Sumner, Mississippi

Sumner, Mississippi
Town
Tallahatchie County Courthouse in Sumner
Location of Sumner, Mississippi
Sumner, Mississippi Location in the United States
Coordinates: 33°58′12″N 90°22′11″W / 33.97000°N 90.36972°W / 33.97000; -90.36972Coordinates: 33°58′12″N 90°22′11″W / 33.97000°N 90.36972°W / 33.97000; -90.36972
Country	United States
State	Mississippi
County	Tallahatchie
Area
• Total	0.6 sq mi (1.5 km2)
• Land	0.6 sq mi (1.5 km2)
• Water	0.0 sq mi (0.0 km2)
Elevation	141 ft (43 m)
Population (2000)
• Total	407
• Density	726.5/sq mi (280.5/km2)
Time zone	Central (CST) (UTC-6)
• Summer (DST)	CDT (UTC-5)
ZIP code	38957
Area code(s)	662
FIPS code	28-71520
GNIS feature ID	0678403

Sumner is a town in Tallahatchie County, Mississippi. The population was 407 at the 2000 census. Sumner is one of the two county seats of Tallahatchie County and is located on the west side of the county and the Tallahatchie River, which runs through the county north-south. The other county seat is Charleston, located east of the river.

Geography

Sumner is located at 33°58′12″N 90°22′11″W / 33.97000°N 90.36972°W / 33.97000; -90.36972 (33.969867, -90.369636).^[1]

According to the United States Census Bureau, the town has a total area of 0.6 square miles (1.6 km²), all land.

History

The heavily wooded swamp that was later developed as Sumner was historically part of the Choctaw Nation, one of the Five Civilized Tribes of the Southeast. Ceding large amounts of territory to the United States, they were forced to remove to Indian Territory in the 1830s under the Indian Removal Act.

Afterward the lands were made available for sale to European-American families, including the Sumners. Sumner was covered by trees, vines, and underbrush when the new men started clearing the land for agriculture. The wealthiest men developed their property as cotton plantations, dependent on the labor of enslaved African Americans for clearing the land, and cultivating and processing the cotton.

Sumner was not incorporated until 1900, when it was named after its founder and first mayor, Joseph Burton Sumner. In 1902 the county was divided into two districts, on either side of the Tallahatchie River. Sumner was designated as the county seat of the west district and Charleston as the county seat of the east district.

The Tallahatchie County Courthouse in Sumner was built in 1902 on a lot donated by Joseph B. Sumner, who also donated the lot for the jail. The courthouse burned in 1908 and was rebuilt in 1909. Cotton continued to be the major commodity crop into the 20th century. The county seat was a market town for that district.

Sumner's county courthouse was the site of the 1955 murder trial of two white men, J.W. Milam and Roy Bryant, accused in the lynching death of Emmett Till that year in adjoining Leflore County. They were acquitted by an all-white jury of the murder of Till, a teenage African-American boy from Chicago. In 1990, the courthouse was designated as a state landmark by the Mississippi Department of Archives and History.

Demographics

The city reached its peak of population in 1940. After that the city and county lost numerous residents, many of whom moved to California and the West Coast during World War II and after, attracted by the buildup of the defense industries. In addition, mechanization of agriculture had made much farm labor unneeded. African Americans moved as part of the Great Migration, by which some 5 million blacks moved out of the Deep South from 1940 to 1970.

As of the census^[4] of 2000, there were 407 people, 148 households, and 105 families residing in the town. The population density was 726.5 people per square mile (280.6/km²). There were 158 housing units at an average density of 282.0 per square mile (108.9/km²). The racial makeup of the town was 57.99% White, 39.07% African American, 2.21% Asian, and 0.74% from two or more races. Hispanic or Latino of any race were 0.25% of the population.

There were 148 households out of which 31.8% had children under the age of 18 living with them, 47.3% were married couples living together, 20.3% had a female householder with no husband present, and 28.4% were non-families. 23.0% of all households were made up of individuals and 12.8% had someone living alone who was 65 years of age or older. The average household size was 2.67 and the average family size was 3.14.

In the town the population was spread out with 27.5% under the age of 18, 6.1% from 18 to 24, 24.8% from 25 to 44, 24.6% from 45 to 64, and 17.0% who were 65 years of age or older. The median age was 40 years. For every 100 females there were 86.7 males. For every 100 females age 18 and over, there were 86.7 males.

The median income for a household in the town was $25,000, and the median income for a family was $35,208. Males had a median income of $40,625 versus $15,000 for females. The per capita income for the town was $20,056. About 25.2% of families and 37.2% of the population were below the poverty line, including 48.9% of those under age 18 and 29.7% of those age 65 or over.

Notable people

The blues singer, Red Nelson, was born in Sumner in 1907.^[5]

Education

The Town of Sumner is served by the West Tallahatchie School District.

References

Municipalities and communities of Tallahatchie County, Mississippi, United States
County seats: Charleston and Sumner
City	Charleston
Towns	Sumner Tutwiler Webb
Village	Glendora
Unincorporated communities	Black Bayou Brazil Cascilla Cowart Effie Enid Leverett Macel Minter City‡ Paynes Philipp Swan Lake Teasdale Tippo Vance‡ Whitehead
Ghost towns	Crevi Midway Murphreesboro Needmore
Footnotes	‡This populated place also has portions in an adjacent county or counties