kids
Quick facts for kids
Greenville, Mississippi
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Nickname(s):
The Heart & Soul of The Delta
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Motto(s):
The Best Food, Shopping, & Entertainment In The South
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Location of Greenville in Washington County
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Country | United States |
State | Mississippi |
County | Washington |
Incorporated | June 24, 1870 |
Government | |
• Type | Municipal Government |
Area | |
• City | 27.67 sq mi (71.66 km2) |
• Land | 26.89 sq mi (69.66 km2) |
• Water | 0.77 sq mi (2.00 km2) |
Elevation | 131 ft (40 m) |
Population
(2010)
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• City | 34,400 |
• Estimate
(2019)
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29,085 |
• Density | 1,081.43/sq mi (417.55/km2) |
• Urban | 38,300 |
Time zone | UTC−6 (CST) |
• Summer (DST) | UTC−5 (CDT) |
ZIP codes |
38701–38704, 38731
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Area code(s) | 662 |
FIPS code | 28-29180 |
GNIS feature ID | 0670711 |
Website | www.greenvillems.org |
Greenville is a city in, and the county seat of, Washington County, Mississippi, United States. The population was 34,400 at the 2010 census. It is located in the area of historic cotton plantations and culture known as the Mississippi Delta.
Contents
History
This area was occupied by indigenous peoples when explored by the French, who established a colony at Natchez, Mississippi, the home of the historic Natchez people, and later European-American colonists. The United States Congress passed the Indian Removal Act in 1830, and forced most of the Southeastern tribes to Indian Territory during the following decade.
Greenville was founded in 1824 by William W. Blanton, who filed for land from the United States government. He was granted section four, township eighteen, range eight west. This plot now constitutes most of downtown Greenville.
Greenville became the county seat in 1844. The two previous county seats, New Mexico and Princeton, had both caved into the Mississippi River.
The current city of Greenville is the third in the State to bear the name. The first, located to the south near Natchez, became defunct soon after the American Revolution as European-American settlement was concentrated to the east.
The second is the parent city to the present one and was settled in the early 19th century. It was named by its founders for General Nathanael Greene, beloved friend of George Washington, for whom the county was named. This Greenville was located three miles from the present site. Today it is the site of the city’s industrial fill. The second town was a thriving hamlet in the days before the Civil War. As county seat, it was the trading, business, and cultural center for the large cotton plantations that surrounded it. Most plantations were located directly on the Mississippi and other major navigable tributaries. The interior bottomlands were not developed until after the war.
The town was destroyed during the Union Army's actions related to the siege of Vicksburg. Troops from a Union gunboat landed at Greenville. In retaliation for being fired upon, they burned every building. The inhabitants took refuge in plantation homes of the area. When the war ended, veterans of Mississippi regiments found Greenville in a state of ruin. The former residents soon decided to build again. The place chosen was the highest point on the Mississippi River between the towns of Vicksburg and Memphis. Much of the land then belonged to the Roach and Blanton families; the major part of the area selected was on property owned by Mrs. Harriet Blanton Theobald. She welcomed the idea of a new Greenville, donating land for schools, churches and public buildings. She was called the "Mother of Greenville". Major Richard O’Hea, who had planned the wartime defense fortifications at Vicksburg, was hired to lay out the new town.
Greenville recovered prosperity, still based on cotton, despite its decline. Residences and other buildings from the late 19th and early 20th centuries have been listed on the National Register of Historic Places. It was a center of Delta culture in the early 20th century.
Nelson Street
African Americans in the Delta developed rich varieties of innovative music. Nelson Street is a historic strip of blues clubs that drew crowds in the 1940s and 1950s to the flourishing club scene to hear Delta blues, big band, jump blues and jazz. Record companies came here to recruit talent. It was the equivalent of Beale Street in mid-20th century Memphis.
The Mississippi Blues Commission was established to commemorate this music in Mississippi history and culture; it has identified sites throughout the Delta as part of the Mississippi Blues Trail. Southern Whispers Restaurant on Nelson Street was the second site identified on this trail; this was a stop on the chitlin' circuit in the early days of the blues. The historic marker in front of the restaurant commemorates the importance of this site in the history of the development of the blues in Mississippi.
Geography
Greenville is located on the eastern bank of Lake Ferguson, an oxbow lake left from an old channel of the Mississippi River. One floating casino is located on the lake near the downtown area known as the Lighthouse Point Casino, with a second just west of the city near the Greenville Bridge known as Harlow's Casino Resort. Chicago Mill and Lumber Co. operated a lumber mill on the lake two-tenths of a mile south of the casino levee parking lot; the mill specialized in making hardwood boxes until it closed.
