Greenwood, Mississippi

Greenwood is a city in and the county seat of Leflore County, Mississippi, United States, located at the eastern edge of the Mississippi Delta approximately 96 miles north of Jackson, Mississippi, and 130 miles south of Memphis, Tennessee. The population was 15,205 at the 2010 census. It is the principal city of the Greenwood Micropolitan Statistical Area. The Tallahatchie River and the Yalobusha River meet at Greenwood to form the Yazoo River.

History
The flood plain of the Mississippi River has long been an area rich in vegetation and wildlife, feeding off the Mississippi and its numerous tributaries. Long before Europeans migrated to America, the Choctaw and Chickasaw Indian nations settled in the Delta's bottomlands and throughout what is now central Mississippi. They were descended from indigenous peoples who had lived in the area for thousands of years.

In the nineteenth century, the Five Civilized Tribes suffered increasing encroachment on their territory by European-American settlers from southeastern states. Under pressure from the United States government, in 1830 the Choctaw Principal Chief Greenwood Leflore and other Choctaw leaders signed the Treaty of Dancing Rabbit Creek, ceding most of their remaining land to the US in exchange for land in what is now southeastern Oklahoma. The government opened the land to settlement by European Americans.

The first Euro-American settlement on the banks of the Yazoo River was a trading post founded by John Williams in 1830 and known as Williams Landing. The settlement quickly blossomed, and in 1844 was incorporated as "Greenwood," named after Chief Greenwood Leflore. Growing in the midst of a strong cotton market, the city's success was based on its strategic location in the heart of the Delta; on the easternmost point of the alluvial plain and astride the Tallahatchie and the Yazoo rivers. The city served as a shipping point for cotton to major markets in New Orleans, Louisiana, Vicksburg, Mississippi, Memphis, Tennessee, and St. Louis, Missouri. Greenwood continued to prosper, based on slave labor on the cotton plantations and in shipping, until the latter part of the American Civil War.

The end of the Civil War in the mid-1860s and the following years of Reconstruction changed the labor market to one of free labor. The state was mostly undeveloped frontier, and many freedmen withdrew from working for others. In the nineteenth century, many blacks managed to clear and buy their own farms in the bottomlands. With the disruption of war and changes to labor, cotton production initially declined, reducing the city's previously thriving economy.

The construction of railroads through the area in the 1880s allowed the city to revitalize, with two rail lines running to downtown Greenwood, close to the Yazoo River, and shortening transportation to markets. Greenwood again emerged as a prime shipping point for cotton. Downtown's Front Street bordering the Yazoo filled with cotton factors and related businesses, earning that section the name Cotton Row. The city continued to prosper in this way well into the 1940s, although cotton production suffered during the infestation of the boll weevil in the early twentieth century.

The industry was largely mechanized in the twentieth century before World War II. Since the late twentieth century, some Mississippi farmers have begun to replace cotton with corn and soybeans as commodity crops, because of the shift of the textile industry overseas, and stronger prices for those crops.

Greenwood's Grand Boulevard was once named one of America's 10 most beautiful streets by the U.S. Chambers of Commerce and the Garden Clubs of America. Sally Humphreys Gwin, a charter member of the Greenwood Garden Club, planted the 1,000 oak trees lining Grand Boulevard. In 1950, Gwin received a citation from the National Congress of the Daughters of the American Revolution in recognition of her work in the conservation of trees.

In 1955, following the Supreme Court's decision in Brown v. Board of Education, the White Citizens' Council was founded by Robert B. Patterson in Greenwood to fight against racial integration. Local chapters formed across the state, and the white-dominated legislature voted to give the Councils financial support. Having been disfranchised since 1890, when the state passed a new constitution and related electoral and Jim Crow laws, the black community had not been able to elect representatives since then to the state or federal legislature, and could not protest such actions. The Council paid staff to collect information on black professionals and activists who worked for the restoration of US constitutional civil rights.

