Holmes County

History

The western border of the county is formed by the Yazoo River; it is next to the Mississippi Delta, and shares its characteristics. The eastern border is formed by the Big Black River and the eastern part has hills. The county was developed for cotton plantations in the antebellum era before the American Civil War, with most properties of the period located along the riverfronts for transportation access. Due to the plantation economy and reliance on slave labor, the county was majority black before the Civil War. It has continued to be majority black (see Demographics). Because of these characteristics, it is included among the 200 counties defined as part of the Black Belt region that curves across the South, into Texas.

"According to U.S. Census data, the 1860 Holmes County population included 5,806 whites, 10 "free colored" and 11,975 slaves. By the 1870 census, the white population had increased about 6% to 6,145, and the "colored" population had increased about 10% to 13,225." After the war, many freedmen and white migrants went to Holmes County and other parts of the Mississippi Delta, where they developed the bottomlands behind the riverfront properties, clearing and selling timber in order to buy their own lands. Workers were also attracted to the Delta area by higher than usual wages on the plantations, which had a labor shortage in the transition to a free labor economy.

By the turn of the 20th century, a majority of the landowners in the Delta counties were black. Effectively African-Americans were disenfranchised by the new constitution of 1890; the loss of political power added to their economic problems associated with the financial Panic of 1893. Unable to gain credit, many of the first generations of African-American landowners lost their properties by 1920. In this period, they were also competing for land with the better-funded timber and railroad companies. Afterward, African-Americans were forced to become sharecroppers or tenant farmers to make a living.

The period after Reconstruction and through the early 20th century had the highest incidence of white people lynching black people. Holmes County had 10 documented lynchings in the period from 1877 to 1950, most around the turn of the 20th century. Two lynchings took place in the county seat of Lexington, Mississippi in the 1940s.

White planters continued to recruit labor in the area, as freedmen wanted to work on their own account. The first Chinese immigrant laborers entered the Delta in the late 1870s. From 1900-1930, additional Chinese immigrants arrived in Mississippi, including some to Holmes County. They worked hard to leave field labor and often became merchants, especially becoming grocers of small stores in the rural Delta towns. As their socioeconomic status changed, the Chinese Americans carved out a niche "between black and white", gaining admission to white schools for their children through court challenges. With the decline of small towns, most Chinese Americans moved to larger cities through the 20th century. In Mississippi, the number of ethnic Chinese has increased overall in the state through 2010, although it is still small in total - fewer than 5,000.

Geography

According to the U.S. Census Bureau, the county has a total area of 765 square miles (1,980 km2), of which 757 square miles (1,960 km2) is land and 7.9 square miles (20 km2) (1.0%) is water.

Major highways

Interstate 55

U.S. Route 49

U.S. Route 51

Mississippi Highway 12

Mississippi Highway 14

Mississippi Highway 17

Mississippi Highway 19

Adjacent counties

Carroll County (north)

Attala County (east)

Yazoo County (south)

Humphreys County (west)

Leflore County (northwest)

National protected areas

Hillside National Wildlife Refuge (part)

Mathews Brake National Wildlife Refuge (part)

Morgan Brake National Wildlife Refuge

Theodore Roosevelt National Wildlife Refuge (part)

Demographics

From 1940 until 1970, the county had major declines in population as many African Americans left the state in the Great Migration. Whites have also left as economic opportunities were limited in the rural county.

2020 census

As of the 2020 census, the county had a population of 17,000. The median age was 38.6 years. 23.6% of residents were under the age of 18 and 16.6% of residents were 65 years of age or older. For every 100 females there were 93.2 males, and for every 100 females age 18 and over there were 90.4 males age 18 and over.

The racial makeup of the county was 14.0% White, 83.9% Black or African American, 0.2% American Indian and Alaska Native, 0.1% Asian, <0.1% Native Hawaiian and Pacific Islander, 0.2% from some other race, and 1.6% from two or more races. Hispanic or Latino residents of any race comprised 0.7% of the population.

<0.1% of residents lived in urban areas, while 100.0% lived in rural areas.

There were 6,526 households in the county, of which 31.4% had children under the age of 18 living in them. Of all households, 24.0% were married-couple households, 24.2% were households with a male householder and no spouse or partner present, and 45.8% were households with a female householder and no spouse or partner present. About 34.3% of all households were made up of individuals and 14.9% had someone living alone who was 65 years of age or older.

