Retiring Guy's Digest: Population loss in Mississippi: Humphreys County/Belzoni

Sunday, October 6, 2019

Population loss in Mississippi: Humphreys County/Belzoni

It all started here.

Population loss as in major -- 50% or more.

Source: Wikipedia (Humphreys County, Belzoni)

Belzoni is the county seat in Humphreys County.

Population loss by degrees: 80-90%, 70-79%, 60-69%, 50-59%.

Source: U.S. Census Bureau QuickFacts

Percentage of population 25 and older with a bachelor's degree:

13.6% - Humphreys County
21.3% - Mississippi
30.9% - U.S.

Percentage of population 65 and older:

17.0% - Humphreys County
15.9% - Mississippi
16.0% - U.S.

% of population living in poverty:

38.4% - Humphreys County
19.7% - Mississippi
11.8% - U.S.

The last time Humphreys County voted for a Republican candidate for president was in 1972. Clinton received 72.2% of the vote in 2016. George Wallace received 58.3% of the vote in 1968.

Humphreys County Library, Belzoni

Related reading:
The Freedom Trail in Mississippi Is a Chronicle of Outrage and Courage. (The New York Times, 9/10/2018)

For most of his 51 years, George Lee kept a low profile outside church; he is believed to have sat for only one photograph in his lifetime. But sometime in the early 1950s, he decided to register to vote — no small undertaking for a black man in the South back then, especially in the Delta. Somehow, he succeeded; then he managed to get his wife, Rosebud, registered. And then he went out and got other African-Americans in Belzoni and Humphreys County registered, too — nearly 100 of them.