According to the United States Census Bureau, the city has a total area of 27.7 square miles (72 km2), of which 26.9 square miles (70 km2) is land and 0.8 square miles (2.1 km2) (2.82%) is water.
Demographics
Historical population | |||
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Census | Pop. | %± | |
1860 | 760 | — | |
1870 | 890 | 17.1% | |
1880 | 2,191 | 146.2% | |
1890 | 6,658 | 203.9% | |
1900 | 7,642 | 14.8% | |
1910 | 9,610 | 25.8% | |
1920 | 11,560 | 20.3% | |
1930 | 14,807 | 28.1% | |
1940 | 20,892 | 41.1% | |
1950 | 29,936 | 43.3% | |
1960 | 41,502 | 38.6% | |
1970 | 39,648 | −4.5% | |
1980 | 40,613 | 2.4% | |
1990 | 45,226 | 11.4% | |
2000 | 41,633 | −7.9% | |
2010 | 34,400 | −17.4% | |
2019 (est.) | 29,085 | −15.5% | |
Sources:
2018 Estimate |
2020 census
Race | Num. | Perc. |
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White | 4,821 | 16.25% |
Black or African American | 23,787 | 80.17% |
Native American | 33 | 0.11% |
Asian | 264 | 0.89% |
Pacific Islander | 3 | 0.01% |
Other/Mixed | 493 | 1.66% |
Hispanic or Latino | 269 | 0.91% |
As of the 2020 United States Census, there were 29,670 people, 12,142 households, and 7,405 families residing in the city.
2013 ACS
As of the 2013 American Community Survey, there were 33,928 people living in the city. 75.9% were African American, 21.7% White, 0.0% Native American, 0.8% Asian, 0.9% from some other race and 0.7% from two or more races. 1.2% were Hispanic or Latino of any race.
1990 census
As of the census of 1990, there were 45,226 people living in the city. The racial makeup of the city was 59.41% (26,867) Black or African American, 39.54% (17,881) White, 0.08% (37) Native American, 0.41% (185) Asian, and 0.01% (4) from other races. 0.56% (252) were Hispanic or Latino of any race.
Transportation
Air
Greenville Mid Delta Regional Airport, located in unincorporated Washington County, northeast of downtown Greenville, serves the city and the Mississippi Delta region. Commercial passenger air service is currently provided by Contour Airlines with nonstop Embraer regional jet flights to Dallas/Fort Worth (DFW) and Nashville (BNA).
Highway
U.S. Highway 82, U.S. Highway 61 and the Great River Road (Mississippi Highway 1) are the main transportation arteries through the Greenville area. U.S. Highway 82 is a major part of the Mississippi Delta's transportation network, as it connects to Interstate 55 and other major four-lane highways. In addition, the U.S. Highway 82 bypass is being constructed to provide a transportation route at the southern end of the Delta, connecting at the new Mississippi River Bridge and ending near Leland. The four-lane Greenville Bridge, a $206 million cable-stayed span crossing the Mississippi River into Arkansas, opened in 2010, replacing the two-lane Benjamin G. Humphreys Bridge, which opened in 1940.
Rail
The Columbus and Greenville Railway operates the Greenwood–Greenville rail line for freight traffic. North of Greenville, the Great River Railroad's line to Rosedale branches off.
Sites
The Winterville Mounds Historic Site, with more than twelve earthwork mounds constructed by people of the Plaquemine Mississippian culture, is a survival north of the county seat of the deep indigenous history along the Mississippi River. This culture was particularly prominent from 13th to the 15th centuries, long before European exploration. Earthwork mounds were built by peoples in this area from the 9th century. The people in this region were influenced by the larger Mississippian culture, which built similar ceremonial sites throughout the Mississippi Valley and its tributaries. The historic Natchez people are considered the only contemporary surviving group of the Mississippian culture at the time of European exploration.
The Winterville Mounds has been designated as a state park and National Historic Landmark. A museum on the grounds displays artifacts recovered in professional excavations and adds to the interpretation of this complex, and the park has walking trails. It is located about 3 miles north of the city. It can be reached at 2415 Highway 1 N.
Sister cities
Economy
Circa 2008 there were ten grocery stores operated by ethnic Chinese people. There were 42 such stores in the city in 1951, but since then there had been a flight of ethnic Chinese from the Delta.
Sports
The Greenville Bucks were a minor-league baseball team in the Cotton States League from 1922 to 1955.
The Greenville Bluesmen were an independent minor league professional baseball team from 1996–2001 in Greenville.
The Mississippi Miracles, formerly the Mississippi Stingers, were an American Basketball Association franchise from 2004–2006 in Greenville.
Greenville will become host to a mega-sports complex for young athletes.