From 1962 through 1964, Greenwood was a center of protests and voter registration struggles during the Civil Rights Movement. The SNCC, COFO, and the MFDP were all active in Greenwood. During this period, hundreds were arrested in nonviolent protests; civil rights activists were subjected to repeated violence, and whites used economic retaliation against African Americans who attempted to register to vote. The city police set their police dog, Tiger, on protesters while white counter-protesters yelled "Sic 'em" from the sidewalk. When Martin Luther King visited the city later in 1963, the Ku Klux Klan distributed a flyer which read in part (capitalization in original): TO THOSE OF YOU NIGGERS WHO GAVE OR GIVE AID AND COMFORT TO THIS CIVIL RIGHTS SCUM, WE ADVISE YOU THAT YOUR IDENTITIES ARE IN THE PROPER HANDS AND YOU WILL BE REMEMBERED. WE KNOW THAT THE NIGGER OWNER OF COLLINS SHOE SHOP ON JOHNSON STREET "ENTERTAINED" MARTIN LUTHER KING WHEN THE "BIG NIGGER" CAME TO GREENWOOD. WE KNOW OF OTHERS AND WE SAY TO YOU &mdash; AFTER THE SHOWING AND THE PLATE-PASSING AND STUPID STREET DEMONSTRATIONS ARE OVER AND THE IMPORTED AGITATORS HAVE ALL GONE, ONE THING IS SURE AND CERTAIN &mdash; YOU ARE STILL GOING TO BE NIGGERS AND WE ARE STILL GOING TO BE WHITE MEN. YOU HAVE CHOSEN YOUR BEDS AND NOW YOU MUST LIE IN THEM.

In the mid-1960s, the US Congress passed the Civil Rights Act and Voting Rights Act to enforce constitutional rights of African Americans and other minorities. For some time, voter registration and elections were monitored by the US government because of historic discrimination against blacks in the state. Blacks in Mississippi have consistently voted at high rates since the passage of civil rights legislation.

On December 3rd, 2010, Frederick Jermaine Carter, an African-American man from Sunflower County with a history of mental illness, was found dead, hanging from a tree in north Greenwood. The Leflore county coroner ruled the death a suicide, but the NAACP and Mississippi state senator David Jordan are concerned that foul play may have been involved. Jordan explicitly tied the black community's suspicions about the verdict to the state's history of racial violence against blacks. The reporter Larry Copeland for USA Today, noted that the young Emmett Till had been lynched 12 miles away in 1955. Jordan said, "We're not drawing any conclusions. We're skeptical, and rightfully we should be, given our history. We can't take this lightly. We just have to wait and see."

Geography
Greenwood is located at 33.51861°N, -90.18389°W (33.518719, -90.183883). According to the United States Census Bureau, the city has a total area of 9.5 sqmi, of which 9.2 sqmi is land and 0.3 sqmi is water.

Demographics
As of the census of 2000, there were 18,425 people, 6,916 households, and 4,523 families residing in the city. The population density was 1,997.8 people per square mile (771.6/km²). There are 7,565 housing units at an average density of 820.3 per square mile (316.8/km²). The racial makeup of the city was 32.82% White, 65.36% Black, 0.11% Native American, 0.91% Asian, 0.08% Pacific Islander, 0.24% from other races, and 0.48% from two or more races. Hispanic or Latino of any race were 1.03% of the population.

There were 6,916 households out of which 34.0% had children under the age of 18 living with them, 33.4% are married couples living together, 27.4% had a female householder with no husband present, and 34.6% were non-families. 31.4% of all households were made up of individuals and 12.7% had someone living alone who was 65 years of age or older. The average household size was 2.59 and the average family size was 3.29.

In the city the population was spread out with 31.0% under the age of 18, 10.3% from 18 to 24, 26.7% from 25 to 44, 18.6% from 45 to 64, and 13.3% who were 65 years of age or older. The median age was 32 years. For every 100 females there were 84.2 males. For every 100 females age 18 and over, there were 75.9 males.

The median income for a household in the city is $21,867, and the median income for a family was $26,393. Males had a median income of $27,267 versus $18,578 for females. The per capita income for the city was $14,461. 33.9% of the population and 28.8% of families are below the poverty line. Out of the total population, 47.0% of those under the age of 18 and 20.0% of those 65 and older were living below the poverty line.