There were 7,485 housing units, of which 12.8% were vacant. Among occupied housing units, 67.0% were owner-occupied and 33.0% were renter-occupied. The homeowner vacancy rate was 0.9% and the rental vacancy rate was 7.1%.

2010 census

As of the 2010 United States census, there were 19,198 people living in the county, less than half than at the peak of population in 1940. 83.4% were Black or African American, 15.6% White, 0.2% Asian, 0.1% Native American, 0.1% of some other race and 0.6% of two or more races. 0.7% were Hispanic or Latino (of any race).

2000 census

As of the census of 2000, there were 21,609 people, 7,314 households, and 5,229 families living in the county. The population density was 29 people per square mile (11 people/km2). There were 8,439 housing units at an average density of 11 units per square mile (4.2 units/km2). The racial makeup of the county was 78.66% Black or African American, 20.47% White, 0.12% Native American, 0.15% Asian, 0.07% from other races, and 0.52% from two or more races. 0.90% of the population were Hispanic or Latino of any race.

According to the census of 2000, the largest ancestry groups that residents of Holmes County identified were African 78.66%, English 11.4%, and Scots-Irish 5%.

There were 2,314 households, out of which 11.00% had children under the age of 18 living with them, 24.10% were married couples living together, 21.20% had a female householder with no husband present, and 18.50% were non-families. 16.30% of all households were made up of individuals, and 12.10% had someone living alone who was 65 years of age or older. The average household size was 2.86 and the average family size was 3.48.

In the county, the population was spread out, with 32.10% under the age of 18, 12.40% from 18 to 24, 24.80% from 25 to 44, 18.30% from 45 to 64, and 12.40% who were 65 years of age or older. The median age was 30 years. For every 100 females there were 87.30 males. For every 100 females age 18 and over, there were 79.30 males.

The median income for a household in the county was $17,235, and the median income for a family was $21,757. Males had a median income of $23,720 versus $17,883 for females. The per capita income for the county was $10,683. About 35.90% of families and 41.10% of the population were below the poverty line, including 52.30% of those under age 18 and 36.40% of those age 65 or over.

Holmes County has the lowest per capita income in Mississippi and the 41st lowest in the United States.

Politics

During and following the Reconstruction era in the 19th century, African Americans had supported the Republican Party. It had achieved emancipation of slaves and granted freedmen full citizenship and constitutional rights through ratification of constitutional amendments. Following the effective disenfranchisement of blacks in 1890 by the state's new constitution with restrictions on voter registration, blacks were excluded from politics in Mississippi; other southern states repeated this model, so they were disenfranchised across the former Confederacy. However, the Republican Party retained influence through political appointments, and people struggled to control these within each southern state.

Perry Wilbon Howard (born in Ebenezer in 1877) was one of about two dozen African-American attorneys among the second generation of freedmen in the state. After passing the bar, he set up a practice in the capital of Jackson, Mississippi, where he worked for about fifteen years. Active in the Republican Party, he was a delegate to national conventions from 1912 to 1960, representing his constituents to the national party. Although he moved to Washington, DC, where he was partner in a prominent black law firm, Howard was elected as Republican National Committeeman from Mississippi in 1924. He retained control of this position (and patronage appointments) until 1960. He was appointed in 1923 to a national position in the Office of the Attorney General in the administration of Warren G. Harding, retaining it until resigning under President Herbert Hoover in 1928.

Since the civil rights years and gains of enforcement in voting rights in the late 1960s, most African-American voters, who constitute a large majority in the county, have voted strongly for Democratic candidates in Presidential and Congressional elections. The last Republican presidential candidate to win a majority in the county was Barry Goldwater in 1964, at a time when nearly all African Americans in the county and state were still disenfranchised by the state's constitution and discriminatory practices. In 2008, Democrat Barack Obama won 81 percent of the county's vote, as seen by the adjacent table.

Holmes is part of Mississippi's 2nd congressional district, which is represented by Democrat Bennie Thompson.

