Franklin County, Mississippi


Franklin County is a county located in the U.S. state of Mississippi. As of the 2020 census, the population was 7,675. Its county seat is Meadville. The county was formed on December 21, 1809, from portions of Adams County and named for Founding Father Benjamin Franklin. It is bisected by the Homochitto River, which runs diagonally through the county from northeast to southwest.
WWW Official Site

History

This was the fourth county organized in Mississippi. It was initially developed for agriculture, specifically cotton plantations based on enslaved labor of African Americans. Cotton continued to be important to the economy through the 19th century and into the early 20th century.
This still rural county has had a decline in population by about half since 1910. It is the fourth least populous county in the state. Mechanization of agriculture and the blight of the boll weevil both reduced the need for farm workers; they left the area and often the state. Many African Americans went north or west in the Great Migration before and after World War II. The county in the 21st century is majority white in population; in the 2000 census, African Americans composed more than 36% of the population.
As in the rest of the state, the county had racially segregated facilities under Jim Crow from the late 19th century. Many white residents opposed the civil rights movement of the mid-20th century. In May 1964, Ku Klux Klan members abducted and killed two young black men, Henry Hezekiah Dee and Charles Eddie Moore of Meadville, before Freedom Summer started. Their bodies were not discovered in the Mississippi River until July 1964, during the hunt for three disappeared civil rights workers.
No one was prosecuted at the time, but the case was reopened in 2007, after a documentary had been released on it by Canadian Broadcasting Company. Local man James Ford Seale was convicted of the kidnappings and deaths by an all-white jury in federal court. In 2008 the families of Dee and Moore filed a civil suit against the Franklin County government, charging complicity by its law enforcement in the deaths. On June 21, 2010, Franklin County agreed to an undisclosed settlement in the civil suit with the families of Charles Moore and Henry Dee.

Geography

According to the U.S. Census Bureau, the county has a total area of, of which is land and is water.

Major highways

Adjacent counties

National protected area

Communities

Towns

Unincorporated communities

Demographics

2020 census

As of the 2020 census, the county had a population of 7,675. The median age was 46.3 years. 20.9% of residents were under the age of 18 and 22.4% of residents were 65 years of age or older. For every 100 females there were 96.0 males, and for every 100 females age 18 and over there were 93.9 males age 18 and over.
The racial makeup of the county was 64.1% White, 33.7% Black or African American, 0.1% American Indian and Alaska Native, 0.1% Asian, <0.1% Native Hawaiian and Pacific Islander, 0.2% from some other race, and 1.8% from two or more races. Hispanic or Latino residents of any race comprised 0.8% of the population.
<0.1% of residents lived in urban areas, while 100.0% lived in rural areas.
There were 3,295 households in the county, of which 26.6% had children under the age of 18 living in them. Of all households, 44.8% were married-couple households, 21.7% were households with a male householder and no spouse or partner present, and 29.9% were households with a female householder and no spouse or partner present. About 32.8% of all households were made up of individuals and 16.0% had someone living alone who was 65 years of age or older.
There were 4,284 housing units, of which 23.1% were vacant. Among occupied housing units, 83.3% were owner-occupied and 16.7% were renter-occupied. The homeowner vacancy rate was 1.5% and the rental vacancy rate was 9.3%.

Politics

In the 1964 Presidential election Barry Goldwater reportedly received 96.05% of the county's vote. Although the white-majority county has supported Southern Democrats such as Jimmy Carter for the presidency, since 2000 the Republican candidate has consistently received over 60% of the vote.

Education

There is one school district, the Franklin County School District.
It is in the district of Copiah–Lincoln Community College, and has been since 1948.