Greenville, Mississippi

Greenville is a city in Washington County, Mississippi, United States. The population was 48,633 at the 2000 census, but according to the 2009 census bureau estimates, it has since declined to 42,764, making it the eighth-largest city in the state. It is the county seat of Washington County.

Greenville was "founded" in 1824 by William W. Blanton, who filed for land from the United States government who granted him section four, township eighteen, range eight west. This plot is now most of downtown Greenville.

The current city of Greenville is the third in the State to bear the name. The first, located down near Natchez, died aborning right after the American Revolution. The second is the parent city to the present one. It was named by its founders for General Nathanael Greene, beloved friend of George Washington, for whom the county was named. This second city was located three miles from the present site, where today stands Greenville’s Industrial fill. The second town was a thriving hamlet in the days before the Civil War. It formed the business and cultural center for the large cotton plantations that surrounded it. The town was destroyed during the siege of Vicksburg when troops from a Union gunboat landed, and when fired upon, 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.

For a time these men rested, but not for long. They had been defeated in battle but not in spirit. They met in twos and threes and finally en-mass and decided to build again. The place chosen was the highest point on the Mississippi River between the towns of Vicksburg and Memphis. It belonged to the Roach and Blanton families; the major part of the area selected was on the property owned by Mrs. Harriet Blanton Theobald. She welcomed the idea of a new Greenville and gave land for schools and churches and public buildings, earning the name of the “Mother of Greenville”. Major Richard O’Hea, who planned the fortifications at Vicksburg, was hired to lay out the new town.

Greenville is named after American Revolutionary War hero Nathanael Greene.

Greenville is located on the eastern bank of Lake Ferguson, an oxbow lake left from an old channel of the Mississippi River. Two floating casinos are located on the lake near the downtown area, with a third just west of the city near the Greenville Bridge. 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. The Winterville Mounds Historic Site, with museum and picnic area, is located just north of the town at 2415 Highway 1 N; the Indian mounds were built by a tribe that predated the Choctaw and Chickasaw Indian tribes.

Geography
Greenville is located at 33.39861°N, -91.04833°W (33.398577, -91.048356).

According to the United States Census Bureau, the city has a total area of 27.7 sqmi, of which 26.9 sqmi is land and 0.8 sqmi (2.82%) is water.

Demographics
As of the census of 2000, there were 48,633 people, 18,784 households, and 14,422 families residing in the city. The population density was 1,548.8 people per square mile (598.0/km²). There were 16,251 housing units at an average density of 604.6 per square mile (233.4/km²). The racial makeup of the city was 28.92% White, 69.60% Black, 0.07% Native American, 0.71% Asian, 0.01% Pacific Islander, 0.20% from other races, and 0.49% from two or more races. Hispanic or Latino of any race were 0.71% of the population.

There were 14,784 households out of which 35.8% had children under the age of 18 living with them, 37.8% were married couples living together, 27.7% had a female householder with no husband present, and 29.5% were non-families. 25.8% of all households were made up of individuals and 10.4% had someone living alone who was 65 years of age or older. The average household size was 2.77 and the average family size was 3.34.

In the city the population was spread out with 31.4% under the age of 18, 10.1% from 18 to 24, 26.3% from 25 to 44, 20.5% from 45 to 64, and 11.8% who were 65 years of age or older. The median age was 32 years. For every 100 females there were 85.4 males. For every 100 females age 18 and over, there were 77.5 males.

The median income for a household in the city was $25,928, and the median income for a family was $30,788. Males had a median income of $29,801 versus $20,707 for females. The per capita income for the city was $13,992. About 25.7% of families and 29.6% of the population were below the poverty line, including 38.2% of those under age 18 and 23.6% of those age 65 or over.

Transportation
Air

Greenville Mid Delta Regional Airport, located in unincorporated Washington County, northeast of downtown Greenville, serves the city and the Mississippi Delta region. It has commercial air service provided by Mesaba Airlines which operates as Northwest Airlink (now Delta Connection) to Northwest Airlines (now Delta Air Lines) hub at Memphis, Tennessee.

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. Construction is currently underway on a new four-lane Greenville Bridge to cross the Mississippi River south of Greenville into Lake Village, Arkansas. This $206 million cable-stayed span, once completed, will be the longest of its kind in the continental United States. It will replace the Benjamin G. Humphreys Bridge as the primary bridge.

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.

The private schools, Washington School and Greenville Christian School, also serve the city; as well as the parochial schools, St. Joseph High School and Our Lady of Lourdes Elementary which are part of the Roman Catholic Diocese of Jackson.

The Greenville Higher Education Center offers non credit community courses and credit courses from Delta State University, Mississippi Delta Community College, and Mississippi Valley State University.

Sports

 * The Mississippi Miracles, formerly the Mississippi Stingers are an American Basketball Association franchise in Greenville.

Born in Greenville

 * William Alexander Percy, lawyer, planter, and poet Lanterns on the Levee
 * Eden Brent, blues boogie-woogie musician, composer, and performer
 * Shelby Foote, author
 * Robert T. Henry, World War II soldier and Medal of Honor recipient
 * Jim Henson, puppeteer
 * Lucy Somerville Howorth, feminist & New Deal Lawyer
 * Sam Chu Lin, pioneering Chinese American journalist
 * Frank White, professional baseball player
 * Mary Wilson, singer, of The Supremes

Greenville related

 * Greenville is the home town of the Percy family, including U.S. Senator Le Roy Percy and author William Alexander Percy who took charge of the Great Mississippi Flood of 1927 recovery effort and wrote Lanterns on the Levee about the Mississippi Delta. Walker Percy, another writer from the Percy family, spent most of his life in Alabama and Louisiana.
 * Greenville is also the home to the Delta Democrat Times which was once under the direction of Pulitzer Prize winner Hodding Carter. Greenville also saw and was home to Hodding Carter II and Hodding Carter III, both journalists during the stressful civil rights years in America.
 * African-American bear hunter and sportsman Holt Collier is buried in Greenville. Collier was the guide for President Theodore Roosevelt on a bear hunt in Sharkey County and was instrumental in the birth of the teddy bear legend. In January 2004 the Holt Collier National Wildlife Refuge was established on Collier’s "historic hunting grounds" south of Greenville.
 * Jo Carr (1926–2007), born Bettye Jo Crisler in Greenville, became one of the first female Methodist ministers and church administrators in the South Plains of Texas. She was first an English professor at Texas Tech University in Lubbock.
 * Leon "Pee Wee" Whittaker (1906–1993), an African-American trombonist, born in Newellton, Louisiana, lived in Greenville early in his career.
 * Euphus 'Butch' Ruth, award winning photographer and technical engineer, Associate Director of the Mt. Zion Memorial Fund. Ruth is currently in the forefront of a group of artists promoting a revival of 19th century wet plate photographic techniques.
 * George Scott, MLB player for the Boston Red Sox, Milwaukee Brewers, Kansas City Royals and New York Yankees.
 * LaToya Monique Thomas who became the first woman to play professional Basketball in the WNBA First Round Draft pick of the Cleveland Rockers

Nelson Street
Nelson Street was 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 and where record companies looked for talent. It was the equivalent of Beale Street in mid-1900s Memphis.

The second historic marker designated by the Mississippi Blues Commission on the Mississippi Blues Trail was placed in front of the Southern Whispers Restaurant on Nelson Street in Greenville, a stop on the chitlin' circuit in the early days of the blues. The marker commemorates the importance of this site in the history of the development of the blues in Mississippi.