Education

Colleges

Holmes Community College (Goodman)

Elementary and secondary schools

During the segregation years, when black public schools were historically underfunded, Lexington in 1918 was the site for the founding of a private school for black students affiliated with the Church of God in Christ. It became known as Saints Academy. Arenia Mallory was hired as a young music teacher and later was selected as principal in 1926. She expanded the school to serve more students, ultimately with classes in grades 1–12. Conducting fund raising outside the state, she promoted a strong academic education with Christian discipline, and her school was nationally known. She led it until her death in 1977, ultimately establishing an associated junior college. The academy continued until 2006.

During the period of integration of public schools in Mississippi in the late 1960s, many white parents in the majority-black Delta enrolled their children in newly established private segregation academies, as they did in Holmes County. But statewide most white children remained in public schools. In Holmes County, blacks had become well-organized. But in other areas they lost control of their schools, with administrations often dominated by whites, resulting in new problems after integration.

Holmes County Consolidated School District

The Durant Public School District was separate until 2018

Central Holmes Christian School (Lexington) (formerly Central Holmes Academy, founded as a segregation academy).

Old Dominion Christian School

Pillow Academy in unincorporated Leflore County, near Greenwood, enrolls some students from Holmes County. It originally was founded as a segregation academy.

East Holmes Academy, A segregation academy that made national news in 1989 for offering to forfeit a game because the other school had a black player. Closed 2006.

Media

The county newspaper is the Holmes County Herald. It was established in 1959 as the weekly paper of the county chapter of the White Citizens Council, founded to resist integration of public schools and the civil rights movement. Specifically it was founded to compete with The Lexington Advertiser, owned by local white publisher Hazel Brannon Smith, whose politics the White Citizens Council disliked. The Council arranged for Smith's husband to be fired from his job as county hospital administrator. Brannon Smith was eventually forced out of the business by white boycotts of her newspapers and the firebombing of one paper in Jackson, Mississippi.

The Herald published the names of African Americans who took action for civil rights in order to bring economic and political pressure against them. For instance, in April 1963 it published interviews and the names of 14 blacks who attempted to register to vote at the county courthouse in Lexington. The county circuit clerk published the names weekly of persons who tried to register to vote, thus identifying them for reprisals. Known or suspected activists were fired from jobs and evicted from rental housing as the Council tried to suppress the civil rights movement. The Herald was bought by an independent person in 1970.

Communities

Cities

Durant

Lexington (county seat)

Towns

Cruger

Goodman

Pickens

Tchula

West

Ghost town

Oswego

Notable people

Homer Casteel, politician and public servant; lieutenant governor 1920 to 1924; member of the Mississippi Public Service Commission from 1936 to 1952.

Robert G. Clark, Jr., teacher, coach and politician; in 1967 he was elected to the state legislature as the first African-American member since Reconstruction; he was elected to eight consecutive four-year terms and as Speaker of the state House in 1992, 1996 and 2000.

Steven Fonti, animator and storyboard artist, was born in Holmes County.

Perry Wilbon Howard, attorney and Republican Party National Committeeman, was appointed to a national position in the Department of Justice under President Warren G. Harding, serving into Herbert Hoover's administration. He was the highest-ranking African American in government.

Arenia Mallory, principal and president of Saints Academy. She had a more than 50-year career with this school, which she built into an academically successful, nationally known private school for black children during the segregation years, also expanding to a junior college. A leader in African-American women's national organizations, she served in the John F. Kennedy administration.

Edmond Favor Noel, Governor of Mississippi, 1908–1912, was born to a planter family in Lexington. He became an attorney and politician, serving in the state house and then the state senate both before and after his tenure as governor. He improved education in the state.

Edmond F. Noel Sr (1916-1986), physician, born in Holmes County and reared in Jackson, Mississippi, was a Howard University and Fisk University graduate, and a World War II veteran. Recruited to practice in Denver, Colorado in 1949, he was the first African-American physician in the city to be granted staff hospital privileges.

Edmond "Eddie" F. Noel (1926-1990), was born and lived in Lexington. An African-American veteran of World War II, he killed three white men in January 1954, including a deputy sheriff, and evaded capture for three weeks, making national news. He was hunted by numerous men, dogs, and even observers in planes. He turned himself in to the court, and the judge ordered a mental evaluation. Noel was committed by the court to the state mental institution, where he was held for more than a decade. He was released in 1970 and lived his last 20 years with his family, who had migrated to Fort Wayne, Indiana.

In popular culture

Carolyn Haines, an American mystery writer, sets many of her novels in Holmes County and other parts of the Mississippi Delta.