Greenwood, Mississippi

History

European settlement

The first settlement by European-Americans in the area, next to the Yazoo River, was a trading post founded in 1834. Three miles up the river was another settlement founded by Chief Greenwood Leflore called Point Leflore. Soon an exchange of some parcels of land were made by Leflore for a commitment from the townsmen to maintain roads to the hilly area to the east and to some more established settlements to the northwest.

The settlement was incorporated as "Greenwood" in 1844, named after the chief. During this period, the city began producing a crop much in demand, cotton, due its fertile location in the Mississippi delta's alluvial plain near the interseciton of the Tallahatchie and the Yalobusha rivers, which combine to form the Yazoo. The city became as a shipping point for cotton to markets in New Orleans, Vicksburg, Mississippi, Memphis, Tennessee, and St. Louis, Missouri.

The construction of the Yazoo and Mississippi Valley Railroad and the Georgia Pacific Railway through the city in the 1880s revitalized the local economy and shortened transportation time to markets. Along the banks of the Yazoo, the city's Front Street became a hub for cotton factors and related businesses, and was nicknamed "Cotton Row".

20th century

Business was brisk into the 1940s except for during the boll weevil infestation in the early 20th century. A sign seen on the city's bridge over the Yazoo river read "World's Largest Inland Long Staple Cotton Market". Growing and processing cotton became mechanized in the first half of the 20th century, and thousands of tenant farmers, farmworkers and sharecroppers in the area were displaced. Later in the 20th century, as textile manufacturing moved out of the U.S., some local farmers began to grow corn and soybeans for animal feed instead of cotton.

The U.S. Chambers of Commerce and the Garden Clubs of America have called city's Grand Boulevard one of America's 10 most beautiful streets. Sally Humphreys Gwin, a founder of the Greenwood Garden Club, planted 1,000 oak trees along the Grand Boulevard. In 1950, Gwin received a citation from the National Congress of the Daughters of the American Revolution for her work in the conservation of trees.

Activist Stokely Carmichael notably gave his "Black Power" speech during a March Against Fear rally which was held in Greenwood on June 16, 1966.

Geography

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.

Climate

|Jan record high F = 84 |Feb record high F = 84 |Mar record high F = 88 |Apr record high F = 94 |May record high F = 100 |Jun record high F = 104 |Jul record high F = 105 |Aug record high F = 106 |Sep record high F = 103 |Oct record high F = 100 |Nov record high F = 89 |Dec record high F = 85 |year record high F = 106

|Jan avg record high F = 73.9 |Feb avg record high F = 76.7 |Mar avg record high F = 82.8 |Apr avg record high F = 86.8 |May avg record high F = 91.7 |Jun avg record high F = 95.0 |Jul avg record high F = 97.9 |Aug avg record high F = 98.8 |Sep avg record high F = 96.0 |Oct avg record high F = 89.9 |Nov avg record high F = 81.8 |Dec avg record high F = 75.7 |year avg record high F = 99.8

|Jan avg record low F = 16.6 |Feb avg record low F = 21.4 |Mar avg record low F = 27.0 |Apr avg record low F = 35.8 |May avg record low F = 46.5 |Jun avg record low F = 58.6 |Jul avg record low F = 63.9 |Aug avg record low F = 61.9 |Sep avg record low F = 48.0 |Oct avg record low F = 33.9 |Nov avg record low F = 25.7 |Dec avg record low F = 21.5 |year avg record low F = 14.6

|Jan record low F = -2 |Feb record low F = -4 |Mar record low F = 15 |Apr record low F = 28 |May record low F = 35 |Jun record low F = 49 |Jul record low F = 53 |Aug record low F = 52 |Sep record low F = 35 |Oct record low F = 27 |Nov record low F = 15 |Dec record low F = 2 |year record low F = -4

| access-date = June 9, 2021}}{{cite web | access-date = June 9, 2021}}

Demographics

2020 census

As of the 2020 United States census, there were 14,490 people, 4,924 households, and 2,793 families residing in the city.

2010 census

At the 2010 census, there were 15,205 people and 6,022 households in the city. The population density was 1,237.7 PD/sqmi. There were 6,759 housing units. The racial makeup of the city was 30.4% White, 67.0% Black, 0.1% Native American, 0.9% Asian,

Among the 6,022 households, 28.7% had children under the age of 18 living with them, 29.8% were married couples living together, 29.0% had a female householder with no husband present, 4.6% had a male householder with no wife present, and 36.6% were non-families. 32.5% of all households were made up of individuals living alone and 10.7% had someone living alone who was 65 years of age or older. The average household size was 2.48 and the average family size was 3.16.

