Kemper County, Mississippi

Kemper County is a county located on the central eastern border of the U.S. state of Mississippi. As of the 2020 census, the population was 8,988. Its county seat is De Kalb. The county is named in honor of Reuben Kemper.

The county is part of the Meridian, MS Micropolitan Statistical Area. In 2010 the Mississippi Public Service Commission approved construction of the Kemper Project, designed to use "clean coal" to produce electricity for 23 counties in the eastern part of the state. , it was not completed and had cost overruns. It is designed as a model project to use gasification and carbon-capture technologies at this scale.

East Mississippi Community College is located in Kemper County in the town of Scooba, at the junction of US 45 and Mississippi Highway 16.

History

In the wake of the county's founding, Abel Mastin Key served as the first circuit clerk. Land in the area was developed in the 19th century by white planters for cotton cultivation using enslaved African Americans. Blacks have comprised the majority of the county population since before the American Civil War. The county continues to be largely rural.

After the American Civil War and Reconstruction, racial violence increased as whites struggled to regain power over the majority population of freedmen and to suppress their voting. In the period from 1877 to 1950, Kemper County had 24 documented lynchings of African Americans, the third-highest of Mississippi counties. Hinds and Leflore counties had 29 and 48 lynchings, respectively, in this period. This form of racial terrorism was at its height in the decades around the turn of the 20th century, They generally worked as sharecroppers or tenant farmers. Often illiterate, many of the sharecroppers were at a disadvantage in the annual accounting that was done by the landowners. Sometimes the planters had grocery stores on their property and required the sharecroppers to buy all their goods there, adding to their debt.

Beginning in late December 1906, there were several days of racial terror in the county. After violent incidents on the railroad between conductors and black passengers, whites attacked blacks at the rural towns of Wahalak and Scooba; by December 27, whites had killed a total of 13 blacks in rioting.

In 1934, three African-American suspects in Kemper County were repeatedly whipped in order to force them to confess to murder. In Brown v. Mississippi (1936), the U.S. Supreme Court unanimously ruled such forced confessions violated the Due Process Clause of the Fourteenth Amendment, and were inadmissible at trial.

The peak of population in the rural county was in 1930. Mechanization of agriculture decreased the need for farm labor. From 1940 to 1970, the population declined markedly, as may be seen on the table below, as people moved to other areas for work. This was also the period of the second wave of the Great Migration, when 5 million African Americans moved out of the South to the North and especially to the West Coast, where the defense industry had many jobs, beginning during World War II.

Geography

According to the U.S. Census Bureau, the county has a total area of , of which is land and (0.1%) is water.

Major highways

20px U.S. Highway 45
20px Mississippi Highway 16
20px Mississippi Highway 21
20px Mississippi Highway 39

Adjacent counties

Noxubee County (north)
Sumter County, Alabama (east)
Lauderdale County (south)
Neshoba County (west)
Winston County (northwest)

Demographics

Racial and ethnic composition

{| class="wikitable sortable" style="text-align:center;"

|+Kemper County, Mississippi – Racial and ethnic composition

!Race / Ethnicity (NH = Non-Hispanic)

!Pop 1980

!Pop 1990

!Pop 2000

!Pop 2010

!style="background-color: #ffffb3;" | Pop 2020

!% 1980

!% 1990

!% 2000

!% 2010

!style="background-color: #ffffb3;" |% 2020

|White alone (NH)

|4,538

|4,395

|4,068

|3,665

|style='background: #ffffe6; |2,812

|44.72%

|42.44%

|38.92%

|35.05%

|style='background: #ffffe6; |31.29%

|Black or African American alone (NH)

|5,436

|5,721

|6,028

|6,273

|style='background: #ffffe6; |5,486

|53.57%

|55.24%

|57.67%

|59.99%

|style='background: #ffffe6; |61.04%

|Native American or Alaska Native alone (NH)

|72

|200

|213

|385

|style='background: #ffffe6; |460

|0.71%

|1.93%

|2.04%

|3.68%

|style='background: #ffffe6; |5.12%

|Asian alone (NH)

|10

|style='background: #ffffe6; |6

|0.06%

|0.08%

|0.10%

|style='background: #ffffe6; |0.07%

|Native Hawaiian or Pacific Islander alone (NH)

|style='background: #ffffe6; |1

|0.00%

|style='background: #ffffe6; |0.01%

|Other race alone (NH)

|style='background: #ffffe6; |13

|0.01%

|0.00%

|0.04%

|0.01%

|style='background: #ffffe6; |0.14%

|Mixed race or Multiracial (NH)

|56

|70

|style='background: #ffffe6; |143

|0.54%

|0.67%

|style='background: #ffffe6; |1.59%

|Hispanic or Latino (any race)

|95

|32

|76

|52

|style='background: #ffffe6; |67

|0.94%

|0.31%

|0.73%

|0.50%

|style='background: #ffffe6; |0.75%

|Total

|10,148

|10,356

|10,453

|10,456

|style='background: #ffffe6; |8,988

|100.00%

|style='background: #ffffe6; |100.00%

2020 census

As of the 2020 census, the county had a population of 8,988. The median age was 40.4 years. 20.2% of residents were under the age of 18 and 19.8% of residents were 65 years of age or older. For every 100 females there were 101.7 males, and for every 100 females age 18 and over there were 101.4 males age 18 and over.

