Whiteville is a town in Hardeman County, Tennessee, United States. The population was 2,606 at the 2020 census and 4,638 at the 2010 census, Whiteville is the location of two privately owned prisons, Whiteville Correctional Facility and Hardeman County Correctional Center. Whiteville is also home to Allen-White School, a former Rosenwald school that was placed on the National Register of Historic Places in 2005.
Whiteville was founded in the early 1800s as a trading post, and was formally incorporated in 1901.The town and its economy grew primarily through cotton production.
Geography
Whiteville is located in northwestern Hardeman County at (35.324496, −89.145721). U.S. Route 64 runs through the southern part of the town, leading southeast to Bolivar, the county seat, and southwest to Somerville. Tennessee State Route 100 runs east from Whiteville to Henderson. State Route 179 runs north from the center of Whiteville to Interstate 40 at Willis.
According to the United States Census Bureau, Whiteville has a total area of , all land.
Demographics
2020 census
{| class="wikitable"
|+Whiteville racial composition
!Race
!Num.
!Perc.
|-
|White (non-Hispanic)
|1,019
|38.49%
|-
|Black or African American (non-Hispanic)
|1,480
|56.45%
|-
|Native American
|4
|0.15%
|-
|Asian
|5
|0.19%
|-
|Other/Mixed
|50
|1.92%
|-
|Hispanic or Latino
|73
|2.8%
|}
The initial results of the 2020 United States census listed 2,606 people, 289 households, and 203 families residing in the town. The town appealed these numbers, which did not include the population of the town's two prisons. In 2023, the Census Bureau released updated numbers, increasing the population count to 4,564.
Notes
: U.S. Census web page not updated as of February 18, 2023.
2000 census
As of the census