Arts and culture

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. |access-date=2008-05-31 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20080625011127/http://www.atlantamagazine.com/uploadedFiles/Atlanta/Travel/November07%20Travel.pdf |archive-date=2008-06-25 |url-status=dead |access-date=2007-02-09 |access-date=2008-09-30 Another Mississippi Blues Trail marker is placed near the grave of the blues singer Robert Johnson. |access-date=2008-05-29 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20071215034624/http://www.jsonline.com/story/index.aspx?id=347773 |archive-date=2007-12-15 |url-status=dead A third Blues Trail marker notes the Elks Lodge in the city, which was an important black organization. |access-date=2008-05-29}} A fourth Blues Trail marker was dedicated to Hubert Sumlin that is located along the Yazoo River on River Road. |access-date=2008-05-29}}

Parks and recreation

• Stribling Park features baseball and soccer fields.
• Whittington Park features tennis courts, baseball, and basketball facilities.
• Greenwood Tennis and Pickleball Centre features tennis and pickleball courts.
• Sonny Brown Swimming Pool is an outdoor pool.

Government

Greenwood is governed under a city council form of government, composed of council members elected from seven single-member wards and headed by a mayor, who is elected at-large.

In 2025, Democrat Kenderick Cox defeated incumbent mayor Carolyn McAdams, who had been serving since 2009.

Education

Greenwood Leflore Consolidated School District (GLCSD) operates public schools. Previously the majority of the city was in Greenwood Public School District while small portions were in the Leflore County School District. These two districts consolidated into GLCSD on July 1, 2019. Greenwood High School is the only public high school in Greenwood. As of 2014, the student body is 99% black. Amanda Elzy High School, outside of the Greenwood city limits, was formerly of the Leflore County district. It was recently taken over by the State of Mississippi for poor performance as a result of deficient leadership.

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

Delta Streets Academy, a newly founded private school located in downtown Greenwood, has an enrollment of nearly 50 students. It has continued to increase enrollment.

St. Francis Catholic School, run by the Roman Catholic Diocese of Jackson, provides classes from kindergarten through sixth grade.

In addition, North New Summit School provides educational services for special-needs and at-risk children from kindergarten through high school.

Media

Newspapers, magazines and journals

• The Greenwood Commonwealth

Television

• WABG-TV – ABC/Fox affiliate
• WMEL-LD - MeTV 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)
• WMAO-FM, 90.9 FM (NPR broadcasting)
• WKXG, 92.7 FM (Country music) KIX-92.7
• WYMX, 99.1 FM (classic rock)

Filming location

Nightmare in Badham County (1976), Ode to Billy Joe (1976), and The Help (2011) were filmed in Greenwood. The 1991 movie Mississippi Masala was also set and filmed in Greenwood.

Infrastructure

Transportation

Railroads

Greenwood is served by two major rail lines: the Canadian National Railway and the Columbus and Greenville Railway, owned by the Genesee & Wyoming. Amtrak, the national passenger rail system, provides service to Greenwood, connecting New Orleans to Chicago from Greenwood station.

Air transportation

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

Highways

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

Notable people

• Valerie Brisco-Hooks, Olympic athlete
• C. C. Brown, professional football player
• Nora Jean Bruso, blues singer and songwriter
• Louis Coleman, Major League Baseball pitcher
• Byron De La Beckwith, white supremacist, assassin of civil rights leader Medgar Evers
• Carlos Emmons, professional football player
• Betty Everett, R&B vocalist and pianist
• James L. Flanagan, electrical engineer and speech scientist
• Alphonso Ford, professional basketball player
• Webb Franklin, United States congressman
• Morgan Freeman, actor
• Jim Gallagher, Jr., professional golfer
• Bobbie Gentry, singer/songwriter
• Sherrod Gideon, professional football player
• Gerald Glass, professional basketball player
• Guitar Slim, blues musician
• Lusia Harris, basketball player
• Endesha Ida Mae Holland, American scholar, playwright, and civil rights activist
• Dave Hoskins, professional baseball player
• Kent Hull, professional football player
• Tom Hunley, ex-slave and the inspiration for the character "Hambone" in J. P. Alley's syndicated cartoon feature, Hambone's Meditations
• Sam Jacobs (bishop), Catholic Bishop
• Robert Johnson, blues musician
• Jermaine Jones, soccer player for the New England Revolution and United States national team
• Cleo Lemon, Toronto Argonauts quarterback
• Walter "Furry" Lewis, blues musician
• Bernie Machen, president of the University of Florida
• Della Campbell MacLeod (ca. 1884 – ?), author and journalist
• Paul Maholm, baseball pitcher
• Matt Miller, baseball pitcher
• Mulgrew Miller, jazz pianist
• Juanita Moore, actress
• Carrie Nye, actress
• W. Allen Pepper Jr., US federal judge
• Fenton Robinson, blues singer/guitarist
• Laverne Smith, NFL player
• Tonya Stewart, actress
• Hubert Sumlin, blues guitarist
• Donna Tartt, novelist
• James K. Vardaman, Mississippi governor, senator, and white supremacist
• Charlie Wells, mystery writer, author of Let the Night Fall (1953) and The Last Kill (1955)
• Willye B. White, Olympic athlete

References

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