The racial makeup of the county was 31.4% White, 61.1% Black or African American, 5.2% American Indian and Alaska Native, 0.1% Asian, 0.1% Native Hawaiian and Pacific Islander, 0.3% from some other race, and 1.9% from two or more races. Hispanic or Latino residents of any race comprised 0.7% of the population.

There were 3,385 households in the county, of which 27.7% had children under the age of 18 living in them. Of all households, 36.1% were married-couple households, 22.6% were households with a male householder and no spouse or partner present, and 36.9% were households with a female householder and no spouse or partner present. About 31.4% of all households were made up of individuals and 14.6% had someone living alone who was 65 years of age or older. of 2000, there were 10,453 people, 3,909 households, and 2,787 families living in the county. The population density was . There were 4,533 housing units at an average density of . The racial makeup of the county was 58.13% Black or African American, 39.03% White, 2.06% Native American, 0.08% Asian, 0.03% Pacific Islander, 0.11% from other races, and 0.57% from two or more races. 0.73% of the population were Hispanic or Latino of any race.

There were 3,909 households, out of which 32.20% had children under the age of 18 living with them, 46.70% were married couples living together, 20.20% had a female householder with no husband present, and 28.70% were non-families. 26.40% of all households were made up of individuals, and 12.60% had someone living alone who was 65 years of age or older. The average household size was 2.57 and the average family size was 3.11.

In the county, the population was spread out, with 25.40% under the age of 18, 12.50% from 18 to 24, 25.20% from 25 to 44, 21.80% from 45 to 64, and 15.10% who were 65 years of age or older. The median age was 35 years. For every 100 females there were 92.20 males. For every 100 females age 18 and over, there were 88.30 males.

The median income for a household in the county was $23,998, and the median income for a family was $30,248. Males had a median income of $24,431 versus $18,199 for females. The per capita income for the county was $11,985. About 21.20% of families and 26.00% of the population were below the poverty line, including 35.30% of those under age 18 and 26.70% of those age 65 or over.

Education

There is one school district in the county: Kemper County School District.

Kemper County is within the service area of the East Mississippi Community College system. The main campus of EMCC, including the college system's administrative headquarters, is in the Scooba Campus in Scooba.

Government

The county is governed by a five-member elected Board of Supervisors, who are elected from single-member districts. The County Sheriff, Chancery Clerk, Circuit Clerk, and Tax Assessor are also elected to office.

Kemper County generally votes for candidates of the Democratic Party; the Republican presidential nominee has won it only four times in the past century.

Electric power plant

In 2010, the Mississippi Public Service Commission approved the construction of a lignite coal plant in Kemper County to be financed by electricity customers in twenty-three southeastern Mississippi counties being served by Mississippi Power Company. It is designed as a model project to use gasification and carbon-capture technologies at this scale.

The Kemper Project was scheduled to open in the third quarter of 2016, more than two years behind schedule. Its cost increased to $6.6 billion—three times original cost estimate. , the project was still not in service, and the cost had increased to $7.1 billion.

Communities

Towns

De Kalb (county seat)
Scooba

Census-designated places

Bogue Chitto (mostly in Neshoba County)
Porterville

Unincorporated communities

Cullum
Electric Mills
Giles
Moscow
Preston
Sucarnoochee
Tamola
Wahalak

Ghost town

Binnsville
Minden

Notable residents

Eddie Briggs, 28th Lt. Governor of Mississippi
Bud Brown, former pro football player, was born in DeKalb
Clay Hopper, professional baseball player
Sampson Jackson, served in the Mississippi State Senate, was born in Preston
John J. Pettus, 23rd Governor of Mississippi, previously represented Kemper County in the Mississippi House of Representatives and the Mississippi State Senate
Devonta Pollard, professional basketball player
J.H. Rush, who founded the first private hospital in Meridian
John C. Stennis, who served as United States Senator from 1947 to 1988, was born in Kemper County

References

External links

Kemper County Courthouse Pictures
Memorial Foundation of the Germanna Colonies in Virginia, Inc.
Kemper County Sheriff