Mississippi Blues Trail markers
Radio station WGRM on Howard Street was the location of B.B. King's first live broadcast in 1940. On Sunday nights, King performed live gospel music as part of a quartet. In dedication to this event, the Mississippi Blues Trail has placed its third historic marker in this town at the site of the former radio station. Another Mississippi Blues trail marker is placed near the grave of blues singer Robert Johnson. There is also a Blues Trail marker at the Elks Lodge.

Local government
Greenwood is governed under the city council form of government composed of council members from seven wards and headed by a mayor.

State and federal representation
The Delta Correctional Facility, operated by the Corrections Corporation of America on behalf of the Mississippi Department of Corrections, is located in Greenwood.

The United States Postal Service operates two post offices in Greenwood. They are the Greenwood Post Office and the Leflore Post Office.

Newspapers, Magazines and Journals

 * The Greenwood Commonwealth (published daily except Saturday)
 * Leflore Illustrated (twice a year)

Television

 * WABG - ABC affiliate
 * WMAO-TV - PBS affiliate

AM/FM Radio

 * WABG, 960 AM (Blues)
 * WGNG, 106.3 FM (Hip-Hop/Urban Contemporary)
 * WGNL, 104.3 FM (Urban adult contemporary/Blues)
 * WGRM, 1240 AM (Gospel)
 * WGRM-FM, 93.9 FM (Gospel)
 * WKXG, 1540 AM (Silent pending transfer)
 * WMAO-FM, 90.9 FM (NPR Broadcasting)
 * WYMX, 99.1 FM (Oldies)

Railroads
Greenwood is served by two major rail lines. Amtrak, the national passenger rail system, provides service to Greenwood, connecting New Orleans to Chicago from Greenwood station.

Air Transportation
Greenwood (GWO) is served by Greenwood-Leflore Airport to the east and is located midway between Jackson, Mississippi and Memphis, Tennessee and about halfway between Dallas, Texas and Atlanta, Georgia.

Highways

 * U.S. Highway 82 runs through Greenwood on its way from the White Sands of New Mexico (east of Las Cruces, New Mexico) east to Georgia's Atlantic coast (Brunswick, Georgia).
 * U.S. Highway 49 passes through Greenwood as it stretches between Piggott, Arkansas south to Gulfport, Mississippi.
 * Other Greenwood highways include Mississippi Highway 7.

Education
Greenwood Public School District operates public schools.

Leflore County School District operates schools outside the Greenwood city area

Pillow Academy, a private school, is located in unincorporated Leflore County, near Greenwood. Originally a segregation academy.

Notable natives and residents

 * "Wild" Bill Cody, Professional football player (Saints, Eagles, & Lions) Member of original 1967 Saints Team
 * Valerie Brisco-Hooks, Olympian
 * Fred Carl, Jr., founder and CEO of Viking Range Corp.
 * William V. Chambers, personality psychologist
 * Byron De La Beckwith, white supremacist, assassinated Civil Rights leader Medgar Evers
 * Carlos Emmons, professional football player
 * Betty Everett, R&B vocalist and pianist
 * Alphonso Ford, professional basketball player
 * Webb Franklin, United States Congressman
 * Morgan Freeman, Oscar-winning actor
 * Jim Gallagher, Jr., professional golfer
 * Bobbie Gentry, singer/songwriter
 * Gerald Glass, professional basketball player
 * Guitar Slim, blues musician
 * Kent Hull, professional football player
 * Jermaine Jones, soccer player for Blackburn Rovers and United States national team
 * Greenwood LeFlore, Principal Chief of the Choctaw
 * Cleo Lemon, Toronto Argonauts quarterback
 * Walter "Furry" Lewis, blues musician
 * Bernie Machen, president of University of Florida
 * Matt Miller, baseball pitcher
 * Mulgrew Miller, jazz pianist
 * Carrie Nye, actress
 * Mary Ann Pearce, first wife of novelist Mickey Spillane (who lived in Greenwood in 1945)
 * Fenton Robinson, blues singer and guitarist
 * Richard Rubin, writer and journalist
 * Lusia Harris, basketball player
 * Hubert Sumlin, blues guitarist
 * Donna Tartt, novelist
 * Tonea Stewart, actress
 * Willye B. White, Olympian
 * Paul Maholm, baseball pitcher