Leighton, Alabama facts for kids
Quick facts for kids
Leighton, Alabama
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Leighton City Hall
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Location of Leighton in Colbert County, Alabama.
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| Country | United States |
| State | Alabama |
| County | Colbert |
| Area | |
| • Total | 2.16 sq mi (5.59 km2) |
| • Land | 2.16 sq mi (5.59 km2) |
| • Water | 0.00 sq mi (0.00 km2) |
| Elevation | 568 ft (173 m) |
| Population
(2020)
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| • Total | 665 |
| • Density | 308.30/sq mi (119.02/km2) |
| Time zone | UTC-6 (Central (CST)) |
| • Summer (DST) | UTC-5 (CDT) |
| ZIP code |
35646
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| Area code(s) | 256 |
| FIPS code | 01-42160 |
| GNIS feature ID | 0152020 |
Leighton is a town in Colbert County, Alabama, United States. It is part of the Florence - Muscle Shoals Metropolitan Statistical Area known as "The Shoals". At the 2020 census, the population was 665. Leighton has been hit by several tornadoes in the 2000s, including a damaging EF2 on May 8, 2008, that was caught on tape flipping over many cars and damaging buildings.
Contents
History
The first settlers in what is now Leighton arrived as early as 1813. The community's first name was Crossroads, for its location at the intersection of one road that ran from the Tennessee River to Tuscaloosa, Alabama, and another that connected Huntsville to Tuscumbia, Alabama. The first business at the intersection was a tavern.
The name was changed to Leighton for Rev. William Leigh, a minister and entrepreneur who also served as the first postmaster in 1824. In 1826, the town's population expanded dramatically after 20 families from North Carolina settled there. In 1833, the Tuscumbia, Courtland and Decatur Railroad built a line through the city, and Leighton became a shipping center for cotton. The town incorporated in 1890 and remained a major shipping center well into the twentieth century.
Leighton originally straddled the county line of Franklin and Lawrence Counties. When Colbert County was carved off in 1867, the town still remained divided between the new county and Lawrence. On the 1880 U.S. Census, it reported having 196 residents on the Colbert County side and 83 on the Lawrence County side. After the 1890 Census, Colbert County's eastern border was expanded eastward several miles to Town Creek, placing Leighton wholly within Colbert.
In 1909, an African-American man named Sam Davenport was lynched by a mob of some two dozen men in Leighton. Davenport was suspected of burning a white man's barn.
Geography
Leighton is located in eastern Colbert County at 34°41′59″N 87°31′51″W / 34.69972°N 87.53083°W (34.699642, -87.530699).
According to the U.S. Census Bureau, the town has a total area of 1.0 square mile (2.6 km2), all land.
Demographics
| Historical population | |||
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| Census | Pop. | %± | |
| 1880 | 279 | — | |
| 1900 | 506 | — | |
| 1910 | 540 | 6.7% | |
| 1920 | 598 | 10.7% | |
| 1930 | 670 | 12.0% | |
| 1940 | 810 | 20.9% | |
| 1950 | 1,080 | 33.3% | |
| 1960 | 1,158 | 7.2% | |
| 1970 | 1,231 | 6.3% | |
| 1980 | 1,218 | −1.1% | |
| 1990 | 988 | −18.9% | |
| 2000 | 849 | −14.1% | |
| 2010 | 729 | −14.1% | |
| 2020 | 665 | −8.8% | |
| U.S. Decennial Census 2013 Estimate |
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2020 census
| Race | Num. | Perc. |
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| White (non-Hispanic) | 325 | 48.87% |
| Black or African American (non-Hispanic) | 289 | 43.46% |
| Native American | 1 | 0.15% |
| Pacific Islander | 2 | 0.3% |
| Other/Mixed | 35 | 5.26% |
| Hispanic or Latino | 13 | 1.95% |
As of the 2020 United States census, there were 665 people, 368 households, and 200 families residing in the town.
Employment
According to 2010 Census estimates, the work force in Leighton was divided among the following industrial categories:
- Arts, entertainment, recreation, and accommodation and food services (20.3 percent)
- Retail trade (18.5 percent)
- Manufacturing (15.8 percent)
- Educational services, and health care and social assistance (15.3 percent)
- Construction (13.5 percent)
- Agriculture, forestry, fishing and hunting, and extractive (5.4 percent)
- Other services, except public administration (5.0 percent)
- Public administration (5.0 percent)
- Professional, scientific, management, and administrative and waste management services (1.4 percent)
Gallery
Below are photographs taken in Leighton as part of the Historic American Buildings Survey:
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Drury Vinson House
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Presbyterian Church
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Hugh C. Leckey House
Education
Leighton is served by three schools in the Colbert County School System:
- Hatton Elementary (K-6)
- Leighton Elementary (K-6)
- Colbert County High School (7-12)
Notable people
- Lefty Bates, Chicago Blues guitarist
- Leon Douglas, former NBA player
- Jimmy Hughes, former rhythm and blues singer
- Thomas Minott Peters, lawyer and botanist
- Percy Sledge, soul musician
See also
In Spanish: Leighton (Alabama) para niños
