Montgomery County is a county located in the U.S. state of Mississippi. As of the 2020 United States census, the population was 9,822. Its county seat is Winona.
The county is said to be named in honor either of Richard Montgomery, an American Revolutionary War general killed in 1775 while attempting to capture Quebec City, Canada, or for Montgomery County, Tennessee, from which an early settler came. In the latter case, it would have been indirectly named after John Montgomery, a settler in Montgomery County, Tennessee, who founded the city of Clarksville, Tennessee, in the same county.
The Big Black River passes through the southern part of the county, flowing southwest to its confluence with the Mississippi River south of Vicksburg.
Geography
According to the U.S. Census Bureau, the county has a total area of , of which is land and (0.2%) is water. It is the fourth-smallest county in Mississippi by total area.
Major highways
- 20px Interstate 55
- 20px U.S. Route 51
- 20px U.S. Route 82
Adjacent counties
- Grenada County (north)
- Webster County (northeast)
- Choctaw County (east)
- Attala County (south)
- Carroll County (west)
History
This area was occupied in historic times by the Choctaw people. Their ancestors had inhabited the area for thousands of years. Under the Indian Removal Act of 1830, the United States forced most of the Native Americans west of the Mississippi River in order to open their lands to settlement by European Americans.
Much of the area of present-day Montgomery County was developed for cotton plantations before and after the Civil War, when it was still part of Choctaw County. Most of the labor was supplied by African Americans, enslaved before the war and freed afterward. The county was organized by the legislature in 1871, during the Reconstruction era. The eastern hilly areas became a center of timber industry.
From 1877 to 1950, there were 10 known lynchings of blacks in the county, fewer than in many other counties of the state. It was a form of racial terrorism that was at its height at the turn of the 20th century.
The lynchings were reported nationally in the United States and widely condemned. Representative Hatton W. Sumners (D-Texas), chairman of the House Judiciary Committee, sent a telegram to Governor Hugh L. White decrying the lynching. He said, "It is the sort of thing which makes it hard for those of us who are here trying to protect the governmental sovereignty of the state..." As was typical of lynchings, no one was ever prosecuted for the murders. Nazi Germany reported the lynching, comparing it to the "humanism" of its anti-Semitic laws.
As in much of rural Mississippi, population in this county declined markedly from 1910 to 1920, and from 1940 to 1970. The peak of population in the county was in 1910. In addition to labor changes because of mechanization of agriculture, blacks left in two waves of the Great Migration out of the rural and small town South seeking jobs, education, relief from Jim Crow and violence, and better opportunities in other regions. As a result, Mississippi changed from majority black (56%) in population in 1910 to majority white (63%) by 1970.
Demographics
Racial and ethnic composition
{| class="wikitable sortable" style="text-align:center;"
|+Montgomery County, Mississippi – Racial and ethnic composition<br><small></small>
!Race / Ethnicity <small>(NH = Non-Hispanic)</small>
!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)
|7,837
|6,903
|6,570
|5,769
|style='background: #ffffe6; |5,094
|58.63%
|55.72%
|53.90%
|52.81%
|style='background: #ffffe6; |51.86%
|-
|Black or African American alone (NH)
|5,390
|5,408
|5,437
|4,948
|style='background: #ffffe6; |4,364
|40.33%
|43.66%
|44.61%
|45.29%
|style='background: #ffffe6; |44.43%
|-
|Native American or Alaska Native alone (NH)
|2
|11
|9
|16
|style='background: #ffffe6; |9
|0.01%
|0.09%
|0.07%
|0.15%
|style='background: #ffffe6; |0.09%
|-
|Asian alone (NH)
|3
|16
|27
|39
|style='background: #ffffe6; |24
|0.02%
|0.13%
|0.22%
|0.36%
|style='background: #ffffe6; |0.24%
|-
|Native Hawaiian or Pacific Islander alone (NH)
|x
|x
|3
|1
|style='background: #ffffe6; |0
|x
|x
|0.02%
|0.01%
|style='background: #ffffe6; |0.00%
|-
|Other race alone (NH)
|1
|0
|1
|5
|style='background: #ffffe6; |8
|0.01%
|0.00%
|0.01%
|0.05%
|style='background: #ffffe6; |0.08%
|-
|Mixed race or Multiracial (NH)
|x
|x
|39
|50
|style='background: #ffffe6; |217
|x
|x
|0.32%
|0.46%
|style='background: #ffffe6; |2.21%
|-
|Hispanic or Latino (any race)
|133
|50
|103
|97
|style='background: #ffffe6; |106
|1.00%
|0.40%
|0.85%
|0.89%
|style='background: #ffffe6; |1.08%
|-
|Total
|13,366
|12,388
|12,189
|10,925
|style='background: #ffffe6; |9,822
|100.00%
|100.00%
|100.00%
|100.00%
|style='background: #ffffe6; |100.00%
|}
2020 census
As of the 2020 census, the county had a population of 9,822. The median age was 46.4 years. 21.2% of residents were under the age of 18 and 23.2% of residents were 65 years of age or older. For every 100 females there were 89.1 males, and for every 100 females age 18 and over there were 87.1 males age 18 and over.
The racial makeup of the county was 52.1% White, 44.5% Black or African American, 0.1% American Indian and Alaska Native, 0.3% Asian, <0.1% Native Hawaiian and Pacific Islander, 0.6% from some other race, and 2.4% from two or more races. Hispanic or Latino residents of any race comprised 1.1% of the population.
There were 4,283 households in the county, of which 26.7% had children under the age of 18 living in them. Of all households, 38.5% were married-couple households, 20.2% were households with a male householder and no spouse or partner present, and 37.1% were households with a female householder and no spouse or partner present. About 34.4% of all households were made up of individuals and 18.3% had someone living alone who was 65 years of age or older. of 2000, there were 12,189 people, 4,690 households, and 3,367 families living in the county. The population density was . There were 5,402 housing units at an average density of . The racial makeup of the county was 54.25% White, 44.95% Black or African American, 0.08% Native American, 0.25% Asian, 0.02% Pacific Islander, 0.07% from other races, and 0.37% from two or more races. 0.85% of the population were Hispanic or Latino of any race.
According to the census - Consolidation of the Winona district and the Montgomery County School District, effective 2018.
- Private Schools
- Winona Christian School
Communities
Cities
- Winona (county seat)
Towns
- Duck Hill
- Kilmichael
Census-designated place
- Stewart
Unincorporated communities
- Alva
- Eskridge
- Huntsville
- Lodi
- Poplar Creek
- Silbeyton
- Sweatman
Ghost town
- Middleton
Notable residents
- Fannie Lou Hamer - Civil rights activist, with the Mississippi Freedom Democratic Party in 1964; born in Montgomery County in 1917, moved to Sunflower County in 1919.
Politics
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See also
- National Register of Historic Places listings in Montgomery County, Mississippi