Education
Most of Greenville is served by the Greenville Public School District, while a small portion of the city lies in the Western Line School District. Greenville High School is the public high school of the Greenville district, while O'Bannon High School serves Western Line residents.
The private schools, Washington School and Greenville Christian School, also serve the city, as well as St. Joseph Catholic School (K-12), a parochial school which is part of the Roman Catholic Diocese of Jackson. The diocese formerly operated Our Lady of Lourdes Elementary School, which merged into St. Joseph in 2016.
The Greenville Higher Education Center offers non-credit community courses and credit courses from Delta State University, Mississippi Delta Community College (MDCC), and Mississippi Valley State University. All of Washington County is in the service area of MDCC.
Notable people
Born in Greenville
- Quentin Groves, (July 5, 1984 – October 15, 2016) was an American football linebacker, drafted by the Jacksonville Jaguars in the second round of the 2008 NFL. Groves was a sack specialist at Auburn and finished tied for the Auburn career sack record at 26.
- Steve Azar, country singer
- Heather McTeer Toney, former Mayor of Greenville and EPA regional administrator.
- John Colbert, a.k.a. J Blackfoot, Soul singer with the Bar-Kays and Soul Children, was born in Greenville.
- Eden Brent, blues boogie-woogie musician, composer, and performer
- Vivian Brown, meteorologist for The Weather Channel
- Charles Chew (1922–1986), Illinois state senator; born in Greenville
- Tommy Davidson, actor/comedian
- Ross Davis, Negro league baseball player
- Tyrone Davis, blues musician
- Shelby Foote, author and historian
- Jimmie Giles, NFL tight end, four-time Pro Bowl selection in 1980s with Tampa Bay Buccaneers
- Brooks Haxton, poet and professor at Syracuse University
- Robert T. Henry, World War II soldier and Medal of Honor recipient
- Jim Henson (1936–1990), puppeteer, television and film producer, creator of The Muppets
- Corey Holmes, all-star Canadian Football League player and Mayor of Metcalfe, Mississippi
- Lucy Somerville Howorth, feminist and New Deal lawyer
- Antonio Johnson, NFL player for the Indianapolis Colts
- Germany Kent, model and media personality
- Cornelia Lampton, pianist
- Sam Chu Lin, pioneering Chinese American journalist
- John Ramsey Miller, writer and journalist
- Wilbert Montgomery, former NFL running back, member of Philadelphia Eagles Hall of Fame
- The Percy family, including U.S. Senator Le Roy Percy and his son, author William Alexander Percy, lived here. They directed efforts to prevent and recover from the Great Mississippi Flood of 1927. The younger Percy wrote a memoir, Lanterns on the Levee about the Mississippi Delta culture. Walker Percy, another writer from the Percy family, and his brothers were raised by William Alexander Percy here after being orphaned. He lived most of his life in Louisiana.
- Julia Evans Reed, author, journalist and columnist
- George Scott, MLB player for Boston Red Sox, Milwaukee Brewers, Kansas City Royals and New York Yankees
- Carol Schwartz, former member of Council of the District of Columbia
- Nellie Nugent Somerville, first woman elected to Mississippi Legislature, mother of Lucy Somerville Howorth
- LaToya Thomas, former professional basketball player in WNBA, first round draft pick of Cleveland Rockers
- Walter Turnbull, African American musician, founder of Boys Choir of Harlem, as well as a Mississippi Musicians Hall of Fame inductee, was born in Greenville in 1944
- Frank White, professional baseball player
- Mary Wilson, singer of The Supremes
- Malcolm Wynn, first black police chief of Greenville Police Department
- Kelvin Jones, director of the LSU Tiger Band and first African American head athletic band director in SEC history
- Ray Brown, NFL football player
- Hodding Carter, Pulitzer Prize-journalist, managed the city's Delta Democrat Times. His descendant Hodding Carter III, also a journalist, lived and worked here during and after the civil rights movement.
- Holt Collier is buried in Greenville. Collier was an African-American bear hunter and sportsman; he served as the guide for President Theodore Roosevelt on a bear hunt in Sharkey County. In January 2004 the Holt Collier National Wildlife Refuge was established on Collier's "historic hunting grounds" south of Greenville.
- Samuel Gibbs French (1818-1910), Confederate Major General, managed a plantation in Greenville
- John F. Harris, Mississippi State Representative from Greenville elected in 1890.
- Clarke Reed, Mississippi state Republican chairman from 1966 to 1976, was instrumental in the nomination of Gerald R. Ford, Jr., at the 1976 Republican National Convention, has resided in Greenville since 1950; he is a businessman and investor.
Images for kids
See also
In Spanish: Greenville (Misisipi) para niños